On two hot summer days last July, four members of the South River Historical & Preservation Society (SRH&PS) set out to decipher and record every inscription in the Old School Baptist Church cemetery on Main Street.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEPHANIE BARTZ Above: A 1993 photograph shows the Old School Baptist Church Cemetery, where 11 stones were restored over the summer by the local historical society. Right: The headstone of Martha Willet, whose family founded the borough of South River. Far right: John Frazee sculpted the monument for his first wife Jane’s headstone. She passed away in 1832 at the age of 42. As part of the effort to record and restore the fading 19th-century gravestones, Stephanie Bartz, who sits on the Artifacts and Web Site Committee of the society, ventured out with Marilyn Anastasio, Ann Rafano and Dick Meyers, who was president of the society at the time.
“This project was a lot of fun,” Bartz said.
The cemetery, which is set back behind the Old School Baptist Church, is home to many who have deep roots in the borough, including three members of the Willet family, which founded the borough, as well as Jane Frazee, the first wife of well-known sculptor John Frazee, and five members of the Booraem family.
“Woodis Booraem, who is the South River historian, and her brother Warren Booraem are descendants from the Booraem family, and they are honorary trustees of the society,” said Bartz.
The Old School Baptist Church and the cemetery have been placed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
The oldest headstone dates to July 1816 and belongs to the grave of Thomas P. Serviss. The most recent headstone is from 1878, for Catherine Stults.
Bartz and Anastasio said that John and Jane Frazee moved from New York to South River to escape the cholera influenza.
“They went down to the beach for one day, and that is when she contracted the influenza,” Anastasio said. “She died in South River, and John Frazee sculpted her gravestone. … They had five children.”
This was the third effort at recording gravestone information. In 1941, the Genealogical Society of New Jersey recorded names on the stones. In 1993, SRH&PS member Earl Wenger photographed the cemetery, recording names and dates.
With generous donations of $10,000 by Walter B. Woronowicz and $10,000 from the estate of Edward W. Price, SRH&PS members led by Stephanie Bartz had the idea to record everything in the cemetery.
“With the technology, the ability to put our photographs into Photoshop, and to conduct Internet searches, we were able to fill in many of the missing pieces. … That was the most interesting part,” Bartz said.
The members brought in Monument Conservation Collaborators, of Connecticut, to restore the gravestones.
“We have restored 11 so far. We have counted 54 headstones and pieces in the gravesite,” Bartz said. “However, in 1941, when the Genealogical Society did their study, they recorded about 22 more stones than we counted. … We don’t know if they were moved or if they are under the grass.”
The members sought to record engravings, which were illegible on some of the stones. They have been able to identify the headstone for William Booraem.
“Most of the engraving is illegible, but based on the verse, the identification of this person as a ‘son’ and the line that begins with ‘months,’ this is likely the stone of William, son of Nikolas and Matilda Booraem, who died Jan. 23, 1845, at the age of 1 year, 7 months and 8 days,” Bartz wrote in a binder where she incorporated all the information along with photographs of all the stones they accounted for in the cemetery. The book is called “Old School Baptist Church Cemetery: Survey and Transcriptions of Gravestones.”
They have been able to narrow another gravestone to three people.
With the legible part being “5 days,” which historical society members took as the end of the information detailing the age of the person, they narrowed the gravestone to the following possibilities: Henry Obert, son of Peter and Mary, who died in 1842 at the age of 24 years, 2 months and 5 days; Harriet Reynolds, daughter of George W. and Elizabeth, who died in 1840, at the age of 3 months and 5 days; and William Ryder, who died in 1813 at the age of 62 years, 8 months, and 25 days.
“The upper portion of the stone is missing … and although much of the verse is too worn to read, it is likely taken from Revelation 14:13,” wrote Bartz.
Many of the verses on the gravestones came from Bible sources and from 18th-and 19thcentury hymnals.
Another interesting part of the project, Bartz said, was finding footstones in the cemetery.
“I had never seen these before,” she said. “They are originally placed opposite a headstone.”
The Society members said their objective is to continue conservation efforts on the remaining stones, and they are currently soliciting donations to restore the rest of the cemetery.
“We hope someone would be willing to adopt a grave,” Bartz said.
For more information, call 732- 613-3078, e-mail Stephanie Bartz at [email protected] and visit the Society’s Web site at www.rootsweb.com/-njsrhps/.

