WMBCTV: Resting Place, Living Legacy: Bergen County Gethsemane Cemetery Tours Highlight African American History in Little Ferry

Tucked behind a quiet road in the small town of Little Ferry, Gethsemane Cemetery, purchased in 1860, is the final resting place for more than 500 African Americans that were historically denied burial in other locations. Among those laid to rest here are Civil War veterans Peter Billings and Silas Carpenter. The cemetery is also home to the gravesite of Elizabeth Dulfer, born in 1790 as a slave to a family in a nearby Little Ferry neighborhood before becoming free and rising to become one of the area’s most successful entrepreneurs and land owners at the time.

“She was a remarkable woman especially for the time,” said Vivian Davis, History Programming, Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs. “And she was given her freedom in 1822 so she decided to take her freedom, she got married, she moved to New York, decided to come back to this area and purchase land on the banks of the Hackensack River for its clay deposits. She was a smart cookie. There was a huge market for this clay to make bricks and especially to sail it down the river so she made a mint using her land as a source of income and she lived until 1880 so she lived until she was 90 years old and living off the fruits of her labor.”

While there are more than 500 burials reported for this cemetery, officials say there are currently about 50 tombstones and markers still standing in various conditions.

“We’ve lost a lot of stones over the years unfortunately,” said Vivian Davis, History Programming, Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs. “So the county of Bergen has had a few restoration projects over the past 30 plus years… just trying to preserve the stones that are still standing today.”

The cemetery is open for free, self-guided tours today and tomorrow from 12 pm to 4 pm.