Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center: Wandering Through Waterford Rural

Happy Halloween! There's a lot of spooky decorations on people's houses and lawns, such as those weathered-looking tombstones with epitaphs like "Here Lies Fred Who Is Definitely Dead... " and others with more creative and witty lines. But what about the real deal? At one point in time, particularly the Victorian era of the mid- 1800s, graveyards and cemeteries were also viewed as picnic place and a spot to create carefully crafted gardens.

That's not to say that there weren't a plethora of fun things to do there - the concept of séances become extremely popular in the mid 19th century and literature of the time could become a bit...macabre. Talking Boards were often used, mainly as a parlor game, to communicate with the dearly departed - the Ouija board, the commercial introduction of such a device - was invented on the tail end of the Victorian period in 1890.

So, now would be an appropriate time to explore one of the nearby cemeteries. Not only are they great places to tell a spooky story, but there's a lot of history quite literally wherever you step.

Who knows? Maybe you'll have your own spooky story to tell:

1791 Newspaper article describing "A Remarkable Fact" about the "supernatural" unexplained sounds from the area

Waterford Rural Cemetery has internments dating back as far as 1774. Although, for some stones, the writing is impossible to make out. You can see the faint outlines, but these older stones have been weathered down. One trick you might want to try - no guarantees it'll work - is to pour some water on the stone to make the carved portions stand out a little more. Or, if you don't feel like watering the stones, you can try to do a rubbing and hopefully catch a few details you didn't see before.

The Rural Cemetery, located at 108 Saratoga Avenue, was originally on Fourth Street. Three acres of the Guert Van Schoonhoven farm were the first parts of the five sections that became the rural cemetery. According to Sydney Hammersley, it was bought by John Cramer (a lawyer who was featured in our Waterford 200 exhibit), William Scott, Edward F. Bullard, George W. Eddy (more on the Eddy family in the museum's permanent exhibit!), William L. Seymour and Belden Scott. Anyone recognize those names? Well, they were the Village Trustees in 1845 and they managed to purchase these lots for $5 - which is around $127 today.

The first cemetery record book was started by Morton C. Powell, clerk for the Village Trustees in 1845. It came in handy when, in1889, the old burying ground was sold to become the site for the Union Free School No. 1, which is where the current day Waterford Rescue Squad is located. The burials were relocated to their final, final resting place.

It was enlarged in 1942 when the Waterford Rural Cemetery officials bought land west of the Albany and Vermont Railway (the Delaware and Hudson Company). It was referred to as "Vinegar" Hill on old maps but also came to be known as the "Dicky Davis" wood.

An editor of the local paper once wrote a comment on the early days of the rural cemetery, remarking that it was, "a favorite grazing place for cows"

The museum has some information in our collection on the burials in Waterford Rural, but we do not have a complete list nor do we have any maps of the different sections. A good place to start if you have a name to follow would be on sites like: New York Gravestones or Saratoga NYGENWEB

Your best bet is to contact Waterford Rural Cemetery directly at 518-237-5512 for this information. But it's a unique place to visit...before or after visiting the museum of course!