St. Joseph's (German) Cemetery
Pond Street, Syracuse, New York

St. Joseph's Cemetery - List of German Lot Owners

SCHNEIDER / SNYDER Families: Lists of Burials and Lot Owners

St. Joseph's Cemetery - List of Irish Lot Owners

Some newspaper articles, 1946-1966

Research Notes and Photos on
Old St. Joseph's Cemetery in Syracuse, New York
by Norman C. Staub Sr., MD, 2003

nssr@att.net

As it looked then...

St. Joseph Cemetery (circa 1900?): This undated photo of old St. Joseph's Cemetery once located at Pond and First North Streets, Syracuse shows the large crucifix erected by the St. Boniface Verein in 1881, over 20 years after the cemetery opened. Photo courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center, Syracuse, New York, submitted by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2003.





St. Boniface Verein crucifix (1932): Another photo of the crucifix atop the Pond Street hill, in winter. Photo courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center, Syracuse, New York, submitted by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2003.





St. Joseph Cemetery (circa 1900?): Path extending from North Street up the Pond Street hill to the crucifix. Photo courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center, Syracuse, New York, submitted by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2003.

And as it is now...

St. Joseph Cemetery Memorial: The St. Joseph's plot is up against the fence near the northeastern corner of Assumption Cemetery. The plot is labeled 'St. Joseph' on Assumption Cemetery's map. It lies between plots U2 and U4; presumably it was originally plot U3. The plot is fairly large so that this photo of the monument only shows about 20% of the total area. Photo by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2001.


1. St. Joseph's cemetery was the original Catholic cemetery on the north side [of Syracuse] and was the second(?) oldest cemetery in the city; the oldest being in Schiller Park? Rose Hill?. St. Joseph's was established 21 November 1859. It was a small cemetery (8 acres) located adjacent to Pond & 1st North Streets. Now it’s a paved parking lot for Wegman’s Grocery Store (photo below).

2. The estimates of the number of people buried in St. Joseph's range between 4000-6000+; mostly of German descent, but with a substantial minority of Irish Catholics. Most of the plots were purchased before 1900, according to the alphabetical list of German and Irish plot owners held in the Archives.

3. The cemetery was in use until 1953, although the much larger Assumption Cemetery had already been opened (1920?) north of there on Court Street. Both St. Joseph's and Assumption cemeteries were owned and operated by the Conventual Franciscan Friars, Provincial Headquarters in Rensselaer, New York. Assumption Church was also staffed by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. In 1953 St. Joseph's Cemetery was closed and abandoned by the Friars, as there was no endowment to take care of it in perpetuity.

4. The [Syracuse] Herald Journal, 27 March 1958, described the neglect and vandalism that had occurred in the cemetery since its closure. Eventually, the site was purchased by a developer who wanted to use the land for a small shopping center. It was necessary to exhume any remains that could be found and to move them to Assumption Cemetery. On the old St. Joseph's cemetery site there was erected in 1968 a Wegman's supermarket and parking lot.

According to the Herald Journal, 7 December 1965, as many as 4,000 bodies were to be exhumed from the cemetery. However, the disinterment records kept between 9 November 1965 and 29 October 1966 indicated that a total of 6,567 remains were removed, of which only 509 were definitely identified. The disinterment and reinterment were handled by Lozott Funeral Home, 111 W. Castle Street, Syracuse. All of the unidentified remains were placed in a common grave in the Assumption Cemetery; where there is now a commemorative monument in Section U3. In addition to the white marble monument (photo above), there is a gray granite marker (photo below) with legend inscribed... "Erected by the Conventual Franciscans in memory of those who were buried in St. Joseph's cemetery from 1859—1953 and whose remains were transferred to this cemetery 1965—1966."

5. In the Diocesan Archives, there's a list of the German plot owners and the Irish plot owners. Norman Staub has a copy of the German owners which is reproduced below.



St. Joseph Cemetery Memorial: This is a close-up of the dedication slab, a gray granite descriptive marker which is located in front of the larger monument near the road in Assumption Cemetery, Syracuse. The inscription reads: "Erected by the Conventual Franciscans in memory of those who were buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery from 1859-1953 and whose remains were transferred to this cemetery 1965-1966." Photo by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2001.


Additional notes from Norman Staub, 18 February 2003:

The Franciscans state that people were buried in the cemetery between 1859-1953. However, as you'll see below, the earliest purchases were in 1855 -- 38 of those altogether. I believe the explanation is that people began to buy plots in 1855, but nobody was buried until 1859.

Even more dramatic is the fact that people continued to be buried in St. Joseph's until 1953, but, according to Archive documents, the last purchases were made in 1892 -- 52 of those altogether. I conclude that all the grave sites had been purchased by 1892. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for people to die and be buried before the cemetery could be closed and abandoned.

The plot purchases were listed in increments of five years, except for 1892. Notice that purchases peaked in the period 1870-1880, then there were no purchases until 1892, then no more. The total number of plot purchases is 861. Entries that did not have any date indicated total 363. I don't know the significance of listing a name that has no date after it. This adds up to a total of 1,224 German plots in the St. Joseph Cemetery.

Frequency chart of St. Joseph's Cemetery German plot purchases:

1855 - 38
1860 - 62
1865 - 109
1870 - 232
1875 - 139
1880 - 229
1885 - 0
1890 - 0
1892 - 52
1895 - 0
1900 - 0; 1905 - 0; 1910 - 0; 1915 - 0; 1920 - 0
TOTAL 861

As I understand it, St. Joseph's Cemetery covered 8 acres. I'm also told that about half of the plots were purchased by Irish Catholics. This suggests that the total number of plots in St. Joseph's Cemetery during its lifetime was 2,000-2,500. That, of course, is a lot less than the 6,000 listed in the newspaper articles of 1958 and 1966.




Wegman's Grocery Store and parking lot viewed from First North Street. What's left of the Pond Street hill (formerly in St. Joseph's Cemetery) is at the far right. Apparently most of the hill was leveled for the store. Beyond the store is the large apartment house that occupies the rear portion of the former St. Joseph's Cemetery site. Photo by Norman C. Staub, Sr., 2003.

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For more photos of the St. Joseph's Cemetery memorial in Assumption Cemetery, Syracuse, click here.