Members of Grace Christian Church have volunteered to share maintenance of the historic Locust Grove Cemetery with the borough of Eatontown. PHOTOS BY FRANK GALIPO EATONTOWN — Members of Grace Christian Church in Tinton Falls have volunteered to help maintain the historic Locust Grove Cemetery in Eatontown.
The lack of maintenance at the historic cemetery, located on South Street off Wyckoff Road, recently drew criticism from borough residents and prompted the church members to come forward to help.
“There was an individual that complained [in news reports] saying that the cemetery was in a state of disrepair and that it needed attention, that the town was not fulfilling its obligation since it was the owner.” Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said in an interview on Aug. 9.
“It was the first time that I had heard it because we do go in there periodically and cut [the grass]. We don’t manicure it but we do make it look presentable.”
The Rev. Vincent Rife, of Grace Christian Church, located on Wayside Road, contacted the borough about members of the congregation wanting to help, he said.
Members of the Borough Council passed a resolution during the July 25 council meeting, authorizing the arrangement.
The resolution states that the cemetery will remain the primary responsibility of the borough, which will provide assistance to the volunteers when necessary.
The borough took ownership of the cemetery in 1998 when an Eagle Scout candidate wanted to restore the burial ground as part of a qualifying project, he said.
“I told him I thought it was privately owned but I would look into it,” Tarantolo said.
“I did some checking and found out that it was owned by a family but they vacated it. It was determined that since it was vacated for some time, the borough then assumes ownership.”
According to Tarantolo, the borough will perform the initial cleanup of the cemetery because there is overgrowth that requires heavy equipment. After this cleanup, the volunteers will maintain the property.
According to the Rev. Rife, a group of parishioners are volunteering to perform weekly maintenance at the cemetery that will include mowing, weeding and cleaning litter.
As the weather turns colder and the grass growth slows, maintenance will be done every other week, he said.
“We will go over and make sure the place is taken care of and kept in a respectable and honorable manner to those buried there,” Rife said.
In addition, the volunteers eventually plan to restore some of the remaining headstones.
“One of the guys did some research into the cemetery and found out that there are 28 people buried there,” he said.
“We are going to see what type of shape the headstones are in; many look like rock rather than headstones. Try and see what we can do, to find as many of the headstones or burial places and then go from there.”
The cemetery, which is no longer used, dates back to the 1800s and is believed to be the final resting place of Samuel “Mingo Jack” Johnson, an African American former slave, who was accused of assaulting a white woman and was lynched. After his death, Johnson was laid to rest at the Locust Grove Cemetery.
Over time, the remains of several people buried at the cemetery were relocated to a different site, but it is not known if Johnson was among those.
Claire Garland, of the Sand Hill Historical Association in Lincroft, claims in an email that her family members are buried in the cemetery.
William Richardson was the brother of her ancestor, Isaac Revey Richardson, whose parents owned property in Eatontown in the 1820s according to records, Garland said.
Tarantolo said the restoration would help document some of Eatontown’s history.
“It is a great idea. Even if they can’t identify the location of the tombs, maybe markers that list the names of the individuals that were buried there would be historically pleasing,” he said, adding that borough history dates to 1670.
“We welcome any historical significance that we can clearly define as part of Eatontown’s history, and I think the cemetery is an integral part of that history.”