Brier Hill Cemetery: No longer forgotten

MILLBROOK — In today’s world, the concept of a poor house, a place where indigent people were once housed when they had no place else to go, seems foreign. Yet this practice remained a part of everyday life well into the 20th  century.

There was just such a poorhouse located in the town of Washington. The county poor house had been located in Poughkeepsie until 1863, but during the Civil War there was an argument about who should take care of the poor. The argument was settled by moving it to a more central location, so in May of that year, 74 acres were purchased by the Dutchess County Board of Supervisors and a building was erected, opening in the spring of 1864.   

The building, the Dutchess County Poor House, was built of brick, consisted of two stories, and by October of 1864 it had its first occupants.

Poor houses were built so that the homeless could trade their labor for shelter. There were rules, one of which forbade children between 2 and 16 from living there; those children were put in separate institutions. While this ripped children from their parents, it was hoped that their circumstances would be better than their parents.

In no time at all, it was found that the Washington building, which had cost $45,000 to build, was deteriorating. There were narrow stairways, a lack of proper ventilation and no fire escapes, adding to the misery of the inmates. And there was no place to put those who became ill. People who died there were generally buried on site, at Brier Hill Cemetery at Oak Summit, about one-quarter of a mile from the building.

When poor houses declined in popularity during the 1930s and ‘40s, a new building was constructed in the town of Washington, in 1938. It was then added to in 1961, when it became the Millbrook Infirmary, or County Home. It later became a mental health facility. 

Since that time, the cemetery was largely neglected and forgotten — until 2003. Vassar College students enrolled in a digital underground class led by Professor Brian G. McAdoo before discovered evidence that more than 800 graves were in Brier Hill Cemetery. Using old documents and long-forgotten records, the students found 246 names, along with some other information, but they could actually put names to only about 50 graves. The last burial was in 1955, a William Patterson, 65, a resident of the poor house.

In 2014, students from Vassar College and Ithaca College tried to clean up the cemetery, but had little success. Fast forward to 2019, before the pandemic, when then-Dutchess County Commissioner of Public Works Robert Balkind got involved, along with several other people including Dutchess County Legislator (R-25) Deirdre Houston. 

County landscaping crews worked diligently and finally the land was cleared enough to allow for the identification of some graves; most were marked by cylindrical numbered stone markers. Archaeologists and historians went to work, not only to identify the graves, but to be able to relate some of the background and history of those buried there.

A kiosk was built by Millbrook Eagle Scout Daniel Goldschmidt, which posts a site map. There are also stories of some of those buried at the cemetery for visitors to read at the kiosk.

Today the area is cleared. There are markers placed throughout the cemetery, including at the graves of children and two red markers above the 100-foot line. Some graves have recurring numbers. The coding is not quite clear yet, but as more research is done, more stories will be added to the interactive online map and the fascinating history of Brier Hill Cemetery at Oak Summit will continue to unfold.