Mount Hope Cemetery
Transcription and collation by Sharon Palmateer. Retyped by Arlene Goodwin
The Mount Hope Cemetery in Athens, Greene Co., NY is located on Market Street. The inventory was done in the Summer of 2001 by Sharon Palmateer with the cooperation of Ann Stacey, the Secretary of the Mount Hope Cemetery Association. This is an attempt to coordinate whatever information is available from the headstones (Many of which have deteriorated to such a degree that they are no longer legible.) and the multitude of record-keeping techniques used throughout the years.
Information without parenthesis has been retrieved directly from the headstones. Information included in parenthesis had been gleaned from the cemetery records.
Cemetery records also provided the burial dates and plot numbers.
This cemetery is located on the north side of Market Street. The original entrance is located at the north side of Church Street with white pillars on each side of the entrance. The original portion contains subsections referred to on maps as ‘Friends Portion.’ ‘Corporation Burial Ground’ and ‘Original.’ The Friends Portion and Corporation Burial Ground has been encompassed by woods and many graves and stones are lost or unreadable. Information for these areas comes from paper documents and the tedious work of mapping this area that was done by Ann Stacey and her husband, Dan, in about 1982 when they assumed responsibility for the record-keeping. The Annex area is located within the circular roadway west of the main entrance (A1). Most notably, the Nicholas mausoleum is located in this area. An additional annex area is west of the circular annex (A2) and the diagonal area to the northwest of the circular drive is the oldest portion of the annex (A3). Row 2 facing west.
The inventory includes the Annex area only. The rest of the Mount Hope Cemetery is contained in another document due to its size. (We hope that we will be able to post these records at some point in the future - SH)
The ‘Stone’ column indicates the stone is made of: B=Bronze, C=Cement, G=Granite, M=Marble, S=Slate and W=Wood. This will aid you in verifying the accuracy of the data.
Families have recorded several members on a single stone and, frequently, in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, individual stones, both headstones and footstones would be placed, as well. The individual stone is connected to the name of the individual on the family stone when possible. Occasionally, and individual stone appears in a family group that is not listed on the family stone. These are listed with ‘(Unknown)’ as the Surname. ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ are particularly difficult to coordinate. Relationships are recorded from the headstones. ‘Wife of’ is when the ‘Wife’ is listed directly after her husband or information indicates who the husband is. ‘Son’ or ‘Daughter of’ is used when that information is available.
Military information is extracted from the gravesite. Cremation notations are from cemetery records.
Maps of the cemeteries are available by contacting the Mount Hope Cemetery Association directly, but hopefully, you will be able to determine the general location of the grave from the section and row provided.
Two indexes have been included – a Surname index and a Maiden name index. Maiden names were included only if they appear on headstone or, in parenthesis, if identified in the cemetery records.
Notes indicating (Married <date> First Reformed Church, Athens) were retrieved from First Reformed Church Athens, NY Marriages 1826-1901 available on the website https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nygreen2/athens_reformed_marriages.htm through the organizational efforts of Sylvia Hasenkopf and transcription efforts of Ann Clapper, February 2001.