Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919, 1901-02-07
FROM FAR AWAY
COMES GOOD SUGGESTIONS.
Rev. Epher Whitaker Writes
From His Long Island Home
Regarding the COhansey Gem

rev. Epner whitaker, eminent as
a Presbyterian minister. A man who
was brought up in old Fairfield town
ship, has not forgotten the home of
his boyhood, is evidenced by the let
ter which he sends to the Pioneer
and which follows:
Editor "Pioneer 1.-The daughters
of the Revolution are to be congratu-
lated as well as praised for fencing
the old burial ground of the Church
of Christ in Fairfield This fence will
attest their public spirit and their
worth for comparatively short time
for twenty years or ten times twenty
according to it's materials and other
qualities.
Now let them, or some other per-
sons, find sufficient sum to maintain
the fence perpetually l venture to
make this suggestion because it is in
the line of my own doings. The old
est part of the cemetery of the First
Church of Southold is a square acre,
with its four sides equal to each
other. The church was organized
October 81, 1910, and the earliest
tables i'll the burial ground are more
than two hundred and twenty five
years old. To this original acre six
or eight acres of adjoining land have
been added, and no interment can
now be made in the first "God' S
acre" without a special permit grant
ed by the church's trustees.
Many persons buried in this original
acre have no descendants living here
to care for their graves and tomb
stones. Indeed, I have not been able
to find anywhere a living descendant
of the church's second pastor, who
ministered here from 1874 until his
death in 1717, and whose table-monu-
ment is near that Of his predecessors,
the first having performed the pas
toral duties from 1910 until his de-
cease in 1872.
At the beginning of my pastorate,
in 1851, briars had made their appear
ance where devout men had laid the
beloved foLms of their kindred and
neighbors to rest. At the proper time
l suggested to one of my friends that
she give to the church a thousand
dollars to be held perpetually and the
income thereof be used year by yeal
to keep tic cemetery free from unde-
sirable growths. She deemed the
suggestion good, and made provision
accordingly. I made a similar sug-
gestion to another friend, and he made
a like provision to the extent of sew
eral hundred dollars. Others have
followed their example so far as tc
fund with the church, each one hun
dred dollars or more in order to keeI
their own family plots in good condi.
tion forever. Thus the church has
several perpetual funds-some for spe-
cific and some for general care of the
cemetery.
Fanny Ledyard the heroine of Fort
| Griswold, Groton, Connecticut, sister
of John Ledyard, famous trader,
was Southolder, and her grave is
here among her kindred s. The Fanny
Ledyard Chapter of the Daughters, at
Mystic, Connecticut, has placed nea1
her tombstone a monument with be-
coming inscription thereon. The Off
GERS of the chapter and many of the
members cross Long Island Sound by
steamer and come to Southold in car
riages five miles every June to crown
the tomb and monument with ever
green wreaths and the choicest and
most fragrant flowers. Thus in the
oldest part of the cemetery, where the
| great founders of the church and town
and saints and patriots sleep their un-
broken sleep, their worthy country
women honor the unselfish and heroic
maiden who greatly distinguished
herself when her kinsman, command
ing the fort, was basely killed with
half his troops, by men under the COM
mand of Benedict Arnold And thus
then, as Bancroft says, VOL 10, page
800, "Arnold disappears from his
tory" This annual visit made by the
chapter from another State of the
Nation tends to fasten the desire of
the people here for keeping the GEM
terry in fair and attractive condition.
A burial place that contains the
graves and monuments of Daniel Ell
mer, William Ramsey, Mrs. Boyd and
other noble men and women of their
day, does not lack shrines worthy of
cordial and ceaseless devotion.
Epher Whitaker.
Southold, L. l., Jan. 30, 1901.