There are fifteen (15) known
burying places within the borders of the Township of Nelson and there are
reports for several more which I have not followed up (no stones).
Most of these are in the category of neighborhood burial grounds, such
as the Weaver, Payne, and Westcott cemeteries but there are also a number
of small family plots such as the Bliss,
Corkinsville,
and Humphrey
cemeteries. Several large and still active cemeteries are in the
township: Erieville,
Welsh Church, and Nelson
Rural cemeteries. Nelson has a moderate amount of historical
resources which have helped to locate several long forgotten burying locations,
now without stones: the Childs and Norton cemeteries in particular, but
one other, the "Evans Cemetery" is probably none such. While this town
has a great many of their early burying grounds very much intact there
are two cemeteries, the Reservoir and Bliss
cemeteries, have been damaged or had their stones moved in recent years
and valuable spatial data has been lost.
It is estimated that there
are more than 3,000 burials in the Town of Nelson with most being in the Erieville,
Welsh Church, and Nelson
Rural cemeteries and the remainder being scattered about in numerous
small and inactive cemeteries across the landscape. Since Nelson's
population in 1990 was 1,892 that means that there were 1,100 more dead
folks than live folks!!!!!
Bliss Cemetery
(DHW made field check April 10, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949 [copied from an earlier anonymous list],
to which Robert V. Moyer added genealogical notes on May 19, 1963)
Childs Cemetery
(Historical reference [Hammond 1872:639] to "an aged couple named
Childs" who died about 1830 "and were buried in a small enclosure
in their neighborhood used as a graveyard by the early settlers."
Eventually this ground fell out of use and about 1869 or 1870 descendants
of the couple dug up the bodies for reburial elsewhere. I have not
identified the couple, although I suspect that they are Ebenezer [died
1847] and Patience [died 1826] Childs who are buried in the Erieville Cemetery
- their son and his wife, who are buried with them in Erieville, lived
and died on the southeast 1/4 of Lot 3 Georgetown. Hammond says that
this burying ground was on the land owned in 1872 by Mrs. A. Holmes.
My research has not found this cemetery, but it is likely it was located
on the land of Alva(h) & Lucy Holmes (Arza and Martha Holmes and Abel
S. & Alzina B. Holmes are nearby but of the wrong dates) Alva and Lucy
Holmes owned parts of Road Township (RT) Lot 100 and Lot 1 of Georgetown.
Alva Holmes purchased parts of RT Lot 100 from J.D. Ledyard in 1823, 1824,
and 1837 and seems to have still owned the NE 1/4 of Lot 100 at the time
of his death. These lots are mostly State game lands now. I
have not ruled out Almeron or Asahel Childs who owned parts of Lots 166
& 167 No. 1 Town (Nelson) in the Heathen Hollow Road area.
(no old lists of this cemetery, bodies and stones probably removed
in early 19th century)
Corkinsville
Cemetery
(aka NYSDEC cemetery, known as the cemetery where the man and his horse
are buried - is actually his wife!)
(DHW made field check and map May 7, 1994, checked for a new burial
in Fall 1997)
(old lists include: Evans 1949)
Erieville
Cemetery
(Mike Marris' 2001 list in my format, compared to 1915 list)
(Large cemetery not transcribed by DHW)
(old lists include: anonymous 1915 list)
"Evans" Cemetery
(Historical reference [Hammond 1872:636-637] a bunch of baloney, said
to be the spot where some guy named Grover was killed while opening a road
for John Lincklaen, but Lincklaen's road passed through this part of town
where Rt 20 is now and the grave identified with this event by Owen Evans
[Cazenovia Republican 9/8/1949] is nothing but a tree fall with
an upright rock on the side.)
(DHW made field check May 23, 1994)
(no old lists of this place as it is in all likelihood not a burial
spot)
Humphrey
Cemetery
(aka Chaphe Road)
(DHW made field check May 28, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949, Meyer et al. c.1960)
Lyon
Cemetery
(aka Lyon-Hardscrabble, Hardscrabble Road)
(DHW made field check May 27 & 28, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949, Meyer et al. c1960)
Nelson
Rural Cemetery
(aka Blowers)
(DHW made field check October 7, December 27, 1994 and follow up on
December 1, 1996)
(old lists include: anonymous 1914-1915)
Norton
Cemetery
(Historical reference [Hammond 1872:628-629] "In the family burial
ground, upon the old Norton farm, for many years could be seen the quaint
head stones so generally in use fifty years and more ago." I suspect
that it is at the location of an old house site on Erieville Road just
off the end of Sanderson Road - Jack Miner, who lives on Fire Tower Road,
remembers there being old tombstones years ago but Carl Anderson who lives
at the intersection knows nothing about it.
(DHW made field check at various times in 1994 and 1995)
(no old lists for this cemetery, no stones)
Payne
Cemetery
(this is a large cemetery mostly in the woods and with many graves
marked only by fieldstones.)
(DHW made field check and map May 11, 13, & 19, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949, Meyer et al. c.1960)
Reservoir
Cemetery
(aka Temple, Erieville, Erieville Pioneer.)
(DHW made field check and map April 24, 1994, the stones are now gone
from the cemetery and DHW did not find them. The stones were removed
to "protect them" and they are said to have ended up as paving in someone's
cellar. No one today seems to know in which house they are to be
found.)
(old lists include: Evans 1948, Meyer et al. c.1960)
Tog
Hill Cemetery
(DHW made field check and map April 10, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949, Meyer et al. c.1960)
Weaver
Cemetery
(aka Erieville Nelson)
(DHW made field check May 27, 1994)
(old lists include: Evans 1949)
Welsh
Church Cemetery
( Large cemetery not transcribed by DHW)
(old lists include: Hendrix
c.1970, history of church by Evans April 12, 1956)
Westcott
Cemetery
(aka Pleasant Valley, Bucks Woods, Farnham)
(DHW made field check October 6, 1994)
(old lists include: anonymous c.1930s, Tuttle c.1940, Evans 1949)