Representatives of the Brookhaven Village Association, Post Morrow Foundation, Fireplace History Club and neighbors look on as Hollis Warner, proprietor of the Peconic Monument Works, Riverhead, NY examines gravestones in the Rose cemetery in preparation to their restoration or conservation.

The first and oldest Rose family cemetery is located along today’s Jared’s Path in the Post Point Farm development.  In a 1933 talk given by then Brookhaven Town Historian Osborne Shaw at the Brookhaven Free Library, Shaw complained that our Revolutionary War veterans Lt. Thomas Rose and Capt. Nathan Rose and their families “lie buried in the shameful and unkept little burying ground . . . a disgrace your Village Improvement Association should remedy.” In 1980, the Williams and Sack families cleaned up the cemetery and installed a split rail fence around it. However, most of the stones had fallen, and were broken and partially buried.

This year, members of the Fire Place History Club have laid out and inventoried the headstones, then hired a professional to repair and erect them.  But we now need financial help.  With a yard sale last October, we raised $1,000 for the repairs, but we will need at least an additional $1,500.

Any contribution you can make toward this effort will be greatly appreciated.  Please make checks out to the Brookhaven Village Association marked “for Rose Cemetery restoration.”

Mail to: 

Brookhaven Village Association
PO Box 167
Brookhaven, NY 11719

Thank you.

 --Marty Van Lith