Historians and neighbors celebrate Revolutionary War veterans at old Amenia Burying Ground

AMENIA — Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss unveiled a new historical marker honoring Revolutionary War vets in the Amenia Burying Ground.

Rain all morning had threatened the event, but historical society members, lovers of history and sons of the revolution persisted and the rain let up just in time.

The gathering at the old burying ground on Saturday, April 26, began with Middlebrook, president of the Columbia Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, talking about the process of acquiring the sign from the Pomeroy foundation. He thanked the Burke family, longtime neighbors of the burying ground, for the work they and their father, Bill Burke, had done with the cemetery.

Bill’s son, Stephen, said he and his father spent a lot of time mapping and cleaning the burying ground. “Putting the stones back up,” he said. “Putting them back up again.”

Stephen said his father had completed a map of the burying ground with the identifiable plots. That was part of Bill Burke and Betsy Strauss’s work with the historical society to find revolutionary war veterans and attain historical recognition for the cemetery.
“It’s pretty impressive, it’s all this poster board that he put together,” Stephen said. “When I first saw it I said ‘wow.’ Then my sister Karen said ‘Oh we’eve already translated all that and into this.’ I thought I had found a hidden gem.”

Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss told the crowd of neighbors and historical society members about the centuries-long history of the Old Amenia Burying Ground and listed the names of the known Revolutionary War veterans in the cemetery. Photo by Nathan Miller

After Middlebrook’s remarks, the crowd moved into the burying ground for snacks and mingling, where the graves of revolutionary war veterans had been marked with American flags.

Betsy Strauss had lists of the names for visitors:

Col. William Barker
1740-1820

Daniel Bartlett
1755-1837

John Bates
1756-1801

Maj. Simeon Cook
1726-1811

Maj. Robert Freeman
1727-1798

John Garnsey
1734-1799

Robert Hebard
1737-1798

Capt. Job Mead Sr.
1735-1819

Job Mead Jr.
1761-1838

Capt. Abiah Palmer
1758-1834

Capt. Elijah Park
1744-1795

Capt. David Parsons
1748-1812

David Rundall
1757-1848

Samuel St. John
1752-1785