Oak Orchards Cemetery
Wood Creek Road, Town of Verona

This cemetery is located off Wood Creek Road in the town of Verona.  The grounds are maintained and the area is clear of brush and weeds.  The transcriptions listed below are just a small portion of the burials here.  There appears to be over 50 graves here, some marked by field stones, and many sunken areas indicating a grave but no marker.  All the stones found are lying on the ground, most of them broken.  Most of them were very hard to read, being badly worn.

The plaque at the front of the cemetery reads:
Oak Orchards
    Referred to in early accounts only as Oak Orchards, this elevated hill was a landmark on the inland water route to the Great Lakes.  A spring nearby provided one of the few sources of drinking water along Wood Creek, making this a favored stopping point for batteaux throughout the last half of the eighteenth century and until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
    In 1793 the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company (1792-1820) - NY’ s first Canal Company - cut thru the neck of a meander along the West side of the hill, one of thirteen such “canals” dug along Wood Creek to shorten the distance between Rome and Oneida Lake.
    The Navigation Company built a locktenders house here in 1802 to serve a proposed wooden lock that was never built, disturbing the 1797 grave of the infant child of “Celeste”, the first settler burial in Verona.
    During the latter half of the nineteenth century a “Burying Ground” was established here as settlement expanded and a sawmill complex was built at the North edge of the hill.  Both were later reduced to ruins and lost to memory until rediscovered in 1990 by a State Museum researcher working with the Town Historian.  This historic site is being preseved by the Verona Historical Association.
The tombstones in this cemetery were copied by Kathleen Last and Virginia Ackerman on October 19, 2001.

Copyright©2001
Kathleen Last & Virginia Ackerman
All rights reserved


Breads, Sarah, wife of John Breads, died Dec. 26, 1849 age 51 yrs
Breads, William, son of John & Sarah Breads, died Jan. 4, 1854 age 25 yrs

Dell, Mary Ann, dau of Hezekiah & Sabrina Dell, died Sep. 23, 1848 age (yrs broken) 27 dys

Holmes, Frederick A., youngest son Albert & Calphurnia Holmes, died April 14, 1859 age 4 yrs 11 mos 11 dys

Hull, Celina A., wife of Sylvester Hull, died Oct. 21, 1830 age 27 yrs

Mott, Linlia, only son of Wm. & Minerva Mott, died April 21, 1859 age 3 yrs

Palmer, John C. died July 27, 1868 age 36 yrs (yr of death badly worn)
Palmer, Lucius, son of C. & E. Palmer, died Aug. 8, 1863 age 18 mos 27 dys
Palmer, Mary Ann, wife of John C. Palmer, died July 20, 1847 age 35 yrs 1 mo 3 dys

Smith, George A. died Sep. 3, 1826 age 19 mos
Smith, Abigail died Sep. 18, 18(illegible) age 22 yrs

Suits, Peter I died June 2, 1826 age 71 yrs (Rev. War Marker next to his grave)
Suits, Mary Magdaline, wife of Peter I. Suits, died Feb. 25, 1847 age 75 yrs 5 mos 10 dys
Totten, Frances, son of Samuel & (illegible) Totten, died Sep. (illegible) age 1 yr 6 mos 16 dys

White, Julia, dau of Orrin G. & Hannah White, died Nov. 1, 1847 age 5 mos