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Newark City Cemetery

Also known as Potters Field

Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, USA

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  • Get directions Bessmer Street
    Newark, New Jersey, USA
    Coordinates: 40.69992, -74.18993
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Established in 1869 as the burial place for Newark's poor and indigent, over 18,000 people were interred here. In the 1950s it was turned into an industrial site, and none of the remains interred there were removed (which was a violation of a 1880s law, which was ignored).



From "Hand book and guide for the city of Newark, New Jersey: carefully edited and compiled from authentic sources" Newark Daily Advertiser Print, 1872:



"East of, and along side the track of the New Jersey railroad at Waverly station, just below the city, is a plot of rising ground on the verge of the meadows. Of this fifteen and a half acres were, three years ago, purchased and appropriated by Common Council, as a City Cemetery. Previously the poor had been buried in the potter's field on Hamburg Place, and in a small graveyard formally connected with the alms-house. The bodies in both places, amounting to about 4,500 from potter's field, and 500 from the alms-house, have all been removed to the present Cemetery, and quite a number of individual internments have taken pace beside. In addition to the keeper's house, within the grounds, there are a few cottages along the northern front, and Johnson's glue factory to the south. The small portion as yet used for bury purposes, lies near the glue factory. Most of the graves of course are without any memorial record. Some have crosses, wooden headstones, and a very few have marble slabs. There are no ornaments or walks within the grounds, but the site is exquisite, with as fine a view of the city, and plain as is to be found anywhere, and the whole place is most creditable to the authorities."



Established in 1869 as the burial place for Newark's poor and indigent, over 18,000 people were interred here. In the 1950s it was turned into an industrial site, and none of the remains interred there were removed (which was a violation of a 1880s law, which was ignored).



From "Hand book and guide for the city of Newark, New Jersey: carefully edited and compiled from authentic sources" Newark Daily Advertiser Print, 1872:



"East of, and along side the track of the New Jersey railroad at Waverly station, just below the city, is a plot of rising ground on the verge of the meadows. Of this fifteen and a half acres were, three years ago, purchased and appropriated by Common Council, as a City Cemetery. Previously the poor had been buried in the potter's field on Hamburg Place, and in a small graveyard formally connected with the alms-house. The bodies in both places, amounting to about 4,500 from potter's field, and 500 from the alms-house, have all been removed to the present Cemetery, and quite a number of individual internments have taken pace beside. In addition to the keeper's house, within the grounds, there are a few cottages along the northern front, and Johnson's glue factory to the south. The small portion as yet used for bury purposes, lies near the glue factory. Most of the graves of course are without any memorial record. Some have crosses, wooden headstones, and a very few have marble slabs. There are no ornaments or walks within the grounds, but the site is exquisite, with as fine a view of the city, and plain as is to be found anywhere, and the whole place is most creditable to the authorities."



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  • Added: 29 Aug 2001
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 730315