Tales from the Towpath: In Memoriam- Where We Say Goodbye: Place 4- First Ward Cemetery

First Ward Cemetery

The Many Moves of Mrs Gamble

While the sign says First Ward Cemetery was established in 1829,

this is only partly true.

This cemetery goes back to the founding of the Salt Point which

eventually became the Village of Salina.

This cemetery gets the award for the most-moved cemetery in CNY.

In death, its residents were quite the Movers and the Shakers...

even though most were Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic 😉

This cemetery was first located by the by the intersection Free and Spring Sts.

Free St is now Hiawatha BLVD.

One of the first burials was a Mrs. Gamble

who would not rest-in-peace peacefully and permanently for another 30 years.

Only a small piece of her monument is still visible today.

Here's what it looked like a few years ago.

But this corner on Free St would not be her final resting place.

The land was deemed too close to the neighborhood

(and too valuable for the coming Erie and Oswego Canals),

So, they were moved for the first time to what is now the corner of

Turtle and Park Sts a few blocks away, where the Park Avery House sits today.

Labeled Burying Ground, located next to the communal pasture lands,

and just outside the well laid-out village, the dead (it would seem)

found a new resting place.

c.1810

But once again, this land was considered to valuable.

The land was eyed by many village founding father's to build

their houses and "too close" to residences, so once again,

the dead were evicted and removed to another resting place...

Just north on the village center of Washington Square Park

on Center St, later renamed Lemoyne Ave for Father Lemoyne.

But, if you guessed this still wasn't far enough away from residences

as the village grew and the land was eyed as more valuable

than letting the dead just rest,

you'd be correct.

So land that was formerly a small quarry was chosen as the FINAL resting place a couple of blocks north, and Mrs. Gamble could finally rest in peace.

Here on the 1852 map you can see the basic layout to the cemetery.

As the Village of Salina did not sit on a N/S orientation,

the four quarters the cemetery was divided into can be identified by the outermost corner.

"Two of these sections to the north and east were used for the burials of persons of the Catholic faith. The other two sections to the west and south was used by those of the various Protestant denominations. According to early Salina records, it contained 400 lots. Other records say 520. Of these, 54, in a separated section, were reserved "For Colored People". A few others were reserved for the poor." ~Steven Barcomb

Places of burial were often sectarian...defined by your family or your faith.

This burial ground took a middle ground..

This, like most village burial grounds, was open to people of all faiths,

but usually people were buried in their denomination's section;

Catholic and Protestant...

...side by side...or at least, section by section.

On the 1868 Birds-eye map, you can see the early Salina School where the cemetery was located before moving here

But with the opening of Oakwood Cemetery,

once again,

fashionable people moved their loved ones

across the city to be buried there.

More space opened up and burials continued until around 1900.

A list of the burials:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyononda/CEMETERY/FIRSTWAR.HTM?fbclid=IwAR0QAProe883qtg0zjYL8YRSLAgHWS-nJJMLEjQhw6dygiDwdEqs1IE1qRs

Hard to picture this all being here.

So are people still buried here?

Yes!

What happened to all the stones?

They were all purposefully buried in situ

after a sad tragedy.

Not only did this tragedy affect this cemetery,

but it sent ripples across the state mandating the care of abandoned cemeteries.

After burials stopped, the cemetery was abandoned

after the death of the last sexton.

Kids have not changed over the years, and it fell

victim to vandalism as shown in the above article from 1922.

Then kids saw it as a playground---lots of monuments to scurry around and play games.

Then tragedy struck.

While large marble and granite monuments look to be sturdy monoliths,

in reality, they are quite fragile.

Lack of maintenance, coupled with our weather, makes them dangerous.

And no one was checking on their safety as the cemetery was long abandoned--

someone else's responsibility...

and no one's responsibility all at the same time.

A four year old boy, Francis Thomas, died when a monument fell on him.

In grief, neighbors toppled the rest to prevent further tragedy.

Then the city buried the remaining markers and turned it into a park.

And because of this tragedy, all cemeteries left abandoned and untended

for more than 20 years fall under the municipalities care.

There are grants available to repair unsecured monuments over 3ft tall.

No longer would cemeteries be no one's responsibility

--even private family ones--

someone would be responsible for their care.

But with this swift burial of monuments,

much was lost.

The exact location of at least 14 veterans' graves go unmarked

from the Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil Wars.

The exact burial spots of the founders of what would eventually

become St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church were interred here.

Thomas and Percy McCarthy

"Thomas McCarthy, Founder of the Catholic Church in Central New York. January 25th marks the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Catholic Incorporation created in Upstate New York. On January 25,1819 Thomas McCarthy and seven other men from Johnstown, to Rochester were elected as the first trustees of this first Incorporation. The name of this organization was known as the “Trustees of the First Catholic Church in the Western District of New York”. Thomas McCarthy would represent the Catholic congregation known as the “Salina Mission”. The Salina church was a mission attended by their pastor who resided at the parish church in Utica. It has been recorded in the book The Historic Story of St. Mary’s Church in Albany, and states that Mass was celebrated in 1818 at the home of Thomas McCarthy of Salina by the Rev. Michael O’Gorman. We also know that Rev. O’Gorman was in Salina in 1816, on his famous visitation of Auburn. The homes of Thomas McCarthy were used for the celebration of Mass and, other religious services from 1818,until the completion of the first church in 1828. Thomas was born on May 10, 1786 in Cork, Ireland son of Thomas McCarthy, and Elizabeth Stack McCarthy. At a young age Thomas went to Dublin, and apprenticed as a Draper. He would leave Dublin in 1808, and settle in Salina(Washington Square neighborhood of Syracuse) and engage in a dry goods store and also purchased a salt block. Thomas would also serve as a trustee and, president of the newly incorporated Village of Salina, and also served on the Board of Trustees of the Bank of Salina. Thomas also served in The War Of 1812.Thomas married Percy Soule in Salina in 1812, and raised a family of twelve children. After the death of his first wife Percy in 1843, McCarthy married Ann Connelly. Thomas McCarthy died on January 30, 1848 in St. Augustine, Florida just a day before receiving a letter stating he was elected the first Mayor of Syracuse. Thomas and his first wife Percy along with two children were buried in the old Salina burial ground now known as the First Ward Cemetery, unfortunately their headstones have been removed."

~~Brian Warren

In the Protestant section, the grave for minister who founded

First Ward Methodist Episcopal Church can barely be seen.

"Rev. Charles Giles 1783-1867 First Ward Cemetery. This is a photo of Rev. Charles Giles and his headstone in the First Ward Cemetery. Rev. Giles headstone is only one of two left in this Cemetery. Rev. Giles was the First Methodist clergyman to preach at Salt Point around 1807 and was a circuit rider. He was born in Connecticut in 1783."~~Sherri Finch

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyononda/CHURCH/SYR1WAME.HTM