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By Dawn Watson
Monsters, zombies and ghouls might rule Halloween for the kids but for the adults, nothing beats a really good All Hallows Eve historical haunt through the South End Burying Ground in East Hampton. Especially when armed with a bit of insider knowledge about the witchcraft, tragic deaths and juicy gossip from such a reliable source as Town Crier Hugh King, whose annual tour of the site is a crowd-pleasing sellout.
Unfortunately, it’s too late for his after-dark Haunted Cemetery Tour this year, which was hosted by the East Hampton Historical Society and held on Tuesday, October 27. But there’s no reason that adventurous souls can’t do a bit of exploring on their own.
Whether looking for a ghostly good time or just curious about the stories behind the gravestones, the South End Burying Ground has plenty of tantalizing history to discover, says Mr. King, who is also the East Hampton Village Historian. Lying beneath the markers are a number of founding families, Presidential relatives, an iconic American painter, shipwrecked sailors, a negro servant, a famous literary pair, and, perhaps, a woman who was infamously accused and later acquitted of witchcraft.
[caption id="attachment_45231" align="alignleft" width="225"]
Hugh King on one of his recent cemetery tours.[/caption]
Sharp-eyed visitors won’t have much trouble spotting the graves of the Gardiner, Hamlin and Mulford families, among many others whose descendants still live here; or that of landscape painter Thomas Moran; nor could they miss the obelisk marking the 33 crewmen who perished in the wreck of John Milton off the coast of Montauk in 1858. Grave spotters might also want to look out for the markers of Peggy Negro, a well regarded servant of Captain Abraham Gardiner who was buried in the (then) all-white cemetery in 1804; Sara and Gerald Murphy, who were said to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s inspirations for Nicole and Dick Driver in “Tender is the Night;” and what might just be the burial site of Goody Elizabeth Garlick, the East End’s own alleged sorceress, according to Mr. King.
“You can Google all of them to learn more,” he says. “These people have all definitely made their marks on history.”
But the long-gone East Enders who have made the South End Burying Ground their final resting place are only part of the story, says Mr. King. The art, architecture and epitaphs that mark their graves are also worth noting, he adds. While touring the hallowed ground, the historian says to be sure to look at the dates, designs and data on the markers.
Some of the earliest 17th-century lichen-covered tombstones are easy to spot but it’s a bit more of a challenge to locate the oldest marker on the coffin-shaped plot of land, which belongs to Thomas James, whose stone reads 1696. One burial place that’s an absolute can’t miss, says Mr. King, is the elaborate tomb of Lion Gardiner, whose simple original cedar post marker from 1663 was replaced by his descendent, David Gardiner, in 1886 with a fanciful “upgraded” sarcophagus-like resting place designed by Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral architect James Renwick Jr.
Other gravesites that have piqued Mr. King’s interest over the years that he’s given his annual tours are a portrait stone adorning a young boy’s grave and the “broken column” monument to John Alexander Tyler, signifying that he had died too soon. The carvings and artwork on many of the gravestones are also of keen interest, he says. Especially the work of former Sag Harbor resident Ithial Hill, who signed his tombstones with a double helix. Look for the grave of Peggy Mulford Rysom for such an example, he reports.
“Some of the first artwork in America is on these stones if you think about it,” he says. “We didn’t have Rembrandt or Renoir or Michelangelo, but we did have these remarkable pieces of art that were among some of the first made in this country for the purpose of public viewing.”
The depictions on the stones themselves also tell fascinating stories, according to Mr. King.
“It’s the artwork on the stones that tell you how people thought about death at different times in history,” he says. “For example, the older tombstones sometimes feature winged death heads, because death can take you away at any time, so you better behave.”
Later, winged angels and cherubic visages replaced the death heads, he continues, which means that death was becoming less feared and survivors were more hopeful about eternity. Eventually, Mr. King reports that weeping willows and urns began to appear on markers, signaling a shift toward the possibility of a restful afterlife.
Regardless of why or when one decides to visit the burial ground, one thing is clear, the historian says. Even though the cemetery is home to the dead, the stories etched on their stones should always live on.
“There are plenty of interesting tales right here under our feet,” he says of the bodies buried locally. “This cemetery is full of many local people and heroes whose actions and lives have had worldwide consequences.”
Hugh King’s next historic tour for the East Hampton Historical Society will be the Lantern Tour Up and Down Main Street with Barbara Borsack on Friday, November 20. To learn more, visit http://www.easthamptonhistory.org.
