Stephen Crane and the Crane family
The most famous person buried at Evergreen Cemetery is Stephen Crane (1871–1900), the internationally known poet, author, and journalist best remembered for "The Red Badge of Courage." His marker at Evergreen is the only known monument to the author anywhere. The Crane family plot also holds his father, Rev. Jonathan Townley Crane Sr., and his mother, Helen Peck Crane — both prolific writers for religious publications — as well as his brother Jonathan Townley Crane Jr., the newspaper reporter who introduced Stephen to journalism.
Writers and literary figures
Evergreen holds a remarkable concentration of American literary history beyond the Crane plot:
- Mary Mapes Dodge(1831–1905) — author of the beloved children's classic "Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates." Her grave is marked by a natural boulder with a bronze plaque.
- Edward Stratemeyer(1862–1930) — author or editor of more than 700 books, he created and popularized the great children's book series: The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and Ruth Fielding.
- William F. Clarke(1855–1937) — poet and editor of St. Nicholas Magazine.
- Anthony Dimock(1842–1918) — financier, naturalist, and author known as the "boy wonder of Wall Street"; he wrote "Wall Street and the Wilds" and pioneered wildlife photography.
- Donald Barr Chidsey(1905–1983) — prolific author from Elizabeth.
- Theodosia P. Garrison Faulks(1874–1944) — poet published in Harper's Bazaar, Life, The Smart Set, and other leading magazines of her day.
- Elmer Tindall Hutchinson(1882–1954) — secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society and historian of early Elizabethtown.
Politicians and public officials
- John Kean(1852–1914) — U.S. Senator from New Jersey (1899–1911) and Congressman; president of the National State Bank, the Elizabethtown Water Company, and the Elizabethtown Gas Company. Several other members of the Kean family are interred alongside him.
- Governor William Sulzer(1863–1941) — Governor of New York and longtime Congressman, a native of nearby Roselle.
- David Naar(1800–1880) — Elizabeth's first Jewish mayor, later New Jersey state treasurer and owner of the Trenton newspaper "The True American."
- At least a dozen mayors of Elizabeth, including William Chetwood (1770–1857) and Francis Barber Chetwood(1806–1875), the cemetery's founding chairman.
Business and industry
- John Brisbin(1818–1880) — president of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. His family plot holds one of the cemetery's most impressive monuments.
- Edward A. Kellogg(1816–1867) — founder of the New Manufacturing City of Elizabethtown.
- Philip Diehl(1847–1913) — inventor responsible for major improvements to the Singer sewing machine, who later founded the Diehl Manufacturing Company.
Social reformers and trailblazers
- Emily Hornbaker Williamson(1869–1909) — prison reformer who spearheaded New Jersey's probation system.
- Grace Baxter Fenderson(1882–1962) — one of Newark's first Black teachers and a founder and first president of the Newark chapter of the NAACP.
- James M. Baxter(1846–1907) — the first Black school principal in Newark, and father of Grace Baxter Fenderson.
- Mary R. Malson Rice (d. 1979) — the first Black teacher in the Elizabeth public school system, having graduated first in her class at Elizabeth Normal School.
- Rev. Nestor Dmytrow (d. 1925) — organized the first Ukrainian Catholic church in Manitoba, Canada; editor of Svoboda, the largest Ukrainian-language daily newspaper in the United States.
- Luka Myshua(1887–1955) — later editor of Svoboda and former diplomatic emissary of the Western Ukrainian National Republic.
- Clara Morris(d. 1870) — buried on a hilltop in section V; her epitaph describes her as "formerly a slave, and during her whole life a faithful servant in the family."
Visiting and researching
Families, historians, and genealogists are welcome to visit the grounds and research those at rest here. Our free grave locator searches the digitized interment index, and our staff can hand-search the original ledgers dating to 1853 through the genealogy research service.
Submit a research request →← Back to our history