The early parishioners of our Church wanted a location near the Church to lay their loved ones to rest. Being the Church had no property on site for this purpose as some of the early Churches did; they looked a few miles down the road at nearby Hazel Wood Cemetery. Our Cemetery was formed through a series of cemetery lot purchases from Hazel Wood Cemetery beginning with the first on February. 29, 1916, $200 was paid for 5 Lots numbered 199 thru 203. Several more purchases were made over the years culminating with the final purchase on January 1, 1955.

A total of 54,313.64 square feet or 1.25 acres of property was bought from Hazel Wood in the shape of a slice of pizza.

Many of our early parishioners were poor immigrants who often were unable to afford a granite or marble headstone so they improvised. You see homemade concrete Crosses hand inscribed with their loved ones name, such as the one for John Mesko in 1920. Or the handcrafted cast iron Cross marking the Ladis /Totin gravesite from the 1940’s. Many of the tombstones in the old section are written in old Slavonic or Azbooka.

Our cemetery is broken into 2 distinct areas or sections. The “Old Cemetery” in the north east part of the property was laid out with the grave rows perpendicular to the slope of the hill, starting at the top of the hill and going downhill towards the fence line. There are 278 grave plots in the Old Cemetery with 214 interments. Many of the original maps were hand drawn by Bill Dziamba and George Kochan and their predecessors.

The “New” Cemetery was laid out and first surveyed on June 18, 1957 by Marsh & Lawrence C.E. and surveyors, Rahway NJ. Its graves are laid out parallel to the slope of the property. There are 862 grave plots in the new cemetery with 129 interments.

In 2008 two memorial granite benches were installed near the cross in memory of long time Cemetery Chairman Bill Dziamba and His wife Helen.

In 2010 Computer assisted drawings “CAD”s were done to provide a better visual overview of the layout of our plots.

In June of  2015, parishioner Max Mallick as part of his Eagle Scout project presented to the Church Committee a plan to design and install a border fence, landscaping and signage to  distinguish our Church’s cemetery from that of St. Mary’s. The plan was approved and in July 2015 the project was completed. The Church and Cemetery committees continue to work on maintaining and improving our Church’s cemetery. Future plans for the improvement and beautification of our cemetery include planting of several birch trees along our border to replace those trees which have come down over the years from storms and aging. Also we are looking into feasible means of creating a roadway and turnaround inside our cemetery to enhance accessibility to those visitors with physical disabilities and for funeral processions.

Some interesting notes about our Cemetery

1916 Elya J. Kresztit was the first recorded burial.

Earliest known price original price of a grave for parishioners in good standing was $20.

One of the earliest recorded Deed purchases was to John Faber on July 1935 for $25 for a grave plot in the Old Section of our cemetery.

The Largest family plot contains 12 burial plots and was purchased by the Pallack / Nyga family September 29, 1925.

We have 46 known vets from all branches of service laid to at rest in our cemetery, with 2 of the earliest on record being World War 1 Army veterans, John Wargo and John Remeta.

Busiest year for burials was in in 1992 when we had 10 burials.

There are monuments in our cemetery in the shape of a dolphin, one with a motorcycle engraved on the front and one with a fisherman. One tombstone from 1917 simply reads, Geneveve Kasam “Burnt to Death”.

The Beechwood Road Story

Our Cemetery borders on Beechwood Rd. which separates Union Counties Milton Lake Park and our Cemetery. Beechwood Rd. runs from Madison Hill Rd. in Clark to Lake Ave. The road was dirt covered with stone in some locations. 

Beechwood Rd. (sometimes referred to as Beechwood Lane, was an active road up until sometime in the 1980’s when the road was closed due to its lack of maintenance. Other probable reasons for its closing were liability and the cost to fix the road. That and the fact that the road made a good dump site for too many piles of unwanted home items and construction garbage. In fact after much lobbying of the local authorities we were able to have a gate installed as well as signage and increased police presence to deter illegal dumping.

Currently Beechwood Rd. provides our only means of direct access to our cemetery. Therefore we are constantly trying to improve on the roads accessibility and condition by communicating our concerns with the county. In March of 1970 Madison Hill Rd. was being re-graded. We requested that the millings (shavings from the top surface of roadway) instead of being disposed of, be spread along Beechwood Rd. leading into the cemetery to this was agreed upon and helped to improve the dirt road.

On November 24, 1986 we began in earnest to have the roadway paved up to our entrance gate. Numerous letters were drafted and sent to various local officials and political representatives.  

After years of pleading and prodding our persistence paid off, in 2010 Union County paved the first part of the road from Madison Hill Rd. to the first gate. Then in 2011 the remaining section of the roadway was paved up to our Cemetery entrance.

Today the road is part of the Union County Park System and Green Acres program.

An interesting side note, Hazel Wood Cemetery was developed in 1860 precisely bordering on the County line which is Beechwood Rd.  Along Beechwood Rd. just past our Cemetery and heading towards Hazel Wood cemetery if you look carefully along the  right side of the road covered in shrubs you will see a small concrete marker a foot or so tall.

This post was the marker indicating the border of Middlesex and Essex Counties before 1860 when Union County was formed. You can still clearly see an “M” on one side and an “E” on the opposite side.

How our Cemetery’s 8 foot tall white Cross came to be

In September of 1973 former longtime Cemetery Chairman, the late Bill Dziamba while working on Route 22 putting in barrier curb, got the idea to erect a Cross at our cemetery in honor of a good friend who had recently passed away, Tom Rustick. Tom had started the paper drive fund raiser at the church and had worked with him on many a paper drives.

On this project Bill was able to obtain white cement; some re-bar plus white marble sand. So Bill, along with fellow parishioners Charley Berzinec, and Charly Packan began the task of constructing the Cross. Charley Packan built the frame of the Cross and Bill mixed the concrete, inserted the steel re-bar and poured the cement. Charley provided the truck from Rahway Lumber and supplied ready-made concrete. His truck was used to transport the Cross to the cemetery and erected the Cross. The Cross was later blessed by Father Frank Miloro where it still stands today.