Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery.xml
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Part of Marists All: Cemetery at Marist College
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6/29/2021
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
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Cemetery at Marist College
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Besides the Brothers listed in this monument, there were memorial plaques for
Postulants who had died: John Graham, who died in 1924 and J. Hanley who
died in 1911, and Juniors, Gerard Bouffard who died in 1927 and Leo Arsenault
who died in 1937. These were buried with their natural families.
The cemetery at Saint Ann's
Hermitage was started when Brother
Charles Camille died in 1909, the
year after the Brothers purchased
the Bech property. It was located at
the southern border of the property,
just north of the property owned by
the New York Central Railroad and
not used by the railroad, so formed
a natural bucolic backdrop for the
cemetery.
6/29/2021
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
2/3
The original wire fencing was replaced with a white wall, and each grave was
marked with an iron cross and a small plaque indicating years of birth and
death and years as a Brother. The cemetery was located in rocky ground,
which made expansion impractical. Under the supervision of Brother Mary
Andrew, Provincial Treasurer, a new cemetery was planned on the Brothers'
Esopus property. By adding clean fill, a space was developed for up to 300
burials.
After the purchase of the seven acre
NY Central parcel, the college
accepted clean fill to raise the level
of the ground, so that eventually the
cemetery was almost 20 feet below
the level of its surroundings. About
1973, when the McCann center was
planned for construction south of the
cemetery, the initial plan was to
relocate the Poughkeepsie graves to
the Esopus cemetery. However, legal
counsel warned that effecting this
might take up to two decades of legal activity; this advice was based on
counsel's experience with a similar Old Dutch cemetery near Saint Francis
Hospital. The decision was made to leave the graves intact, raise the level of
the cemetery to the new level, erect a new monument and have the college
warrant that no construction would be done above the original cemetery.
The college officials took great care not to allow the expansion of the McCann
Recreation Center to impinge on the location of the cemetery. When the
cemetery was covered, Brother Nilus Donnelly marked the location on a
topological map, but in the 35 years since, the map has been mislaid or
destroyed.
Brother Don Kelly, who still teaches mathematics at Marist College, took it
upon himself to pinpoint the exact location of the cemetery. In his own words:
"There have been many different opinions where the 47 Brothers and the
Chaplain for Mount Saint Michael high school were actually buried here at
Marist College. This was due to the fact that the landscape has changed over
the years. A few weeks ago (early in 2011) an article appeared in the
Poughkeepsie Journal newspaper stating that the bodies of the brothers had
been removed some years ago from their graves. I knew this wasn't true and
felt that I had to document where the exact location was before this
knowledge will be lost forever.
"Thus I decided I would find out for myself with their final resting place was.
On Thursday, 26 February 2011 I went to the Town and City offices in
6/29/2021
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
3/3
Poughkeepsie and the people there in turn sent me to the County Office of
Real Property at 22 Market St where I was to meet Betsy Mark. After a little
conversation and looking at a couple of different types of maps that they had,
I purchased two aerial photos of Marist College for a total of eight dollars (the
photos were from 1936 and 2004). The 1936 photo had a great shot of the
road leading down to the cemetery and the cemetery itself which I was
familiar with because as Scholastics we walked down after dinner each evening
to this area.
"I then took the two pictures and overlaid them making sure they matched up
perfectly. I proceeded to put four holes in the corners of the cemetery plot in
the photo of 1936 thus creating markings on the underlying picture of 2004.
By pulling a 1936 picture off I discovered where the cemetery of the Marist
brothers existed on the present-day campus of Marist College. A small part of
the cemetery lies on the baseball field but most of it lies on the foul area down
the right-field line about 250 feet from home plate"
The monument itself has been moved several times, but remains close to the
actual burial grounds.
This photo shows a group of lacrosse families
celebrating a game in March 2010. It may
seem sacriligeous to some of us, but I
remember that when I traveled in Switzerland
and Italy, it was customary for families to visit
cemeteries for lunches near the graves of their
departed ones. The monument is located on
the plaza in front of the McCann Center, and is
passed by students on their way into the
center for basketball games. This location is
often visited by students and visitors to
campus, and stands as a permanent reminder of those Brothers who were
instrumental in bringing into being the College and the other operations of the
Brothers throughout the United States.
most recent revision 22 January 2012
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
1/3
Cemetery at Marist College
Print too small? Try pressing control & "+"
Print too large? Try pressing control& "-"
Besides the Brothers listed in this monument, there were memorial plaques for
Postulants who had died: John Graham, who died in 1924 and J. Hanley who
died in 1911, and Juniors, Gerard Bouffard who died in 1927 and Leo Arsenault
who died in 1937. These were buried with their natural families.
The cemetery at Saint Ann's
Hermitage was started when Brother
Charles Camille died in 1909, the
year after the Brothers purchased
the Bech property. It was located at
the southern border of the property,
just north of the property owned by
the New York Central Railroad and
not used by the railroad, so formed
a natural bucolic backdrop for the
cemetery.
6/29/2021
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
2/3
The original wire fencing was replaced with a white wall, and each grave was
marked with an iron cross and a small plaque indicating years of birth and
death and years as a Brother. The cemetery was located in rocky ground,
which made expansion impractical. Under the supervision of Brother Mary
Andrew, Provincial Treasurer, a new cemetery was planned on the Brothers'
Esopus property. By adding clean fill, a space was developed for up to 300
burials.
After the purchase of the seven acre
NY Central parcel, the college
accepted clean fill to raise the level
of the ground, so that eventually the
cemetery was almost 20 feet below
the level of its surroundings. About
1973, when the McCann center was
planned for construction south of the
cemetery, the initial plan was to
relocate the Poughkeepsie graves to
the Esopus cemetery. However, legal
counsel warned that effecting this
might take up to two decades of legal activity; this advice was based on
counsel's experience with a similar Old Dutch cemetery near Saint Francis
Hospital. The decision was made to leave the graves intact, raise the level of
the cemetery to the new level, erect a new monument and have the college
warrant that no construction would be done above the original cemetery.
The college officials took great care not to allow the expansion of the McCann
Recreation Center to impinge on the location of the cemetery. When the
cemetery was covered, Brother Nilus Donnelly marked the location on a
topological map, but in the 35 years since, the map has been mislaid or
destroyed.
Brother Don Kelly, who still teaches mathematics at Marist College, took it
upon himself to pinpoint the exact location of the cemetery. In his own words:
"There have been many different opinions where the 47 Brothers and the
Chaplain for Mount Saint Michael high school were actually buried here at
Marist College. This was due to the fact that the landscape has changed over
the years. A few weeks ago (early in 2011) an article appeared in the
Poughkeepsie Journal newspaper stating that the bodies of the brothers had
been removed some years ago from their graves. I knew this wasn't true and
felt that I had to document where the exact location was before this
knowledge will be lost forever.
"Thus I decided I would find out for myself with their final resting place was.
On Thursday, 26 February 2011 I went to the Town and City offices in
6/29/2021
Poughkeepsie Brothers Cemetery
https://academic2.marist.edu/foy/maristsall/essays/poughkeepsie cemetery.html
3/3
Poughkeepsie and the people there in turn sent me to the County Office of
Real Property at 22 Market St where I was to meet Betsy Mark. After a little
conversation and looking at a couple of different types of maps that they had,
I purchased two aerial photos of Marist College for a total of eight dollars (the
photos were from 1936 and 2004). The 1936 photo had a great shot of the
road leading down to the cemetery and the cemetery itself which I was
familiar with because as Scholastics we walked down after dinner each evening
to this area.
"I then took the two pictures and overlaid them making sure they matched up
perfectly. I proceeded to put four holes in the corners of the cemetery plot in
the photo of 1936 thus creating markings on the underlying picture of 2004.
By pulling a 1936 picture off I discovered where the cemetery of the Marist
brothers existed on the present-day campus of Marist College. A small part of
the cemetery lies on the baseball field but most of it lies on the foul area down
the right-field line about 250 feet from home plate"
The monument itself has been moved several times, but remains close to the
actual burial grounds.
This photo shows a group of lacrosse families
celebrating a game in March 2010. It may
seem sacriligeous to some of us, but I
remember that when I traveled in Switzerland
and Italy, it was customary for families to visit
cemeteries for lunches near the graves of their
departed ones. The monument is located on
the plaza in front of the McCann Center, and is
passed by students on their way into the
center for basketball games. This location is
often visited by students and visitors to
campus, and stands as a permanent reminder of those Brothers who were
instrumental in bringing into being the College and the other operations of the
Brothers throughout the United States.
most recent revision 22 January 2012
