Restoration of Elizabeth church digs up Revolutionary-era past

The Star-Ledger (Newark) ^ | October 27, 2009, | Carmen Juri

[Pharmboy]

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground.

While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger
Rows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First
Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is
currently undergoing a project of preserving the
stones and crypts.

Brought to light were the intricate carvings and carefully chiseled words on the tombstone of Ebenezer Price, who had a workshop in Elizabeth and was one of the most skilled and prolific gravestone carvers in colonial America. He died in 1788.
Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerConservationist
Zeke Schladen uses repair mortar to seal and help
preserve a box crypt in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian
Church on Broad St.

snip...

In 1762, the church’s Rev. James Caldwell became one of the most outspoken supporters of the Revolution...

"Legend has it that on Sundays he preached with two loaded pistols on the pulpit," Shallcross said.

In 1780, the church was burned. Six months later, in June, British troops shot and killed Caldwell’s wife, Hanna, as she sat in the parsonage in Connecticut Farms with her nine children, Shallcross said.

A year later, Rev. Caldwell was shot and killed as he went to visit prisoners at the Elizabethtown waterfront. A centerpiece in the cemetery is a monument to the Caldwell family.

snip... "Some stones have gunshot marks from the British using them as target practice," said Gartland.

[Pharmboy]

Now we all know why there is a Caldwell, NJ...

[Pharmboy]

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...You know what to do if you want to join...

[silverleaf]

bump

[silverleaf]

http://www.state.nj.us/dca/njht/funded/sitedetails/ct-caldwell_parsonage.html

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Great piece of history.

[silverleaf]

http://www.realitywanted.com/newsitem/2428-ghost-hunters-season-6-judgment-day-episode-5-recap

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the link, silverleaf...here's the Caldwell Parsonage from the link, rebuilt after a fire in 1782.

[silverleaf]

Interesting story. More links.



A Revolutionary Chaplain James Caldwell (1734-1781), a Presbyterian minister at Elizabeth, New Jersey, was one of the many clergymen who served as chaplains during the Revolutionary War. At the battle of Springfield, New Jersey, on June 23, 1780, when his company ran out of wadding, Caldwell was said to have dashed into a nearby Presbyterian Church, scooped up as many Watts hymnals as he could carry, and distributed them to the troops, shouting "put Watts into them, boys." Caldwell and his wife were both killed before the war ended. "Reverend James Caldwell at the Battle of Springfield" Watercolor by Henry Alexander Ogden Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia (90) http://www.richmondhillhistory.org/clergy.html

[NonValueAdded]

outstanding

[NonValueAdded]

reference bump - I wonder what sort of preservation will be done now that the rest of the stone is exposed to the elements?

[aculeus]

bttt

[SunkenCiv]

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