FARMINGDALE – For the past couple of years, the Farmingdale Historical Society took on the challenging project of preserving the Brewer Burial Ground.
The Cemetery, which has been around since 1768 and includes seven veterans, hasn’t had anyone preserving and upkeeping it before that.
The ongoing project of maintaining the area began at the beginning of 2020. Both the Farmingdale Historical, Howell Heritage and Historical Societies along with the Farmingdale Boy Scout Troop 13 created a cleanup plan for Brewer.
“Right before COVID started, we knew there was a need down there (Brewer). A local Boy Scout Troop in town actually had a couple boys that were ready to do Eagle Scout Projects. So, we started working with them to get a substantial project done at Brewer’s as far as clean up and replacing posts, taking down invasive trees, a new sign and a whole bunch of stuff,” a representative from the Farmingdale Historical Society told The Howell Times. “Of course, COVID hit, so then everything got put on hold. For a long time, someone was keeping up with the cemetery, it just seemed like within the past couple of years that it really got pretty shabby.”
Along with Brewer Burial Ground, the historical society has been looking over Farmingdale’s Evergreen Cemetery, and other cemeteries in Howell Township.
Over the last month, the society had been noticing some disturbance in the cemetery. It started with rocks missing and lots of trash showing up. Most recently they discovered missing rose bushes, that were dug up and taken.
“The Historical Society has been overseeing it (Brewer) like a magnify glass for the past two years, really taking care of it,” Farmingdale Historical Society said. “When stuff is neglected and there’s a lot of leaves, if stuff is happening you don’t really notice it. But also it keeps people away. As you start cleaning places up like this and they become more of an attraction, not only are you going to attract people that want to explore the history, but there’s always those individuals that have to ruin things.”
Luckily, the Farmingdale Historical, Howell Heritage and Historical Societies have replaced the bush that was taken with two new bushes, a new flag and stand, some border and mulch.
“This seems to be an isolated incident… nothing else has been messed with,” the Society said. “The scouts are planning early fall to go back down there (Brewer) and continue to remove brush… Compared to what it is now, you wouldn’t believe it’s the same place. There was such so much junk down there, fallen branches and neglect. It just needed to be taken care of. There was a lot of work done in 2020 to really clean it up.”
Although Brewer Burial Ground is one of the Society’s ongoing projects, a main, largescale project of theirs is property and deed research for properties and buildings in Farmingdale. Over the past 10 years, they’ve succeeded having 30 buildings with plaques, and are still working on more.
Now with the COVID pandemic restrictions loosening up, the Farmingdale Historical Society is looking forward to taking on more projects, especially the annual Wreaths Across America event that happens every year around the holidays.
“We want people to get people involved. We want people to be knowledgeable about what’s going on and have an appreciation of the history. If people are appreciative of the history, they’ll keep an eye on it and see if people are doing something they shouldn’t be doing,” the Society said.
The Farmingdale Historical Society meets the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Farmingdale Community Center located at 13 Asbury Ave. in Farmingdale. Anyone is welcomed to join meetings, take part in activities and help out.
For more information about the Farmingdale Historical Society, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/farmingdalehistoricalsocietynj or email farmingdalehistoricalsocietynj@gmail.com.
