Stone for John Maxson Darrow, who drowned in New Orleans on July 22, 1863 while with Co. D, 12th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.

Welcome to the website for the West Neck Cemetery Association.

The West Neck Cemetery is a one-acre cemetery located at 198 Great Neck Road in Waterford, Connecticut, just north of the Seventh Day Baptist Church.

It was created by the newly-formed Cemetery Association in the 1850's when the much smaller "Old Rogers Cemetery" at the corner of Great Neck and Shore roads became full.

Although at first it served primarily as a burial ground for the Seventh Day Baptist Church congregation, it quickly became the final resting place for many local residents regardless of their religious affiliation.

The Rogers family ranks among the earliest to buy, use, and commemorate
family plots in the new cemetery.
"One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." (Psalms 145:4)

SPECIAL NOTES FROM MAY 2009, OCTOBER 2010, and APRIL 2012
(See bottom for Reclamation Notice)

A genealogist with a special interest in the members of the Seventh Day Baptist (SDB) Church, Jon Saunders, has compiled an extensive index of individuals and families that have been church members.

The Rogers line of Great Neck descends from Jonathan Rogers (1655-1697), a member of the Church and son of James Rogers (1615-1687); James was one of the earliest area settlers (circa. 1650-60's in Great Neck) and was a prominent New London baker, merchant, extensive landholder, and prolific family man.

James and his son Jonathan became SDB members in 1674 and 1675, respectively. And of Jonathan, who inherited his father's home on Goshen Point and several hundred acres spreading westward along the shore, the index reference notes that "[h]is family became the nucleus of a small denomination on the Great Neck which has ever since existed."

Indeed, the current pastor at the SDB Church, which was organized and recognized here as a separate congregation November 11, 1784 after over 100 years that saw worshipping in homes followed by sharing a church built in 1710 on Pepperbox Hill that was "owned jointly with the First-day Baptist Church," is Roy Burdick, a sixth-great grandson of this first Jonathan.

Therefore, many of those interred or commemorated in both the Old Rogers Cemetery and West Neck Cemetery can be found in this SDB index.

Jonathan had one son, Jonathan Jr. (1690-1777), whose three sons, Jonathan (1714-1787), Nathan (1718-1796), and David (1719-1803), appear to be the first of approximately three generations buried in the Old Rogers Cemetery; their grandchildren were among the organizers, builders, and first to use West Neck Cemetery.

A "Roots Link" to some of those individuals are included below to assist family members or other researchers to confirm connections and trace those identified by Mr. Saunders.

The West Neck Cemetery Association would like to thank Mr. Saunders for the invaluable asset his work has been to further our efforts to both better identify and better perpetuate the memory of those who are within these granite walls.

PARTIAL LIST OF THOSE INTERRED OR COMMEMORATED AT WEST NECK CEMETERY

Note: if a name below is link-underlined, that marker may be viewed by clicking on the name.
(Dates indicate when the image was taken.
Occasionally there will be two dates, which is intended to provide comparisons of the same stone before and after cleaning.)

    Beebe, Thomas (4/18/08); Roots Link
    Beebe, Ezekiel; Roots Link
    Beebe, Mary S. (Crandall); Roots Link 
    Brooks, Burtus and Emma (10/30/05); Roots Link
    Burdick, Rev. Alfred Bailey; Roots Link
    Burdick, Alfred Bailey; Roots Link
    Burdick, Lucy Cornelia (Rogers); Roots Link
    Burdick, Rev. Paul Stanley; Roots Link
    Darrow, Courtland Rogers; Roots Link
    Darrow, Rev. Edmund; Roots Link 
    Darrow, Edmund R.; Roots Link 
    Darrow, Elizabeth (Potter); Roots Link 
    Darrow, Georgianna; Roots Link
    Darrow, Grace (Rogers); Roots Link
    Darrow, John E.; Roots Link
    Darrow, John Maxson; Roots Link
    Darrow, Josephine; Roots Link
    Darrow, Lucy (Rogers); Roots Link
    Hendrahand, Joseph and Marcus (4/18/08)
    Hendrahand, Joseph - Civil War stone (4/18/08)
    Getchell, Leslie and Damaris (3/16/06); partially cleaned June 2006 (4/18/08)
    Maxson, Elizabeth Ursula; Roots Link
    Maxson, Esther (Rogers); Roots Link
    Maxson, Helen; Roots Link
    Maxson, Herbert B.; Roots Link
    Maxson, Joshua Clark; Roots Link
    Maxson, Oliver, Jr.; Roots Link
    Maxson, Oliver, Sr., Deacon; Roots Link 
    Maxson, Sally Ann (Beebe); Roots Link
    Maxson, Ursula; Roots Link
    Morris, Alice Getchell (5/30/06)
    Potter, Elizabeth "Betsey" (Rogers); Roots Link
    Potter, George D., Deacon; Roots Link
    Rogers, Cynthia Albina; Roots Link
    Rogers, David Potter; Roots Link
    Rogers, David, Deacon; Roots Link
    Rogers, Mary (Potter); Roots Link
    Rogers, Mary Ann (Rogers); Roots Link

This ends the list as currently prepared to include those whose families can be traced in the Seventh Day Baptist genealogical index.

There are many more Rogers family members to come, though, including Mort Rogers, an 1800's pioneer baseball figure and originator of baseball cards whose family came from Waterford but became engaged in the Brooklyn fish business for several generations.

A bit of cemetery history is on the first page of the Cemetery Rules and Regulations available by clicking on them in the left column; more will appear either there or here soon.

Also, although we expect to do a print-publication in the New London Day of the Legal Notice required for Reclamation of Abandoned Lots, it is available as a pdf on the left column as well as by clicking here, and is presented below:

LEGAL NOTICE: Posted on the Web on 4/9/12

 TO ALL OWNERS AND HEIRS WITH BENEFICIAL INTEREST IN LOTS IN THE WEST NECK CEMETERY LOCATED AT 198 GREAT NECK ROAD, WATERFORD, CONN.

The West Neck Cemetery Association (WNCA), organized in 1850, incorporated in 1853 as the Waterford Union Cemetery Association and as the WNCA in 1908, is actively attempting to locate all parties with a current legal interest in lots therein, in part to reclaim for reassignment all unused lots that have been abandoned.

THEREFORE, pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 19a-307, Sale of abandoned or unused lots, all parties with a beneficial interest in any lot in the Cemetery are given notice to provide WNCA with current contact information. Failure to do so may result in the loss of ownership of unused funeral lots.

WNCA is more specifically seeking to provide effective legal notice to those with demonstrable beneficial interest in any of the following lots:

Lot 3, Elisha H. Crandall;
Lot 4, William B. Haynes;
Lot 12, Lester T. Rogers;
Lot 13N, Horace Champlin;
Lot 13S, Elias B. Champlin;
Lot 26, Freeman/Beebe;
Lot 42, Mrs. Frank Maijala;
Lot 47, Frances Gavitt;
Lot 54, David Rogers II;
Lot 55, Lewis Milson;
Lot 56, Charles E. Chappell;
Lot 61, David P. Rogers;
Lot 62, Thomas S. Greenman, late of Mystic;
Lots 64 and 65, David Rogers; and
Lot 66, Joseph Fitch.

Except as noted above, all of the named original lot purchasers are late of the Great Neck/West Neck area.

This is the web-posting of the notice required per Sec. 19a-307 to alert those unknown to WNCA who possess a beneficial interest in the above lots and for said parties to assert their legal interest.

If you do prove to have a beneficial interest in any of the above lots OR in other unused lots, WNCA may offer to repurchase them. Be advised that per CGS, Sec. 19a-296. Cemetery Associations and WNCA policy, the repurchase price is simply the return of the purchase price, which does not exceed $25 for any of the above lots.

Please address all inquiries and claims of beneficial interest to John R. Morgan, WNCA Secretary/Treasurer, Box 231, Waterford, Conn. 06385 or main@WestNeckCemetery.com.

A cemetery map, links to the above statutes, and general cemetery information are available on this site through links found in the left column.

END OF NOTICE

This site was published January 10, 2007 with the intention of making communication among Association members easier.

NOTE: Since many Association members do not use computers, web-based communications and postings are in no way intended to replace customary USPS mailings to members.

May 2013 Update:

For a list of veterans interred or memorialized in this cemetery, click on Vets.

April 2012 Update:

The Reclamation Project is Officially Underway!

Click here to see the 4/9/12 Notice of Reclamation (see below, right, also, for a "this-webpage" view); click here for the 4/9/12 list of Prospects for Reclamation; and see below for the newest Newsletter (April 2012) with more info.

And we are having a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey done this July!

Click here for a cemetery map; it is the most recent version, dated 9/22/1998.

The most recent version of the Cemetery Rules & Regulations (adopted April 2008 and updated 4/30/12) is available by clicking here.

The section of the Connecticut General Statutes devoted to Cemeteries can be found by clicking here.

Of special note, the Statute regarding returning lots at cost to the cemetery is found here (subsection (a)); the Statute regarding abandoned or unused lots being reclaimed by a cemetery association is found here. Also, a Statute distinguishing the West Neck Cemetery as an "ancient burial place" can be found here.

And click here for a list of Tools and Materials for cleaning a family headstone. For a general article on cleaning headstones that has a few more links, click here. (This link is here for informational purposes ONLY -- NO endorsement of offerings that can be accessed through that page is either intended or implied. For Waterford, there are cheaper local alternatives.)

NEWSLETTERS

The following newsletters are available for online viewing.

May 2013
April 2012
May 2011
April 2010
 

TO COME:

Eventually there will be a selection of images of the cemetery as well as close-ups of individual markers.

Please contact us if you would like to have your family markers photographed and posted for viewing.

A donation to the Perpetual Fund will ensure that we make the time to remove lichen and other growth before posting.

In addition, there will be excerpts from the records of the Association and a map of the cemetery showing both ownership and availability of burial plots and cremation & memorial marker spots. 

To contact us, please send an e-mail to main@westneckcemetery.com

Note: This site was conceived, created, and funded entirely by WNCA secretary & treasurer John R. Morgan and presently represents his vision and efforts alone.

Neither the Association, its other officers, nor its members are responsible for any content herein or financial sponsorship at this time.