Newspaper The Sentinel Sept 28,1999 Stewart Airport buffer to Revolutionary War Cemetery

Name/Title

Newspaper "The Sentinel" Sept 28,1999 Stewart Airport buffer to Revolutionary War Cemetery

Entry/Object ID

000363

Scope and Content

THE SENTINEL September 28, 1999 Page 3 Stewart Buffer Lands Home To Historical Revolutionary War Time Cemetery by Joshua Soule In addition to wildlife and wetlands, the 5,000 or so acres of the Stewart Airport Buffer Lands are home to the McClaughry family cemetery, a gravesite that has been in existence for over two hundred years. The cemtery is the final resting place of several Revolutionary War veterans and has been recognized by John A. Bonafide of the Historic Preservation Field Services Bureau as being eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. At a press conference on Friday, September 24, the Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition (SPARC) announced the cemetery's eligibility for inclusion on the register. Sandra Kissam, president of SPARC, said, "Located on threatened lands between Drury Lane and Maple Avenue, this poignant and evocative site, with its tenderly carved and inscribed headstones, is truly an important testament to our rich Orange County History." Local historian Barbara Clark, a docent at the Brick House Museum, catalogued the residents of the cemetery. Among those buried in the gravesite are Revolutionary War veterans John Finley, a member of the Orange County Militia and Alexander Trimble, the quartermaster of the Ulster County Milita. Town of New Windsor Historian Glenn Marshall has ordered a historical marker for the cemetery and Orange County Historian Theodore Sly also certified the cemetery as an historical site. Bonafide, in his evaluation of the site, said, "The McClaughry Burial Ground is historically significant as a highly intact example of a mid to late eighteenth century burial ground." If the cemetery is recognized as a national and state historical site, development of the Stewart lands could be significantly hampered. Frank Carbone, president of Concerned Citizens Around Stewart Airport (CCASA) is among those fighting to preserve the Buffer Lands. "How many other grave sites have been neglected like the McClaughry cemetery? How many stones have been stolen over the years and how many graves were desecrated during the time NYS and Governor Rockefeller was in the process of taking the property in 1971?" Carbone wondered in a statement at the press conference.

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Person or Organization

McClaughry Cemetery