Old Davis Burying Ground, Somerset, NJ

OLD DAVID BURYING GROUND

The Old Davis Burying Ground is located on Weston-Canal Road in Franklin Township. It is enclosed by a brick wall and is the cemetery that was used by the Brokaw and Davis families who originally settled the land. On Saturday, April 29, 2000 I was at the cemetery along with Hank Smith from the Somerset County Historical Society cleaning up the grounds with the kids I work with at Middle Earth in Somerville.

Dorothy Stratford, President of the Somerset County Historical Society, came out to visit us in the afternoon and told us about the history of the region and what she knew about the cemetery itself. She told us that there were slaves allegedly buried in one corner of the cemetery, but that this had not been proven. There was one corner of the cemetery to the rear that had no graves, so we reasoned, that if in fact slaves were buried in the cemetery, then they would have to have been buried in this corner.

(c. written by: Dorothy Stratford, edited by: Lawrence E. Walker)