NAVY YARD CEMETERY
<PRE>
There was an old cemetery connected with the Brooklyn Navy Yard years ago.
Dead Man's Lane ran thru the Marine or Government Burial Ground. 
In 1869 the City of Bklyn ceded this lane, which had been a shortcut to 
Flushing Ave.to the U.S. Govn't and received in exchange the part of 
Washington Ave. which runs from Flushing to the bridge. Abt a yr later the 
govn't had a wall built around the burying grounds.
The U.S. Government purchased the Naval Hospital from the widow and other 
heirs of Martin SCHENCK in 1824, 35 acres.
The hospital occupies the hill section of the  SCHENCK farm.
The Naval Cemetery connected with the hospital is also along this tract. 
The register in 1892, showed 1,187 interments.

(current 1999)
Saturday's NEWSDAY (Queens Ed., page A08) has an article about how the 
remains of an unknown sailor were reinterred in an old graveyard at the 
Brooklyn Navy Yard Friday, setting the stage for formal preservation of 
the cemetery where black runaway slaves are believed to be buried.

The bones of the unknown sailor were disinterred during an archeological 
investigation in July, 1997, to determine if more burials remained 
after 987 were exhumed in 1926 and reburied at : see
<a href="/Cemetery/Ceme.Bklyn.html">Cypress Hills National Cemetery</a>

A Task of 'Pride and Honor'
     --By Merle English. STAFF WRITER

The remains of an unknown sailor were reinterred in an old
graveyard at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Friday, setting the stage for formal
preservation of the cemetery where black runaway slaves are believed to
be buried.
    In a five-minute ceremony, Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Jefferson, a Navy
chaplain, and the Rev. Lawrence Lucas, a Catholic clergyman, said
prayers over a cream-colored marble urn containing the remains before
the urn was placed in a freshly dug grave three feet deep.
   "Our task is not a grievous one but one of pride and honor," said Jefferson.

EDITION: QUEENS
SECTION: News
DATE:  09-18-1999
A08

Walter Greenspan
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