Learn About Madison Leaders Buried in Hillside Cemetery

Madison resident Bob Garman on Tuesday night will discuss several prominent borough residents who were buried in Hillside Cemetery, in a talk presented by the Madison Historical Society.

Garman's presentation, “Nineteenth Century Madison Leaders Buried in the Main Street (Hillside) Cemetery," is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library. Light refreshments are available from 7 p.m., according to an announcement for the event.

The following Madison leaders interred at the cemetery are included in Garman’s presentation: The Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle, William and William H. Gibbons, and James A. Webb, along with brief mentions of Civil War-era Congressman George Helm Yeaman, Abraham Lincoln’s wartime secretary William O. Stoddard and Gypsy King Naylor Harrison.

Tuttle was a pastor of the Presbyterian Church and Madison’s first historian. His 1855 "History of the Madison Presbyterian Church" is on display at the library, according to a Madison Historical Society news release.

“It is a slim base from which to trace the beginnings of the town’s history, but we must be thankful for it," historian Frank Esposito said.

The William Gibbons family lived in what is now Drew University's Mead Hall.

"William Gibbons was the son of Thomas Gibbons, a wealthy planter from Savannah who also owned businesses and property in New York and New Jersey and who, according to William Parkhurst Tuttle, once employed Cornelius Vanderbilt as a steamboat captain," the news release said. "As told by noted New Jersey historian John Cunningham, construction of the Gibbons mansion on Madison Avenue took place between 1833 and 1836. In 1867 William’s son and Confederate veteran, William Heyward Gibbons, sold the house and property to Wall Street financier and railroad tycoon Daniel Drew, who immediately donated it to the Methodist Church to found the Drew Theological Seminary."

Webb was one of a number of wealthy Madison benefactors.  He helped organize the Madison YMCA and was its second president. With his wife Magaretta, Webb had the Webb Memorial Chapel constructed for the Madison Presbyterian Church as a memorial to their son James.

Garman, a 36-year member, deacon, and elder of the Presbyterian Church of Madison, currently serves as president of its Board of Trustees and also administers the church’s Hillside / Bottle Hill Cemetery on Main Street.

“As the current church historian, he has been reassembling the church’s unique collection of artifacts dating from 1748," Madison Historical Society Program Chair Cathie Coultas said. "And in partnership with the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, Garman has been conducting focused tours of the Hillside Cemetery this fall."

For more information call 973-377-0722 ext. 8 or visit the Madison Historical Society’s website at www.madisonhistoricalsociety.org.