Reservoir Cemetery, Town of Nelson, Madison County, NY There are no stones remaining in this cemetery Field Check and Map of cemetery site made April 24, 1994 by Daniel H. Weiskotten This list compiled from older lists MNI = 27, names = 23, 1812 - 1848 (aka Temple, Erieville, Erieville Pioneer) (old lists include: Evans 1948, Meyer et al. c.1960) posted 6/2/2000   Click here to go back to the CAZENOVIA, FENNER, and NELSON ROOTSWEB Main Page  Click here to go back to the NELSON CEMETERY Main Page Comments or Questions??? - CONTACT ME  

        There are no longer any stones left in this cemetery, the stones having been removed, according to Meyer and Scott, long ago and used in a cellar as flooring.  Where they got the names from is not known, they were gone when Owen Evans reported on the cemeteries of Nelson in the Cazenovia Republican of September 8, 1948.
        In 1948 Evans noted that the cemetery had been "lost" as the markers had been removed, leaving the only proof of its existence in the memory of the older inhabitants of the area.  He also wrote a little about the history of the origins of the cemetery:

Shortly after the year 1800 the Baptist Church of Nelson was organized and meetings were held in a building erected for a school and religious purposes.  It was called the "Temple" and was located about a mile north of Erieville on what is now known as the John W. Marland farm.  As was customary in the early days, a burying place was located near the meeting house.

The location where this church once stood is now occupied by a modern house, on the east side of the Nelson-Erieville Road, opposite the intersection of Hardscrabble Road.  The cemetery was located on elevated ground to the rear of the church.
        The site of the cemetery is still intact and the bodies must still be there.  It was set aside and marked when the Erieville Reservoir was constructed in the late 1840s.  According to property maps the cemetery is 200 by 190 feet but it was clear in the field examination that the cemetery did not occupy all of this area.  The part that was used by the time of abandonment consists of a plot 80 feet x 80 feet in the southeast corner of the mapped cemetery.  The larger grounds was probably intended for continued use  - the last known burial being made in 1848 which is when the reservoir was being built.
        The situation in which the cemetery lies was originally on a narrow peninsula of land overlooking the creek.  When the dam was built it was primarily erected by crossing the stream from the tip of this peninsula northward, but also westward along the edge of the peninsula to higher ground, thus leaving the cemetery within an angle of the dam.  The elevation of the cemetery is about the same as that of the lake and it is fairly level, dropping off on the north.
        The base of a broken headstone and a broken footstone are found on the west side of the 80 x 80 plot, an unmarked field stone marker is along the south side, 2 other unmarked field stones are in the southeast corner, and another is just in from the eastern edge 10 feet north of this.  This indicates four unmarked field stone graves, the marble bases not being counted because no match can be made with the named stones of the list.
  Those buried in the Reservoir Cemetery include:

Ayer, Anna, wife of Joseph Ayer, died July 18, 1841, age 55 years.
Ayer, Joseph, died February 12, 1836 (or 1837), age 40 years.
Ayer, John, son of Joseph and Anna Ayer, died December 15, 1843, age 24 years.
Ayer, Jerry, son of Joseph and Anna Ayer, died August 14, 1846, age 24 years.
Ayer, Sarah, daughter of Joseph and Anna Ayer, died 18__, age not given.
Bacon, Eliza, daughter of James and Comfort Bacon, died January 17, 1813, age 7 years.
Bacon, Esther, daughter of James and Comfort Bacon, died September 26, 1812, age 7 months.
Bacon, James, Elder, died April 2, 1812, age 82 years.
Bradley, Francis, died April 2, 1833, age 55 years 9 months.
Bradley, Sarah, wife of William Bradley, died March 22, 1848, age 89 years.
Bradley, William, died December 25, 1812, age 46 years.
Bumpus, Minerva, consort of Admiral Bumpus, died February 20, 1832, age 37 years.
Chaphe, William, died July 28, 1828, age 37 years.
Goodrich, Amy, wife of Norman Goodrich, died October 10, 1836, age 37 years.
Goodrich, Eleanor, died April 7, 1834, age 11 years 6 months.
Goodrich, Randolph, son of Job and Betsey Goodrich, died February 12, 1817, age 3 years 17 days.
Hakes, Sally, daughter of Josiah and Betsey Hakes, died March 31, 1816, age 10 weeks.
Holdridge, Martha, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Holdridge, died May 1, 1826, age 15 years 11 months 2 days.
Poole, Josephine, daughter of Oliver and Amy Poole, died November 11, 1845, age 16 years.
Salisbury, Samuel, died January 25, 1835, age 90 years 3 months 21 days.
Salisbury, Sarah, wife of Samuel Salisbury, died July 19, 1821, age 74 years.
Sturdevant, Chandler, son of M.O. and Sally Sturdevant, died October 19, 1835, age 3 months.
Wells, Adaline, daughter of G. and S. Wells, died August 5, 1823, age 1 year 3 months.
 

END of Reservoir Cemetery list compiled by Daniel H. Weiskotten