Morris County Library: Digging Around the 300-Year-Old Whippany Burying Yard

Published on April 17, 2018

Rich History of Cemetery in Hanover Twp. is Topic of April 25 Talk at Morris County Library

A humble 300-year-old cemetery, which offers a peaceful, historical crossroads of geography, industry, settlement, politics, and warfare just off busy Route 10 East in Morris County, marks its 300th anniversary this year.

(JPG, 159KB)Not only is the Whippany Burying Yard the oldest cemetery in Morris County, it links disparate players: glacier, swamp, river, iron, native, settler, foundry man, lawgiver, revolutionary, spy, and inventor, according to local scholar Mike Czuchnicki of the Hanover Township Landmark Commission.

Czuchnicki will speak of the rich history found in the Burying Yard, some only recently uncovered, on April 25, 6:30-9 p.m. at Morris County Library, 30 Hanover Ave, in the Whippany section of Hanover Township.

The event is a public scholar talk offered by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

The Whippany Burying Yard has significant historical value because of its great age, the nature of the headstones, and its existence in one of the earliest settlements of the area, Whippanong, dating back to 1676.

(JPG, 72KB) A 2017 historic event at the Whippany Burying Yard

Restoration efforts have earned the project two Morris County Historic Preservation grants, totaling about $68,000: one to develop a preservation plan and a second grant for tombstone restoration.

The two-acre graveyard, established in 1718, has 450 gravestones. Among those interred are 11 Revolutionary War soldiers, several Civil War soldiers and a few veterans of the French and Indian War, along with members of prominent local families who lived around Whippany, the first established village in Morris County.

One of the first settlers is linked back to Emperor Charlemagne and forward to both Presidents Bush. This also is the final resting place of Colonel Joseph Tuttle, commander of the Morris County Militia, and Abraham Kitchel, an early settler, both of whom became original Morris County judges.

The Burying Yard is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. It includes exceptional examples of 18th Century carvers' art.

For more information on this event and the county library, visit https://mclib.info/ or call 973-941-3832.

For more information on the Hanover Landmark Commission, visit: http://www.hanovertownship.com/BoardsCommissions/LandmarkCommission/InformationPhotos.aspx