The Gardner Cemetery

This cemetery is on the east side of County Line Road slightly more than .4 miles south of the intersection of Sheldon Road with County Line Road. If one is approaching from the south it is approximately .8 miles north of the intersection with Crow Hill Road. Coordinates are 42 degrees 58 minutes 50 seconds North and 76 degrees 27 minutes 27 seconds West.

With the assistance of a friendly jogger on County Line Road, I was able to locate the cemetery on November 6, 1997, a lovely autumn day. Situated on a wooded knoll about 1000 feet back from the road and fronted by a field (corn in 1997), the cemetery is filled with underbrush.

I was able to locate only two stones, and neither was entirely decipherable. One was marble, intact, approximately four feet tall by two feet wide and leaning against a tree. From this stone I could not read anything, although with a mirror to deflect light across the surface perhaps I will be able to read something on another day. The second stone was broken into several pieces and was lying on its back on the ground. On this stone I think I read, "daughter of Samuel Gardner ... 1851 Aged 1 year 9 mos 10 d." I say "think" because I must admit that the "Gardner" was at least 50% wishful thinking.

Anyone with additional information about this cemetery is encouraged to drop me a note.

On October 14, 2008 I received an email from Matt Champlin mchamplin@cayboces.org about the Gardner Cemetery. The gist of his message was, ". . . it’s actually on the land that I live in right now – and that is indeed the name of the cemetery that comes up on topo maps. There is a third stone there, an infant buried in 1812, in fact. Haven’t been able to find much more on it . . ."

On October 30, 2014 I received another email from Matt Champlin matt.champlin@gmail.com about the Gardner Cemetery. This time he added, "Also I took a quick snap of one of the stones that you can read at the Gardner Cemetery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattchamplin/15480391077/"

The stone reads: An Infant son of Stephen & Sarah Dwinell Born and Buried Novbr 1812


woosterk@cortland.edu
Copyright © Kenneth Jennings Wooster
All rights are reserved.
File created: November 6, 1997.
File modified: December 29, 2002; October 21, 2008; October 30, 2014.