Gethsemane Cemetery

Elizabeth Dulfer

Elizabeth Sutliff Dulfer was a prominent landowner and businesswoman at the forefront of Bergen County’s clay industry. Born to an enslaved mother ca.1790, she spent her youth at William Campbell’s household south of Hackensack. Elizabeth’s grandfather was said to be Native American, and her parents of African descent.[1] “Betty” spoke Jersey Dutch, a Northern New Jersey language combining Flemish, English, and possibly Lenape. She helped raise the Campbell children before she was emancipated in 1822.[2]

Elizabeth moved to New York City and married Alexander Sutliff, a teacher who had emigrated from Jamaica.[3] In 1847, she bought an 87-acre farm on the west bank of the Hackensack River, on land adjacent to the Campbell property where she grew up enslaved. The deed was drawn to Elizabeth as the sole owner, a significant achievement at a time when New Jersey law did not allow women to hold real estate in their own names.[4]

Elizabeth’s land, just north of Gethsemane Cemetery, produced clay for the region’s growing pottery industry.[5] Several years after her first husband's death, Elizabeth met John Bernardus Conrad Dulfer, a white immigrant from Holland more than 30 years her junior. They married in 1859 and continued exporting clay on Dutch-style sloop ships through the mid-1860s. Elizabeth purchased multiple investment properties and loaned money to family and business partners for over 30 years.[6]

Elizabeth died January 11, 1880 (her grave marker, likely added some time later, is incorrectly inscribed February).[7] A coroner’s inquest and court records surrounding her contested will show she had close ties with local shipping merchants, her cousins and half-sister, and a variety of Hackensack businesses, and a tumultuous relationship with her second husband, John.[8] Local courts upheld a version of her will leaving her property to John, whose family in Holland received her property upon his death in 1886. John, too, was buried in Gethsemane, although no monument remains in his name.

[1] Brown 2008: 7; [2] Brown 2008: 10; Bergen County Surrogate Court, Record of Cost and Testimony, p 143; [3] Brown 2008: 18; 1830 US Census; 1840-1841 New York Directory; [4] Brown 2008: 19; [5] Brown 2008: 26; 1860 US Census Agricultural Schedule; [6] Brown 2008: 31, 34-35; [7] Geismar 1992: 30, 33; [8] Bergen County Surrogate Court, Record of Cost and Testimony p. 5837.

William Robinson

William Robinson died in March of 1889 at the age of about 60 of an infection. William served on the U.S.S. Savannah, a ship launched in 1842 that sailed the Pacific until 1860. It was stationed along Georgia's coast during the Civil War, capturing two Confederate ships, and was a naval training vessel until 1870. It is unknown when William served on the vessel, likely after the 1850s based on his age. In his later life, he worked as a horse-drawn taxi driver around Hackensack.[1]

Two other men buried in Gethsemane have documented military records. Peter Billings and Silas M. Carpenter volunteered for the Union Army during the Civil War, serving with the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry Regiment. The regiment was active from March 1864 to November 1865 and was part of the Appomattox Campaign in Virginia that lead to the Confederate surrender.[2] While no marker remains for Silas Carpenter, Peter Billings’ headstone was recorded in the 1980s but was lost shortly thereafter.

[1] Geismar 1992: 45-46; [2] Dyer, Frederick H. "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" 1908.

Samuel Bass

Controversy surrounding Samuel Bass’s burial led to New Jersey anti-discrimination law guaranteeing burial in public cemeteries regardless of race. Samuel worked as the sexton at Hackensack First Baptist Church until his death from pneumonia on January 22, 1884 at age 38. He was to be buried in Hackensack Cemetery, typically a burial ground for white residents. However, as his funeral began, the Hackensack Cemetery Trustees cancelled permission for his burial, ostensibly due to Samuel’s skin color. Samuel was hastily buried in Gethsemane on January 25, with two of his mourners forced to dig his grave themselves.[1]

The story, reported in the New York Times and across New Jersey, caused a public uproar, with many angry responses to Samuel's treatment published in local newspapers. New Jersey Gov. Leon Abbett called for a law preventing prejudice in burial practices. In March of 1884 the state legislature passed a law guaranteeing the right to burial in public cemeteries regardless of race.[2]

Samuel’s wife and mother, unsatisfied with his hurried burial, requested permission to remove his remains from Gethsemane in June of 1884. The family reburied Samuel in an undetermined location in Philadelphia.[3] Despite his remains no longer laying in Gethsemane, Samuel Bass became a symbol for the community's outcry over prejudicial treatment.

[1] New York Times January 26, 1884, p 2; Geismar 1992: 71; [2] Acts of the 108th Legislature of the State of New Jersey, 1884; Geismar 1992: 72; New York Times January 31, 1884; Camden County Courier February 9, 1884, p 2; [3] Bergen County Death Certificates: B77; Geismar 1992: 72-74.

Frank Kreuger

Frank Kreuger was a white laborer who died in an accidental drowning in Ridgefield Park in July of 1895. Kreuger was living in the Hackensack area as early as 1885 with his German-born parents.[1] No marker remains to his name, but county death records state he was buried in “Moonachie Cemetery” by the Ricardo Funeral Home.

Burial data indicates 98 of the 496 known individuals buried at Gethsemane Cemetery were white.[2] Thirty-eight were adult men, mostly laborers, brickmakers, or farmers who immigrated from Germany or Ireland or were born to immigrant parents. Half of these men died in accidents like Frank, several struck by trains or killed at work. Others died of tuberculosis, stroke, and heart disease. The remaining 60 white individuals buried here were infants or young children who suffered childhood disease. Notably, no adult white women are recorded buried at Gethsemane.[3]

[1] N.J. State Census 1885; Geismar 1992: Appendix A; [2] Geismar 1992: 56; [3] Geismar 1992: 59-63, 93, 97-98.

Peter Billings

Peter Billings served in the Civil War, and his family had deep roots in Bergen County. His father was enslaved on the estate of Revolutionary War veteran Morris Earle in New Barbadoes, Bergen County. Peter was born after his father’s 1833 emancipation, and the family continued to live in New Barbadoes into the 1850s.[1] 

Peter joined the 29th Connecticut Infantry, a so-called “colored” regiment mustered in March 1864, and saw combat in Virginia that summer and in the spring of 1865. Service records indicate he was a musician in the infantry but a farmer by trade.[2]  

Peter returned to Bergen County and was widowed after the Civil War. In 1880 he lived on Prospect Avenue and worked as a laborer. By 1900 he lived on Terrace Avenue alongside several Polish and Italian immigrant families with his new wife, Lizzie, and her two teenage sons and young daughter. Peter died in 1902 of heart disease. Cemetery surveys record a military headstone for Peter at Gethsemane, lost in the 1980s to vandalism.[3] 

[1] Bergen County Manumission of Slaves, 1804-1841, p.217-218. 1850 New Jersey Census.[2] Historical Data Systems, Inc. Duxbury, MA 02331, American Civil War Research Database; The National Archives at Washington, D.C. Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops: Infantry Organizations, 26th through 30th, Including the 29th Connecticut (Colored), Microfilm Serial: M1824, Roll 54. [3] 1880 U.S. Census, 1900 U.S Census, Geismar 1992: Appendix A1.

Cora Oblenus

The unusual tree-shaped marble marker for “Cora” commemorates Cora Oblenus, who died in September 1894 of bronchitis at 15 years old. Cora was the oldest daughter of John and Ann Adelia de Groat Oblenus, who in 1880 lived on State Street. John, a grocer’s clerk and coachman, and Ann, a housekeeper and washerwoman, raised five other children on West Berry Street after Cora’s death.

Despite her simple monument, details about Cora’s life and family emerged from records of the Ricardo Funeral Home, death certificates, and censuses.[1]

[1] 1880 U.S. Census; 1900 U.S. Census; 1910 U.S. Census; Ricard Funeral Home Death Records in Geismar 1992: Appendix B.

Nohan "Nattie" Read

Nohan Read, also known as Nattie, was a teenager born in Virginia who lived with Eugene and Susan Bailey on Moonarchie Road. The Baileys were also originally from Virginia, suggesting Nohan might have been a relative or family friend. In 1900, Eugene worked as a brickmaker while Susan kept house and 15-year-old Nohan attended school.[1]

On July 29 1902, Nohan, then 17 and working as a laborer for Gardners brickmakers, drowned while bathing in a clay pit. Newspapers speculated he was cooling off with a swim after work when he was seized by a cramp.[2] It appears Eugene and Susan Bailey erected the handsome monument, among the most expensive recorded at Gethsemane, in his honor.[3]

[1] U.S. Census 1900; [2] The Evening Record July 30, 1902, p. 1; [3] Ricardo Funeral Home records, in Geismar 1992: Appendix B.

Sarah Roberson

Sarah Roberson died of a stroke at age 73 in January of 1907. Her life in Hackensack is well-documented by census and directory records. At the age of 27, she worked as a washerwoman, and by 1885 she had married Samuel Dickerson. The couple raised three children. When Samuel died in 1895, Sarah’s daughter Euphemia and her grandson lived with the family. Samuel was buried in Gethsemane, his resting place marked with a marble headstone.

Sarah and Euphemia lived at State and Berry Streets and continued to work as laundresses into the 1900s. Sarah was buried next to her husband in 1907, her grave marked with a similar headstone. Notably, Sarah’s headstone was remade from a grave marker for Rachel Vreeland, whose name was discovered inscribed into the bottom of Sarah’s stone when it was re-set in the 1980s. Rachel Vreeland had died in 1859 and was buried in Edgewater, New Jersey. Her stone may have been removed and re-worked due to decay.[1]

[1] Geismar 1992: 44, 88-89; 1900 Hackensack Directory; 1860 U.S. Federal Census; 1885 New Jersey State Census.

Ethel Farmer

Ethel Farmer was 4 months old when she died of unknown causes on November 7, 1907. Her father, Joseph Farmer, was billed for her burial. While Gethsemane was founded in 1860 as a burial ground for the “coloured population” of Hackensack and taken over in 1901 by Black trustees, it was not exclusively used by Hackensack’s Black community. Of the 496 Gethsemane burials identified from historic documents, 98 are listed as white, including Ethel Farmer.

Most of the white residents buried at Gethsemane were infants or young children. Ethel’s family lived on Railroad Avenue, where a mix of European immigrants and working class white and Black families lived, including many families with members buried at Gethsemane.[1]

[1] Bergen County Death Records and Ricard Funeral Home Master File in Geismar 1992: Appendix A; Liber of Deeds 1860 N5:308; Geismar 1992: Appendix A.

Varick AME Zion Church

The Varick Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was founded in 1864 as the Olive Branch Colored Mission Number Three of Hackensack. The Varick AME Zion Church, renamed in 1917 in honor of Bishop James Varick, first conducted services at a lime shed transported to 120 Atlantic Street in 1867.[1]

Varick AME helped anchor Hackensack's Black community throughout Gethsemane Cemetery's active years. The church hosted “mortgage burnings” in 1906, a celebration of completed real estate payments that was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1917, the church was replaced with its current structure. Social clubs, speakers, and community groups have met at the church site since the 1860s.

Active with the church during the first decades of the 20th century was Samuel B. Porter, who owned properties in Hackensack and would be buried in Gethsemane. Porter and his son, Jesse, were church trustees, and his wife lead Sunday prayer meetings.[2]

[1] G.H. Corey, 1861, Map of the Counties of Bergen and Passaic New Jersey; Bergen County Historical Society Marker 1983; [2] The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), 12 Jul 1906, p.2; The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), 17 Sep 1910, p.1; The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), 27 Jan 1912, p.3.

Clay and Brick Industry

The Hackensack River banks just east of Gethsemane hold rich clay deposits. This clay supported the New Jersey and New York brick and pottery industries.[1]

In 1847, Elizabeth Sutliff Dulfer purchased land with clay beds at the west bank of the Hackensack River, just east of Gethsemane. Dulfer, born into slavery ca.1790 on nearby land, was freed in her 30s and went on to become a successful clay exporter and real estate investor. Captain Beekman, a Dutch trader north of Hackensack, transported her clay for sale on his sloop ship. Dulfer may have been one of the first major clay exporters in the area.[2]

Local brickyards began opening in the 1850s, producing red brick used in New Jersey and New York City construction. By the early 1900s, Hackensack brickyards were the second largest producers in the country, making at several tens of millions of bricks annually.[3] Laborers were a mix of local men, migrant workers, and European immigrants.[4]

The rise of the brick industry and expansion of local railroads increased Hackensack's labor force, its population size, and lead to urbanization of both white and Black communities as residents moved closer to transportation hubs and the brickyards along the southwestern river bank.

[1] Westervelt 1923, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630-1923 Vol.1, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., New York and Chicago: 8-9; [2] Bergen County Surrogate Court, Record of Cost and Testimony; Geismar 1992: 30, 33; [3] Westervelt 1923: 274, 375; [4] Geismar 1992: 67; G.W. Bromley, 1912, Atlas of Bergen County, V.2, Plate No. 15.

Racial Unrest in Little Ferry

Clay mining and brick production formed the core of Hackensack industry in the early 1900s. Some men working at local brickyards lived in boarding houses, many of them Italian and Eastern European immigrants or Black and white workers who traveled to New Jersey from southern states.[1]

On July 31, 1912, tensions erupted when a Black brickmaker stabbed and injured a white coworker at the Gardner brickyard. While the cause of their argument was not reported, white workers attacked Black workers protecting the alleged assailant, both sides hurling bricks. Angry Little Ferry residents, perhaps lead by 25 emergency deputies sworn in by the mayor, surrounded a boardinghouse at the yard where about 50 Black brickmakers lived, supposedly searching for the assailant. The building was burned, and boarders attacked with clubs, revolvers, and shotguns as they fled the fire. No one was seriously injured, although several men were wounded.

Eight white men, including the mayor’s brother, were arrested for arson the following day. Six Black workers were also arrested and held without clear charges. When the yard’s owner proposed reopening several days later, Black brickmakers from neighboring yards discussed organizing protection for their fellow workers at the Gardner brickyard.[2]

Four white men eventually faced trial for arson, but they were acquitted in December 1912. Little Ferry Mayor Hentz, who had deputized some of the white men, attended court proceedings, possibly influencing town sentiment against the Black men and the brickyard owner who had levied the arson charges.[3]

[1] Westervelt 1923: 375; Geismar 1992: 67; [2] Passaic Daily News, “Sergeant Boyle Arrests Men in Race Riot, 1 August 1912, p.14; The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), “Eight Young Men of Little Ferry Arrested”, 2 August 1912, p. 1; The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), “Arrest Witnesses in Near Race Riot”, 5 August 1912, p. 1; [3] The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), “Four Little Ferry Men Held for Arson”, 7 August 1912; Passaic Daily News, “Indicted for Arson Cleared by Trial at Hackensack”, 20 December 1912, p.1.

Ricardo Funeral Home

The Ricardo family operated a funeral home and mortuary on Main Street as early as the 1880s. James and William Ricardo, the sons of a Spanish immigrant, served Hackensack families' mortuary needs regardless of race. The Ricardo family operated the business until it was sold in the 1970s.

The Ricardo Funeral Home kept nearly 100 years of records of funerals and burial information submitted by their clients. These records detailed deceased persons’ names, ages, causes of death, occupations, familial connections, burial location and costs, and other information that was critical in identifying hundreds of people buried at Gethsemane.[1]

[1] Westervelt 1923, History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630-1923 Vol.1, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., New York and Chicago: 165-166; Geismar 1992: 4.

Huyler Street Black Community

Samuel B. Porter and his family were one of several Black families living on Lodi Street in Hackensack in the late 1800s. Porter owned property near the corner of Huyler and Lodi Streets, likely the handsome home depicted in an 1890s photo provided to researchers by his great-grandson, Samuel T. Porter. Samuel B. Porter’s first wife, Josephine, died in 1891 and was buried in Gethsemane Cemetery. Samuel died in 1912 and was also buried in Gethsemane, although no monuments remain commemorating him or his wife.

City directories and county records suggest Hackensack’s Black community wasn’t concentrated in a single area, but lived dispersed across the city with tighter bonds at the street or block level. By 1879, Black residents had moved into portions of Main Street near Anderson and River Streets, Union Street from John to Lawrence Streets, and Second Street at Atlantic Street. Over the next twenty years, more Black families concentrated in the blocks around South First Street and Lexington Avenue, Passaic Street at Berry Street and Prospect Avenue, and across Railroad Avenue.[1]

[1] Geismar 1992: 133, Appendix E.

Railroad Avenue Community

The Hackensack and New York Railroad was constructed by 1858. Railroad Avenue developed surrounding the rail line, running from Hackensack Station at Essex Street east past Clinton Place, just north of the city center.

Railroad Avenue become one of several residential clusters for Hackensack’s Black community between 1879 and 1900. The street was home to a mix of Black and white residents working in a variety of specialized trades and general labor. Residents of Railroad Avenue included the town jailor, a blacksmith, a gardener, several brickmakers, washer women, coachmen, and domestic workers as of the 1900 census. Many were born in New Jersey, while others hailed from southern states or had immigrated from Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, and Holland.[1]

Several white families who had immigrated from Europe and lived on Railroad Avenue buried stillborn infants and young children at Gethsemane Cemetery.[2]

[1] Geismar 1992: 136, Appendix A; Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, c.1980, Vol. 2, p. 215; [2] Geismar 1992: Appendix A.