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

Sag Harbor, New York Sag Harbor is an Administrative divisions of New York#Village, incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns of Southampton, New York, Southampton and East Hampton (town) ...

. 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 Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

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 Col ...

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, 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 articulate ...

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

Stephen Antonakos Stephen Antonakos (; November 1, 1926 in Agios Nikolaos, Laconia, Greece – August 17, 2013 in New York City) was a Greek-American sculptor most well known for his abstract sculptures often incorporating neon. Life and works Antonakos moved wit ...

, sculptor *

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

, ballet choreographer and co-founder of the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

*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 ...

, American advertising executive *

Caldwell Edwards Caldwell Edwards (January 8, 1841 – July 23, 1922) was a U.S. Representative from Montana. Born in Sag Harbor, New York, Edwards was educated in the district schools. He worked as a salesman and bookkeeper in dry-goods stores for several years. ...

, US Representative from

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

* 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. On ...

*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 and ''California'' magazine (first known as ''New West'') in 1976. He was known for bringing nume ...

, magazine editor and journalist *

Robert Fizdale Arthur Gold (6 February 19173 January 1990) and Robert Fizdale (12 April 19206 December 1995) were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts. Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the ...

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

James Ingo Freed James Ingo Freed (June 23, 1930 – December 15, 2005) was an American architect born in Essen, Germany. After coming to the United States at age nine with his sister Betty, followed later by their parents, he studied at the Illinois Institut ...

, 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 other ...

, author * Arthur Gold, pianist *

Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – ) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well ...

, author and performance artist *Christopher Haile, artist *Captain David Hand, Revolutionary War hero whose exploits supposedly inspired

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

's character Natty Bumpo from the

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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 Henry Heyward Isham (November 4, 1926 – June 18, 2009), was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer and editor. He was the negotiator who played an important role in the talks with North Vietnam that led to the Peace accord of 1973.Martin ...

, US Ambassador *Sandra Isham Vreeland, poet *Michael Kalil, abstract interior designer *

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

, 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 Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films in ...

, documentary filmmaker *

Prentice Mulford Prentice Mulford (April 5, 1834 – c. May 30, 1891) was an American literary humorist, philosopher, and early figure in the development of the New Thought movement. Many of the principles that would become standard in the movement, including th ...

, author and humorist *

Hans Namuth Hans Namuth (March 17, 1915 – October 13, 1990) was a German-born American photographer. He specialized in portraiture, photographing many artists, including abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. His photos of Pollock at work in his studio i ...

, photographer *

John F. Osborne John F. Osborne (March 15, 1907 – May 3, 1981) was an American magazine editor and journalist. Background He was born in Corinth, Mississippi. Career Osborne wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Associated Press before joining t ...

, editor and journalist *

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

US Representative from New York *

James Salter James Arnold Horowitz (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015), better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air F ...

, 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 Robert Anthony Sklar (December 3, 1936 – July 2, 2011) was an American historian and author specializing in the history of cinema. Sklar began his career as a reporter for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He received a Ph.D. in the History of Am ...

, 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 ...

, critic, poet *Horatio Nelson Taft, diarist and patent examiner *

Daisy Tapley Daisy Tapley (1882–1925) was a classical singer (Contralto) and vaudeville performer. Born Daisy Robinson in Big Rapids, Michigan, she was raised in Chicago, where she played piano and the organ with music teachers Emil Liebling, Clarence Eddy, a ...

, Contralto, Vaudeville performer of the early Harlem Renaissance * Val Telberg, artist *William Wallace Tooker,

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

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

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, playwright

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