Featured Gravestone – The Burton Family

Section:  First Universalist

Material:  White marble

Misc.:  A large rectangular slab with a deeply-carved plain border.  Contains names of three family members, but no dates.  Marble has darkened, some spotting, some chipping to upper edge, bottom edge embedded.

Inscription:  In Memory of John Burton, age __ years,  and of his wife, Deborah, Aged 63 years, and of their son, John Jackson Burton, Aged 20 years.

Interestingly, the inscription lists no dates and omits the age of John Burton entirely.  There is no further information on them in their entries in the Common Council inventory.  Census records show several Burtons residing in the area, but so far none seem to be an exact match.  Joel Munsell’s Albany Register For 1849-1850, however, does provide some details.  According to Munsell, Deborah Burton died on March 25, 1849 and the younger John the day before.  There was a cholera outbreak in Albany that same year, though most cases began to appear in the summer months.  Munsell does not mention the elder Burton.  It is possible that he died around the same time as his wife and son and that all three were early victims of that year’s cholera outbreak.

Ellen and Anna Baltimore

As previously noted in Without Stones , the number of headstones currently present in the African Methodist Episcopal section of the Church Grounds does not correspond to the number of known burials there.  Presumably, many of the stones are lost as the list of names in the Common Council’s inventory of graves to be removed from the State Street Burying Grounds was transcribed directly from the gravestones (and, conversely, there are several stones present in the A.M.E. lot that were not listed in the inventory and one that was originally located in the Potter’s Field, but placed with the A.M.E. stones).

Featured Gravestone – Nancy Jamieson

Section:  Methodist Episcopal

Material:  White marble

Misc.:  Very discolored stone with lower portion embedded in the earth and a good deal of wear to the inscription.  Features two willow trees framing an urn-style monument and a swag of vine-like foliage carved above the inscription.

Inscription:  Nancy Wife of W. Jamieson

While the date on the stone is not visible, cemetery records indicate Nancy died in 1838.  She is not included in the Common Council inventory; this could be one of a number of mistaken omissions or she may not have originally been buried in the State Street Burying Grounds.  There is no W. Jamieson listed in the inventory (only a child named Edward Bradstreet Jamieson, son of James and Elizabeth).

Edited June 26, 2013:  The Cemetery burial card was copied from the stone while it was more legible and read Nancy, Wife of W. Jamieson, died July 3, 1838, AE 59 years.

Featured Gravestone – Missouri Strevell

Section:  First Presbyterian

Material:  White marble

Misc.:  Simple, large marble headstone.  With the exception of the first name, inscription is very worn and almost impossible to read in person.  It can, however be deciphered with the help of the Common Council inventory.

Inscription:  Missouri (rest not legible – see below)

As noted above, the stone is very difficult to read in person, but matching the name with the Common Council listing (which was transcribed directly from the stone in 1868) shows this is the gravestone of Missouri Strevell, daughter of William Strevell and his wife, Elizabeth.  Missouri died on September 25, 1847, aged 2 years, 10 months, and 8 days.  William was born in Albany in 1817, but moved to Berne in the Hilltowns where he married Elizabeth Zeh in 1838.