A Tragic Event in Spencerport...Part 3
When I read the original article that I shared in Part 2, several questions came into my mind. The more I researched, the more things that had been said and done didn’t match up. The photo attached to this post is of an article that appeared it the Democrat and Chronicle 3 days after the original article was published…I will address it at the end of this post.
So here we go with my questions and observations…
RI Page didn’t just buy the half acre of land that he cemetery was on, he bought a much larger piece of farmland. Why did he need to bulldoze a cemetery and put his store right on that spot? Why not on another part of the property he now owned and leave the cemetery be?
Marion Brown stated that she offered the cemetery to the historical society and they did not “act on it.” The problem with that statement is, the historical society was not formed until years later. Of course there were citizens interested in the history of the village and town, but they were in no position to accept or undertake a proposition like that.
It stated in the article that no one knew who was buried in the cemetery, as there were no records. That was not true. In July 1934 Mary Douglas and Myrtle Rice Haynes of the Irondequoit Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution traveled to the Pioneer Cemetery and recorded all the graves that were marked. So there was a written record of who was laid resting in the ground there.
Finally, in the April 6th article attached to this post, it is stated that there were no veterans of any American war buried there. Unfortunately, that is also not true. There were at least two US veterans in the Pioneer Cemetery; Dr. John Cobb who served in the War of 1812 and Benajah Willey who was a Revolutionary War veteran. Willey’s headstone was missing in the 1934, but is recorded in other documents. But what did it matter, this wasn’t looked into until the day before the demolition was to begin. And the fact that if a veteran was buried in the cemetery would have saved it from demolition is itself appalling. All the people laid to rest there played an important role in the foundation of the community that thrives there today.
Here is a list, dating from 1934 recorded by Douglas and Haynes of the Ogden pioneers that were buried there:
Allen, Asa; d Sept. 22, 1828 ae 31
Benning, William; d Sept. 17, 1831 ae 56y 22d
Benning, Walter, son of Selden C. & Pamela; d Jan. (illegible) ae @
Brewer, Betsey, wife of John; d Oct. 20, 1823 ae 36y 2m
Cobb, Doctor John; b in Pauley, Rutland Co., VT; d May 8, 1832 in his 43rd yr.
Cobb, Sarah, wife of Doctor John; b Sept. 1, 1789 at Grafton, Mass.; d July 27, 1844 at Buffalo, NY ae 54
Dudley, Lydia, wife of John; d June 11, 1821 ae 65
Dudley, Augustus; d May 23, 1832 ae 22
Miner, James, son of Amos & Alcy; d Nov. 21, 1831 ae 18m 9d
Rowley, Elizabeth, wife of Roderick; d Dec. 24, 1813 ae 27
Warner, Eleazer; d Sept. 9, 1823 ae 30
Willey, Ann, wife of Benajah; d Aug. 15, 1811 ae 66
Willey, Deidama, wife of George W.; d Apr. 2, 1804 ae 35 (first death in town of Ogden)
Willey, Ruth, wife of Julius; d Sept. 10, 1839 ae 22
Willey, George W.; date gone
Yates, (illegible), wife of S.P.; d May 10, 1826 ae 25
Unknown; d March 2, 1819 ae 4
We can’t let this be forgotten and these souls need to be remembered.
