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GOD’S ACRE

Program
NYS Historic
Subject
Cemetery, People
Location
204 Orange St, Port Jervis, NY 12771, USA
Lat/Long
41.389188, -74.683871
Grant Recipient
Minisink Valley Historical Society
Historic Marker

GOD’S ACRE

Inscription

GOD'S ACRE
BURIAL GROUND EST. 1867 FOR
TOWN OF DEERPARK’S POOR.
MARGARET JEFFERIES PIGGORY,
FORMERLY ENSLAVED, BURIED HERE
SEPTEMBER 23, 1917 AT AGE 93.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2024

The land for God’s Acre was deeded to the Town of Deerpark in 1867 for use as a burial site for the town’s poor. Since 2017 the parcel comprising about two acres has been owned by the adjoining cemetery, Agudath Achim, founded in 1909. Interments in God’s Acre are known to have continued into the 1920s with the last known burial in 1924. (Findagrave.com)

As of 2024, no headstones had been found in God’s Acre, but soil indentations and markers signified burial sites. In 2023, a grass-roots project including student from Port Jervis High School, local volunteers and several soil scientists used ground penetrating radar (GPS) to search for burial sites. A preliminary report noted that stones had been placed vertically as markers for burials and a series of vertical stone lined in a row were identified. Local volunteer researchers have identified eight know burials with an estimated sixty more burials possible.

One confirmed burial was that of Margaret Smith Piggory who was born into slavery in New Jersey in 1824. After obtaining her freedom in 1845 by state law, she eventually lived in Port Jervis with her second husband, John Piggory (Port Jervis Union, Sept. 20, 1917, page 6).