Seneca Co., NY
Friends' Cemetery, Quaker Settlement Cemetery, Ulysses, NY
Friends' Cemeteries of the Towns of Hector and Ulysses, NY
This information was supplied by Dee Watt. Thank you!
Friends' Cemetery and Quaker Settlement Cemetery, Town of Ulysses NY
These two cemeteries are in close proximity and are easily overlooked in the summertime. The Friends' Cemetery (Hector Monthly Meeting) is in the rear of their Meeting House, and not noticeable from the road. (corner of Perry City Road and Jacksonville Road-- DW)
The Quaker Settlement Cemetery is on the corner with trees and much undergrowth (see page 739)
The history of the former is given in this work under Friends' Cemeteries in the Town of Hector section. Little actual history is known of the Quaker Settlement Cemetery, other than it was not connected with the Friends Meetings. It took itsname from the area, settled predominately by Quaker families -- the Owens, Mekeels, Carmans, etc. (see early maps). This cemetery is sometimes called locally as the Jacksonville Cemetery, being one mile south of Jacksonville, but even the current Town of Ulysses map labels it the Quaker Settlement Cemetery.
Credit: Pg 735, "Some Cemeteries of the Between the Lakes Country" 3 vols,, Fischer, Swick, Finch (LH 974.7 Finch)
Friends' Cemeteries of the towns of Hector and Ulysses NY
Several cemeteries are involved here - Perry City Friends', Hector Monthly Meeting, Quaker Settlement, etc.
(see map page 444 showing locations of these cemeteries)
More details are given under each cemetery, but a general explanation and a brief history are necessary to sort them out and make some sense, as confusion abounds. Even those knowledgeable in local cemeteries in this area have unintentionally erred or perhaps misunderstood in what was printed. Most of the confusion is due to which of the Friends' or Quaker cemeteries one is referring.
Members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) came mostly from Long Island and settled around Jacksonville and Perry City. The families included the Carmans, Mekeels (believed to be a patronymic form from Michael van Kortright), Pearsalls, Tripps, etc. this settling in a relative small area (within buggy distance to their church) was followed by the N. J. Dutch Reformed in Ovid and the Baptists in Covert.
The late Mrs. Alice M. Hartwig of Syracuse, a genealogist of the Carman family and a capable historian on the Friends of Hector and Ulysses, has cleared up some of this confusion by her map and explanations, which follow.
The first Friends' Meetigs wre held in Caleb Carman's home (#11 on map page 444) in 1814. In 1826 they built their new Meeting House (#1) across the road on property now (1973) owned by Bruce Reynolds. While they had established a cemetery next to Caleb Carman's farm on what is now Carman Road (#3), they established one near their Perry City Meeting House (#4). In 1847 the Friends of the Hector Monthly Meeting separatd amicably, and one group went to meet in the home of Charles Carman across from the first burial ground, until they built their Meeting House (#2) in 1853. In 1900/1 they dismantled their Meeting House and moved it to the N.E. corner in Perry City, (#6) where it is still in use today. One reason for the move was that the young people wantd it. Though Thomas Carman disliked the move, he supported it.
The Hector Monthly Meting of Perry City sold their house (#1) to Charles Reynolds, who moved it to the south (#10) for use as a wagon house. It still stands today. When they moved to the town of Ulysses on Perry City Road near Jacksonville Road, they met in the school house (#5) in 1864. In 1903 they uilt their Meeting House (#7) on the opposite side of the road. It is still in use. While they still own the cemetery in Perry City, they created a new one to the rear of their new Meeting House.
To add to the confusion, this is the Hector Monthly Meeting but in the town of Ulysses. And next to it (#12) is the Quaker Settlement Cemetery, which is sometimes referred to only as the Quaker Cemetery (also the Jacksonville Cemetery). This area from Jacksonville to Perry City was settled by a large number of Quakers, hence the name Quaker Settlement. But there are very few Quakers buried in the Quaker Settlement Cemetery.
To further confuse the out-of-towner, the country roads are laid out on section lines or one-mile grids, and most of the intersections look alike. Two miles west of the Quaker Settlement Cemetery (#!2) is the Log Meeting House Cemetery (#9), in the same relative location and looking much alike.
Several articles have been written of the Friends of tompkins County, at least two by Amy Grace Mekeel.
Alice Hartwig closed her letter of explanations with "I hope this will clarify a very confusing subject."
After this entire section was at the printers, Mr. James Clifford Otis (gr-son of James D. & Mary (Mekeel) Otis) had an article published in Yesteryears, Vol 17, No 66, Winter 1973, page 73, explaining in more detail the various separations of the original Scipio Monthly Meeting into those of the Hector-Ulysses area. My basic information has come from Miss Amy Grace Mekeel, Mrs. Eunice Rebecca Mekeel Hopkins, Alice M. Hartwig, and Mrs. Sabel Reynolds, all active Friends and interested in the history of their Society and the genealogy of its members. As for some of the genealogical details and facts in his article, which are called errors, some are, some are not, and others can be called omissions. These will be taken up in detail in my forthcoming (ca 1975) genealogy "Descendants of Some Early Settlers of the Trumansburg-Covert Area - the Owen Family" in the Mekeel section. But Alice Hartwig's "confusing subject" is still confusing! CWF
Cemeteries in the vicinity of Perry City, Towns of Hector & Ulysses, N. Y.
(Note: because I cannot reproduce the map, I am giving this key for "approximate" geographic locations of the #s given. I would suggest anyone wanting to locate these places should locate a copy of the book from a local library or historical society and copy the map. DW)
# 1 - Perry City Rd and Rte 227
# 2 - Carman Rd and County Line Rd (Town of Hector)
# 3 - Carman Rd and County Line Rd (Town of Hector)
# 4 - Perry City Rd and Rte 227
# 5 - Perry City Rd off Jacksonville Rd
# 6 - Perry City Rd and Rte 227
# 7 - Perry City Rd and Jacksonville Rd
# 8 - Perry City Rd and Jacksonville Rd
# 9 - Perry City Rd and Rte 146
#10 - Perry City Rd and Rte 227
#11 - Perry City Rd and Rte 227
#12 - Perry City Rd and Trumansburg Rd
Mrs Alice Hartwig prepared a sketch map and the following explanation. The Friends' cemeteries are Nos. 3, 4, & 8
1) The Hector Monthly Meeting House built in 1826 just north of Perry City. It was bought by Charles Reynolds and moved in 1902/3 - see No. 10.
2) A Meeting House was built on Carman Road in 1853, next to the Carman Burying ground. The Meeting became the Perry City Friends Meeting. (see notes on next page re Carman Cemetery)
3) The cemetery became part of that Monthly Meeting, and just not the Carman Family Cemetery.
4) The cemetery behind # 1 belongs to the Hector Monthly
Meeting.
5) The school house where the Hector Monthly Meeting
moved to and hed meetings in 1864.
6) The Meeting House at # 2 was taken down and carted to Perry City in 1900/1, where it was re-erected and still in use.
7) The Hector Monthly Meeting built a Meeting House across the orad in 1903 that is still in use.
8) There is a cemetery to the rear of it which belongs to that Meeting as well as the one in Perry City.
9) Cemetery in School District #15 is known after the Log
Meeting House (Presb.-Bapt.), which moved to
Trumansburg (see Grove Cemetery)
10) The wagon house on Bruce Reynolds' farm, that has two
blue silos. This building ws originally No. 1.
11) Caleb Carman's home, where in 1814 the Friends held
their meetings.
12) Cemetery known as the Quaker Settlement Cemetery
on the older maps, and commonly as the Jacksonville
Cemetery today.
Note re # 3 - this cemetery is properly named the Perry City Monthly Meeting. The name "Carman Cemetery" is of very recent origin based either upon Carman Road (so-named only during the past couple of decades, or the adjacent Carman Farm). But we index it under all names regardless of authenticity.
Note re locations - Because of the relationship of the three Friends' cemeteries, they are all included in this section, even tho one is in the Town of Ulysses.
Sabella Reynolds, a devoted member of the Society of Friends and interested in genealogy, took me to the Carman Road Cemetery to show me a name that Ihad missed as it was on th back of the husband's stone. It pays to look at the reverse side of every stone. She also showed me the spot where Judge Humphrey had been buried on his farm, prior to removal to this cemetery.
An additional note offered by Sabella Reynolds and Alice Hartwig on the customs of the Friends is that they tend to bury their departed in sequence, i.e. not in formal "family plots" and that their markers are simple and conservative. One will note the number of markers tht have initials only, making it somewhat difficult for an outsider to determine who the person was. We have attempted to identify these through our knowledge of the families concerned. BUT ONE MUST BE CAUTIOUS IN USING THESE DATA.
Credit:Pp 442 - 445 "Some Cemeteries of the Between the Lakes Country" 3 vols,, Fischer, Swick, Finch (LH 974.7 Finch).
Please let me know if you have any further information on this or any other Seneca Co. cemetery. 
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