History of the Vestal Park and Cemetery Association: from records on hand 1-2008 Plans for the incorporation of the Vestal Park and Cemetery Association Inc. were begun in May of 1953 and the Association was incorporated May 17, 1954 as a nonprofit corporation. It is under the direction of the State Cemetery Board as many other cemeteries in the state are. The cemetery is owned by the lot owners. The nine member Vestal Cemetery Board acts as their agents to handle the business of the cemetery. Members of the [first] Board are - Leland Jones, Rex Willis, Walter Owen, Olin Noyes, Louis Hill, Edward Flipse and Olin Rhodes - all of Vestal NY except Olin Rhodes, who use (sic) to live here. The 1966 Officers are - Pres. Leland Jones, Vice Pres. Roger Harrington, Sec-Treas. Mrs. Barbara Garey of 408 Torrance Ave. Officers receiving pay are Pres. One hundred dollars annualy to cover expenses of supervision. Any actual labor which he may do in the cemetery he received 1.65 per hour. Sec-Treas Services per year - $150. Bank Funds of the Cemetery are Perpetual Care - Bing. Savings Bank; Permanent Maintenance - Bing. Savings Bank; Operating Fund - Endicott Trust Co. The price of a grave in 1955 was $90.00 Source of Earnings of Cemetery - 1. Sale of graves - $50 each 2. Earned interest from funds in Perpetual Care and Permanent Maintenance. 3. Ten dollars of the fifty dollars charged for opening and closing of each adult grave. Division of funds from sale of graves - Perpetual care $50 Permanent Maintenance $10 Operating Fund $30 Total $90 Capital Improvements 1. One acre of land in the North West part of the cemetery was deeded to the Vestal Cemetery by Archibald McArthur for one dollar in May of 1954. This land on a level with the rest of the cemetery was cleared of brush and roots - graded and seeded at a cost of four hundred dollars. 2. In 1963 the western portion of open cemetery land which was underdeveloped was surveyed and plotted on maps showing sections - grave lots and driveways. Later it was machine graded - driveways cut in and seeded at a total cost of eleven hundred dollars. 3. In the fall of 1965 - C.Y. Cushman Fence Co. of Binghamton installed 510 feet of fencing on the south side of the cemetery at a cost of $973. The State Cemetery Board audits the cemetery books. This above was written by Leland Jones, President of Vestal Cemetery Board Date of writing not indicated on the papers. History of the Church Portion of the Vestal Park Cemetery On Monday July 4 ,1831 , three days after the election of the trustees, John Dunbar, having been elected as chairman and Reverend John Griffing appeared before the local commissioner, John LaGrange, to file the certificate of incorporation. In 1834 Dan Foster and his wife sold one acre of land, for $100.00 to the Church for use as a cemetery .We have no original records of the burials in this Church cemetery .The only record is that made by Larry Learner from names he could read on the monuments. The first burial in the cemetery was Lydia Frisbee Sept. 1, 1826. Why she was buried here 8 years before there was a cemetery remains a mystery . The first couple married in the Church was Nathan and Sarah Grippen in 1834. You can see their monument in the very front row where they were later buried. The last burial was in 1946, Clarence Mersereau. Then several years prior to 1971, the matter of proper care and maintenance of the Vestal Methodist Church Cemetery had been a matter of concern to the Church Trustees. According to a letter from the Executor of the Estate of Leah Taylor Crane “of particular concern to Mother and Dad was the Church cemetery, where so many members of the Church are now at rest. Little attention has been given the Church cemetery - many present members and at least one officer, thinking it is part of the Vestal Park Cemetery, are unaware the Church is responsible for its care and maintenance. In planning their final gift to the Church, Mother and Dad suggested making a specific bequest for the care of the Church cemetery.. . . It was their hope the Church would arrange with the Vestal Park and Cemetery Association to take over the care and maintenance of the Church cemetery....Officers of Vestal Park and Cemetery Association have told me they have been advised by New York State, under whose laws they operate, that based on the size of the Church cemetery it would require the income from at least $10,000 of investments for them to acquire the Church cemetery and assume care and maintenance. Vestal Park and Cemetery Associate advises me that for the above mentioned $10,000 they would be receptive to such an arrangement.” Victor A. Taylor, Executor. Though the letter above does not indicate the amount given, there is a second letter thanking Mrs. Roger D. Mead, Sr. for the “generous offer of Five Thousand Dollars to help in establishing a Perpetual Care Fund for the Cemetery. From that letter - “In conjunction with the establishment of such a fund it, and the property known as the Vestal Methodist Cemetery would be transferred to the Vestal Memorial Park and Cemetery Association to be administered and maintained by that organization.” In 1972 the Vestal Methodist Church deeded the Church Cemetery to the Vestal Park and Cemetery Assoc. Included with this transfer was a $10,000.00 bequest for permanent maintenance. A letter written by Gill Chubb, Treasurer of Vestal UMC, follows in May 1972, a check in the amount of $10,082.98 was given to the Vestal Park and Cemetery. A three year program to restore the old cemetery groups (approximately 71/100th of an acre. First year: 1. 15 yards of top soil to fill sunken graves and low spots 93.75 2. 6 bags of Scotts cope to kill ants and bugs 23.70 3. 6 bags of Scotts Kansel for weed control 35.70 4. 3 boxes of Scotts family grass seed 56.85 5. 3 bags of Turf building and fertilizer 26.85 Total 236.85 Second year 1. 3 bags of turf builder and fertilizer 26.85 2. 3 bags of Scotts family grass seed 56.85 Total 83.75 Third year: 1. 3 bags of Turf builder and fertilizer 26.75 Total for three years $347.45 Material and labor to repair broken stones, level bases and upright leaning and tipped head stones in old cemetery - $382.00 Total for repair: 729.45 From VESTAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 175 ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 8, 2006 CEMETERY WALK A Bit of History Our Church began on July 1,1831 when our Town was only eight years old and our country was in three days ( July 4,1831 ) going to celebrate its fifty fifth birthday. On this date a group of members and friends of the Methodist Episcopal Society met to formally create a Church. At this meeting, " male persons of full age " appointed John Griffing, pastor. John, prior to this appointment, was a circuit riding preacher appointed by the Oneida Conference to serve the Broome , and the Susquehanna Circuit of the Church. At this meeting five trustees were elected . They were: 1. John Dunbar John and his wife Hamet came to Union in 1814. He was the oldest of the trustees and was a farmer in the area and served in several offices in the Town of Union when what was to become Vestal was still part of Union. 2. Samuel Murdock Sam was a farmer and lumberman living in the Tracy Creek area. He was Vestal's first supervisor, serving from 1823 to 1826, also later at various times thru 1846 when he served his last term: Twenty three year old Sam came to Vestal from Connecticut in 1812 . He bought land near where Tracy Creek meets the Susquehanna River and there he built a log cabin. The next year he went back to Connecticut and married Charlotte and brought her to Vestal in an ox cart. Sam and Charlette are not buried in Vestal but you can see their graves across the river in the Riverside Cemetery . 3. Daniel Foster Dan was a young man of twenty seven years and had come to Vestal from Vermont. Being trained as a blacksmith he took over the shop on Main St. or as it was then known Choconut Rd. He and his wife Abigail will later purchase a plot of land across the street, on the west side and a short distance south where they will build their home. A portion of this land, now the parking lot of the Vestal Medical Center, will be given to the newly created Church for a place to build a Chapel. 4. Lewis Seymour Lewis was the son of one of our earliest settlers, Colonel Sam Seymour, who in 1785 settled on a piece of land on the south bank of the Susquehanna River, near the Choconut Creek. Lewis ran a mercantile store and also a lumber business in Binghamton. You will note the sad end of Lewis in 1849, as the inscription on his tombstone says, "Louis drowned in the Chenango River while trying to save Martin Collins who also drowned .” 5. Edmund Robinson Edmund was the secretary of the group. We do not know anything about him. Probably a young man who stayed only briefly in Vestal before moving on . Vestal Park Cemetery contains the graves of the following seven clergymen who served the Methodist Church in both Vestal and other communities. 1. Daniel Foster (1804- 1852) As we previously learned Daniel was the youngest of the original trustees and gave the land for building the first church. A very religious man Daniel qualified as a "lay preacher" by 1840 , giving continuity to church leadership in the age of the itinerate circuit rider . 2. Asbury Ossincup (1816-1878) While the presence of an Ossincup family is noted in the church history no precise information about Asbury is currently available. It. may be presumed that he was approved a lay preacher but such is not certain. 3. Jonathan H. Weston (1835-1899) Was born in Vestal, N.Y. His conversion occurred in 1862, and in the following year he received a local preaching license from the Montrose Quarterly Conference. In 1865 he joined the Wyoming Conference. On March 25, 1855 he married Miss Elizabeth Pattision of Owego, N. V. She died in Kirkwood, N. Y. on July 14, 1884. His second marriage was to Miss Clara Courtright, of Meshoppen, Pa on Sept. 28,1885 who bore him two daughters, Ella Apphia and Rose Marlene. About a year and a half before he died he suffered a stroke, which terminated his active work in the ministry . After supetannuation he settled in Vestal, opened a jewelry store and seemed quite like himself and thought the prospect good for many years of life. A second shock terminated his life within four days. His ministry was accompanied by revivals on almost every charge he served. His appointments were as follows: 1865-67 Auburn ; 1868-70 Mehoopany; 1871-73, Meshoppen; 1874-76, Brooklyn; 1877-79, New Milford; 1880; Nicholson; 1881, Wyalusing; 1882; sys. 1883-85; Kirkwood; 1868-88; Sterling; 1889-91; Forest City; 1892-94; Springville; 1895-96; Hawleyton; 1897-98; McClure. 4. John Baty (1840-1901) Little is known about this early class leader in the Vestal Church. He (along with George Westfall) was apparently licensed as a local pastor in 1889 when the Vestal Village Church was re-chartered. He is credited with sharing class leadership with several other persons. 5. Owen Buck (1877-1929) The last pastor to serve Vestal in the volatile 1920's , succumbing to a heart attack on March 15,1929. His love for children and youth was clearly evident. During his pastorate the church secured the old Community Hall on the north side of the church property . For thirty years this two story structure serves the church and community. [When this structure was torn down, Troop 221 took all the lumber and built a lodge at Camp Ellis. This lodge was later destroyed by arson fire.] Rev. Buck's funeral was noted in the newspaper as the occasion for one of the greatest revival sermons ever preached in Vestal; this by his Superintendent, George S. Connell. Rev. Buck's burial is that of the first minister to be buried in the new Vestal Park Cemetery 6. Albert Chapman (1887-1934) He was born in Avoca, PA. In 1886 his family moved to Nanticoke, Pa. where he was converted in 1888, and received into the Church. In 1891 he moved to Winton, Pa. where he worked in and around the mines. The year 1892 found him living in Peckville, Pa. Here he received a license as local preacher in 1894 from the Peckville, Pa. Quarterly Conference. He entered Wyoming Seminary in 1896, graduating in 1901. During 1900 he supplied the Douglas Presbyterian Mission, in Wilkes Barre, Pa. In 1901 he entered Syracuse University where he studied two years. From April 1902 thru April 1903 he supplied West Monroe Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Northern New York Conference. In 1903 he entered this Conference, and was appointed to West Exeter. On August 4,1903, he married Miss Maude A Trevorton. Vestal was Rev. Chapman's last pastorate. He was not well upon his appointment. His wife died shortly after coming here., and his death occurred a brief two years later . There is at least one other Methodist pastor buried in the cemetery - Patricia Northrop - that we are aware of. Our present pastor, Mike Willis, is very much alive, but he does have Great Grandparents, Elbert and Emma Willis, and Grandparents, Rex and Jane Willis, buried in the cemetery. Information on our early settlers and their Church has been gathered from the following sources : * "History of Broome County " edited by H.P. Smith, 1885 * "The Vestal Methodist Church, 1831~1931 " Laurence E. Leamer * Vestal Park Cemetery Records * Elizabeth Bartlow, Town of Vestal Historian * " Four Comers" Laurence Learner