Oakland Cemetery is a public, not-for-profit cemetery located in the village

Sag Harbor, New York Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...

. It was founded in 1840 and currently sits on 26 acres bounded by Jermain Ave to the north, Suffolk St to the east, and Joels Ln to the west. It is the permanent resting place of over 4,000 people, including more 18th and 19th century sea captains than in any other Long Island cemetery. It was incorporated in 1884.

History

Prior to the opening of Oakland Cemetery in 1840, Sag Harbor's most notable cemetery was the Old Burial Ground, opened in 1767 on the corner of Union and Madison Streets next to the First Presbyterian Church. At total of 17 veterans of the American Revolution and one representative to the

New York Provincial Congress The New York Provincial Congress (1775–1777) was a revolutionary provisional government formed by colonists in 1775, during the American Revolution, as a pro-American alternative to the more conservative New York General Assembly, and as a repla ...

of 1775 are buried there. Unfortunately, years of neglect left the Old Burial Ground in a state of disrepair. In 1840 Oakland Cemetery was founded, covering just 4 acres, enclosed with stone posts and chestnut pickets. One-hundred-thirty-nine graves from the Old Burial Ground were moved to Oakland Cemetery, including

Ebenezer Sage Ebenezer Sage (August 16, 1755 – January 20, 1834) was a United States representative from New York. Early life Sage was born in that part of the town of Chatham (which was later separated as the Town of Portland) in the Connecticut C ...

and Captain David Hand and his five wives. During the mid-1800s, in the center of the property which is now Oakland Cemetery, sat of a group of buildings known as Oakland Works. John Sherry had them built in 1850 to house his brass foundry. He soon took on a partner, Ephraim N. Byram, a clock maker and astronomer who was later buried in the cemetery. They enlarged the building to make room for Byram’s clock manufactory and named the place the Oakland Brass Foundry and Clock Works. The business was in operation for 12 years. In 1863 the building was leased to Abraham DeBevoise and B. & F. Lyon for use as a stocking factory. In 1865 a second building and another bleach house were added to the property. This business closed after three years. Over the next ten years two other industries occupied the Oakland Works. First, a barrel-head and stave factory owned by George Bush; then, a Morocco leather business owned by Morgan Topping. Both proved unsuccessful. A final attempt to operate a business on the site was made in 1880 when Edward Chapman Rogers opened the Oakland Hat Manufactory. This venture also failed. In 1882, unoccupied for almost two years, the old wooden structures caught fire and burned to the ground. The site was purchased by Joseph Fahys and Stephen French and donated to the cemetery. In September 1884 the Oakland Cemetery Association purchased the remaining Oakland Works property for $400, adding a third section and extending the cemetery east to its present boundary at Suffolk St for a total of ten acres. In October, 1903 the Ladies Village Improvement Society unveiled a new memorial gate

Notable monuments

The Broken Mast Monument in Oakland Cemetery, sculpted by

Robert Eberhard Launitz Robert Eberhard Launitz (4 November 1806 – 13 December 1870) was a Russian-American sculptor. Biography Launitz was born into a Baltic German family in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire. He received a classical an ...

, commemorates those "Who periled their lives in a daring profession and perished in actual encounter with the monsters of the deep."

Notable burials

* *

Shana Alexander Shana Alexander (October 6, 1925 – June 23, 2005) was an American journalist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for ''Life'' magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate seg ...

, journalist *

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulated ...

, author *"Cappy" Hjalmar Amundsen, artist, historian *

Stephen Antonakos Stephen Antonakos ( el, Στυλιανός Αντωνάκος; November 1, 1926 in Agios Nikolaos, Laconia, Greece – August 17, 2013 in New York City) was a Greek born American sculptor most well known for his abstract sculptures often incorporat ...

, sculptor * George Balanchine, ballet choreographer and co-founder of the

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*Hobart Betts, architect *Ephraim N. Byrum, astronomer, clock maker, scientist, bookbinder * Henry Billings, artist * Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs, heiress and power boat driver * Henry Francis Cook, U.S. manufacturer and financier *

Alexandra Danilova Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova (''Russian'': Александра Дионисьевна Данилова; November 20, 1903 – July 13, 1997) was a Russian-born prima ballerina, who became an American citizen. In 1989, she was recognized f ...

, ballerina *

Phil Dusenberry Philip Bernard Dusenberry (April 28, 1936 – December 29, 2007) was an American advertising executive for the BBDO advertising agency. Dusenberry was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1936, and attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn and th ...

, American advertising executive * Caldwell Edwards, US Representative from

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* Joseph Fahys, watch case and silverware manufacturer *

Manucher Mirza Farman Farmaian Prince Manucher Mirza (1917–2003) was born in Tehran in 1917. He was the sixth son of Prince Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma and of Batoul Khanoum. He studied petroleum engineering at Birmingham University in England before returning to Iran. O ...

*Abol-Bashar Mirza Farman Farmaian *

Clay Felker Clay Schuette Felker (October 2, 1925 – July 1, 2008) was an American magazine editor and journalist who co-founded ''New York'' magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing numerous journalists into the profession. ''The New York Times'' wrote ...

, magazine editor and journalist * Robert Fizdale, pianist *

Hermine Freed Hermine Freed (May 29, 1940 New York City – November 21, 1998 New York City) was an American painter and video artist. She is noted for being among the first generation of artists to explore video art in the late 1960s. Life and work Fre ...

, painter and video artist *Stephen b. French, President of the Board of Commissioners, New York City Police Dept. (1880-1889) *

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, architect *

William Gaddis William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. (December 29, 1922 – December 16, 1998) was an American novelist. The first and longest of his five novels, '' The Recognitions'', was named one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005 and two oth ...

, author *

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, pianist * Spalding Gray, author and performance artist *Christopher Haile, artist *Captain David Hand, Revolutionary War hero whose exploits supposedly inspired James Fenimore Cooper's character Natty Bumpo from the Leatherstocking Tales novels. Hand was Coopers's first mate aboard the Whale Ship Salem. *Hans Hokanson, Swedish artist *

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

, US diplomat, editor, author *Benjamin Huntting, merchant whaler * Heyward Isham, US Ambassador *Sandra Isham Vreeland, poet *Michael Kalil, abstract interior designer *

Max Lerner Max Lerner (December 20, 1902 – June 5, 1992) was a Russian Empire-born American journalist and educator known for his controversial syndicated column. Background Maxwell Alan Lerner was born on December 20, 1902 in Minsk, in the Russian Empi ...

, journalist *

Gordon Matta-Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

, artist * David Maysles, documentary filmmaker * Prentice Mulford, author and humorist *

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, photographer * John F. Osborne, editor and journalist *

Robert Parrish Robert R. Parrish (January 4, 1916December 4, 1995) was an American film director, screenwriter, editor and former child actor. He received an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his contribution to '' Body and Soul'' (1947). Life and caree ...

, American film director, editor, writer, and child actor *Olive Pharaoh, Queen of the Montauketts * Joseph Pintauro, American playwright, novelist and poet * Anna Pump, chef, author *

US Representative from New York * James Salter, author * Jawn Sandifer, American civil rights attorney, judge and New York State Supreme Court Justice *

Herbert Scarf Herbert Eli "Herb" Scarf (July 25, 1930 – November 15, 2015) was an American mathematical economist and Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. Education and career Scarf was born in Philadelphia, the son of Jewish emigrants from ...

, mathematician * Charles P Sifton, US federal judge * Robert Sklar, American film historian *Lorimer Stoddard, playwright *

Richard Henry Stoddard Richard Henry Stoddard (July 2, 1825May 12, 1903) was an American critic and poet. Biography Richard Henry Stoddard was born on July 2, 1825, in Hingham, Massachusetts. His father, a sea-captain, was wrecked and lost on one of his voyages while R ...

, critic, poet *Horatio Nelson Taft, diarist and patent examiner * Daisy Tapley, Contralto, Vaudeville performer of the early Harlem Renaissance * Val Telberg, artist *William Wallace Tooker,

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

, photographerhttp://visit.easthamptonstar.com/Archive/2/Life-William-Wallace-Tooker *

Lanford Wilson Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed." Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright ...

, playwright In addition to its more famous residents, Oakland Cemetery is home to some of the most prominent family names on the East End of Long Island including Sleight, Huntting, Howell, Conklin, Wade, Hildreth, Halsey, Cooper, Mulford, French, Byrum, and Fahys.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline
Grave Stone Inscriptions from Oakland CemeteryOakland Cemetery Military Grave SitesSag Harbor Historical SocietyMarquis Who's Who
Southampton (town), New York Tourist attractions in Suffolk County, New York East Hampton (town), New York Sag Harbor, New York Cemeteries in Suffolk County, New York

History

Notable monuments

Notable burials

Further reading

See also

References

External links