by Shannon Butler

Adriance Memorial Library just celebrated our 125th anniversary and we wanted to wish a happy anniversary to our partners in local history, the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery! This week the cemetery is 170 years old and still looks as beautiful as ever. We thought it would be nice to share some of the details of its early history and inform you of a very special installation at the cemetery: a Día de los Muertos ofrenda (altar), on display until November 15th. The remembrance of life and the mourning of the dead is handled quite differently from culture to culture, and even from century to century. In the 19th century, it was quite common for families to pack up a picnic, head down to the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, and sit and eat at the graves of their dearly departed. That doesn’t happen much these days, but in Hispanic culture, that’s what the Day of the Dead is all about.

In the days before the rural cemetery movement, there were lots of little burial grounds and graveyards connected with churches within the city limits. However, after the New York State Legislature passed the Rural Cemetery Act in 1847, allowing the commercialization of burial grounds, many leading figures in Poughkeepsie decided to form a committee to find the funds and the grounds for a new cemetery. Matthew Vassar got a bit excited and ended up purchasing land on the south end of Academy Street, but nobody seemed interested in being buried there (he later turned that land into Springside, his country estate, now a historic site). Finally, the committee decided to purchase the 54-acre estate of the late Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson, as that had a much nicer river view and already had good hills and trees perfect for the setting of a cemetery/park. Sixty prominent members of Poughkeepsie society put together $16,000 for the purchase of the site.

The Poughkeepsie Journal was just as excited about the cemetery as Matthew Vassar, and several updates on the progress and plans for the opening ceremony were published in the paper in order to get the entire city excited too! By 1853, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported that, “A large gang of workmen are at work in grading the avenues and preparing the lots for occupancy.” The plans for the opening ceremony were set for October 25th, but bad weather forced the ceremony to November 2nd. On that day, everything seemed to come together almost magically as the newspaper proclaimed, “The day was uncommonly fine, the air salubrious, the ground dry, and all nature seemed to smile on the praiseworthy undertaking [no pun intended?] of our citizens in planning, laying out and decorating such a beautiful spot for a burial place.” A parade of people marched, rode horses, and drove carriages down to the cemetery to the music of the Dutchess Brass Band and speeches were presented to a crowd that numbered in the thousands.

Día de los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead, is a holiday celebrated in Mexican culture that celebrates the dead. On this day, typically the first or second of November, deceased loved ones are honored with ofrendas, which are constructed in the home and are covered with offerings of marigolds, candles, food, beverages, and candied skulls. Relatives venture into cemeteries throughout Mexico and bring these offerings to the graves of their loved ones where they sit and tell stories and sing songs about the dead to remind people that cemeteries are for the living to enjoy just as much as for the dead. We have constructed an ofrenda inside the cemetery’s Community Mausoleum for all to enjoy. Feel free to visit and to place pictures of your dearly departed.

References: 

The Poughkeepsie Eagle, July 10, 1847, June 14, 1851, May 14, 1853, Aug 27, 1853, October 22, 1853, November 5, 1853, December 10, 1853.

Platt, Edmund, The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie From the Earliest Settlements 1683-1905

Images:

PRC-1870s – A photo of the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in its humble beginnings. Circa 1870s. LH Collections.

Ofrenda-prc – A photo of the Ofrenda on display in the Community Mausoleum in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.