The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery



Many myths and fictitious facts as well as inaccuracies in history books have accumulated over the years since James Van Boskerck founded The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery in 1854. The cemetery is often confused and intermingled by stories with the older Van Boskerck Family Burial Grounds that was once located at another section of Constable Hook.

Ask anyone who knows the cemetery, which is surrounded by property owned by IMTT and its large storage tanks, how many people are interred there, and the reply is generally “a couple hundred”. The at best answers would be “a few hundred”, and actually there has never been a true number associated with the burials at the cemetery until recent.

An ongoing research project to determine not only how many interments were made at The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery, but who these people are, has revealed over 1,500 individuals, of which many were Bayonne residents. This research project only covers the time period 1878; when last place of disposition was recorded on death records, to 1907; the year of the last recorded burial, a mere one hundred years ago. A list of interments for the cemetery is available on the web site GraveInfo.com

Previous research done on the now 153-year-old cemetery has not been as in-depth as the current research. It was believed to be a purchase of burial rights cemetery only, but recently found land deeds are the evidence that show who the original owners of many of the 210 plots are. Tracing through the generations to know the current owners of the plots is a much more difficult undertaking.


After the industrialization of The Hook and the opening of cemeteries in surrounding towns, interest in family plots at The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery was lost. Up to eight graves occupied each of the 196 family plots that measured 12 x 18 feet in size. The then owner of the cemetery, Sarah Van Horn, who was one of three daughters of James Van Boskerck, decided to sell portions of the many plots she owned in the cemetery as individual graves for right of burial only. No ownership transfer deeds have been found for these select plots, which Sarah still owned at her death in 1889, many of which she inherited when her sister Ellen Van Boskerck willed to her in 1878.

Single grave sales may have happened as early as 1883 when it appears that Sarah teamed up with Nathanial B. Lockwood, a local undertaker in Bayonne, to rejuvenate interest and business at the cemetery. This may have been the first attempt to restore the cemetery as a newspaper clipping of that year states, “[Lockwood]….who had a gang of men at work, and did a great deal toward making the cemetery more attractive. A large number of old trees have been cut down, the walks graded, and flower beds made and filled with flowers.”

The local Veterans Group visits the cemetery but once a year the Wednesday prior to Memorial Day at 9:30 am for the annual services they perform at the Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery. A few members of the public, some of which have ancestors buried at the cemetery, accompany them. American flags are placed at each location that is marked by a grave marker, usually the remnants of what used to be part of a headstone. The locations are not of the original graves due to the deterioration of the cemetery, and a so-called “restoration” of the cemetery in the mid 80s.

Four walking paths were made during the 80s, but none resembles any of the original eight paths that were named Myrtle, Cypress, Linden, Evergreen, Laurel, Willow, Acacia and Cedar, all names of trees. In fact, only about half of the cemeteries original 1.3-acre size is located in the “restored” section, encompassed by a white picketed fence marking what someone wanted us to believe is the whole cemetery. The entire rear portion of the cemetery left in ruins contains a large pit of run off water from the slopes of earth that surround it.

It has not been concluded as to who is the legal owner of the cemetery as an entity. The last mention of any ownership was in a newspaper “letters to the editor” of 1956 in which author Michael De Beck wrote, “This cemetery was finally turned over and managed by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, which was only a stone’s throw form the Cemetery. When St. Paul’s left the Hook, the building was used as a church by the parish of St. Joseph’s R. C. Church.”

Although many towns and cities take great pride in keeping their old cemeteries alive and well kept, some even claim historical status for them; the City of Bayonne seems to have done nothing for its only remaining cemetery. Until someone steps in to provide a true restoration and upkeep to a place that should be in Bayonne History, Father Time and Mother Nature will be the caretakers of this cemetery.

For additional information, to submit information or if you believe you have and ancestor interred at the cemetery please contact the chief researcher of The Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery at the web site www.Graveinfo.com
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