Old Colonial Cemetery
The Old Colonial Cemetery is located next to the historic Drumm House at 115 West Green Street. In 1892 a group of civic minded individuals created the Johnstown Historical Society. Among their concerns was the deteriorating condition of the Colonial Cemetery. The cemetery of their forebearers had degraded into a village dumping ground where a skin mill was spreading pelts to dry over the gravestones.
In the spring of 1897 James Younglove, Harwood Dudley and M. Sexton Northrup acted as committee to restore the Colonial Cemetery to some semblance of respectability. Sunken graves were filled in, stones were repaired and straightened, grass cut and weeds and rubbish removed.
Many of the people who are buried in this cemetery served in the American Revolution. There are approximately 497 burials. The earliest is Daniel Frasier in 1782 and the last was Hiram Hoag in 1928. There are 105 children under the age of 5. Infant mortality was high. One family lost three sons on the same day.
Among those buried here is Johnstown’s first firemen, Daniel Holden. Then there is Major General Richard Dodge, who was at one time considered to be the youngest person to serve in the Continental Army. He later became Johnstown’s first postmaster. His wife, Anne Sarah Irving Dodge, was Washington Irving’s eldest sister. You remember Washington Irving and the tale of the headless horseman, right?
As you wander among the graves, you will find a number of familiar last names. Frasier, Livingston, Kennedy, Holden, Edwards, McMartin, McIntyre, Van Valkenburgh to name a few. Could they be your ancestors?
Join one of the cemetery tours sponsored by the Johnstown Historical Society and learn about cemeteries, coffins, gravestones, mourning etiquette, clothing, superstitions and those for whom the cemetery is their final resting place.
