Cyrus Vandolah, Jr., 1852-1931<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInterest in the cemetery was initiated by a letter written in 1924 by Mr. Bush to his neighbor Cyrus VanDolah, who was then 72 years old. Mr. Bush was then 76 years old. Their letters indicate that by this time, bushwacking through the underbrush was no longer to their liking. The letter from Mr. Bush to Mr. Vandolah was not among the Bush papers, but the handwritten response from Mr. Vandolah was. The references in his letter to people buried in the cemetery can get confusing, so I have copied an Opdycke family chart from the previous article at the end of this one to help sort things out.<\/p>\n
Here is Mr. Vandolah\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s letter, with spelling and punctuation intact:<\/p>\n
[page 1]
\nSandy Ridge N J Feb 9th \/ 24
\nMr E T Bush \u00ac\u2020Stockton N J<\/p>\n
Dear Sir & Bro<\/p>\n
you letter of Feb 8th received. would say I think the Graveyard you are trying to locate is on the Higgins farm. the arnwines and Opdyckes early setlers at Head Quarters and kept Store in the building occupied by Joseph Carroll. I was up to sergeantsville several years ago and an agent by the name of Opdycke was in Ed Shepherds Store. he lived in New york and he said the John Opycke [sic] was his great grandfather and he was going to move to Flemington and as soon as he got settled he was going to make an effort to have the yard cleaned up but he did not live long died very suddenly. This yard has a stone wall around it but I\u00ac\u2020don\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t think there is an acre in it. years ago Samuel Higgins used let his sheep run in it and kept it cleaned up. but now it is a terrible wilderness. I am enclosing one of John Opdyckes receipts for you to look at will get it some time when I am in stockton. I have not been off the place in several days am not feeling well by any means. I make out to get to the barn and look after my horse and the stock and that is all. Hoping you and the folks over the river are all well.<\/p>\n
Yours Fraternally &c
\nCyrus Van Dolah<\/p>\n
[page 2]<\/p>\n
I think I am right on the location and among those buried in this yard are Elisha Warford and two or three of his wives. John Gordon and wife he was the Grandfather of Mrs Lizzie Fisher and owned and lived on the farm at Pine hill where Mrs Fisher resides. Then there was the Yarkses. If my memory serves me correctly Elisha Warlords wives were connected with the arnwines and Opdyckes and for that reason they were buried there. I presume you saw Mr Warford many times I never saw him but one \u00ac\u2020he died in 1872. a few years ago George Ellicot and Jerry slack come down and took up Georges father and took him up country I think Quakertown. There is also some of the Buchanans. Perhaps this does not interest. The parties you are seeking the Information for . . . [nothing further]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This letter raises all sorts of questions. For instance, why did Vandolah refer to Bush as \u201a\u00c4\u00faBro\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and \u201a\u00c4\u00fafraternally\u201a\u00c4\u00f9? Because they were both members of the Orpheus Lodge No. 137, F. & A. M., established in Stockton in 1873. Vandolah was \u201a\u00c4\u00faa Past Master and enthusiastic member\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 of that lodge, as Mr. Bush wrote in Vandolah\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s obituary, published in the Democrat on July 2, 1931.<\/p>\n
The Opdycke who visited Sergeantsville was not George Opdyke, Mayor of New York, who wrote the Op Dyke Genealogy\u201a\u00c4\u00eehe died in 1880. And besides, Mayor Opdyke was not directly descended from John Opdycke. Who it was I cannot say. Out of curiosity I pulled up a list of descendants of John Opdycke of Amwell to the 5th<\/sup> generation\u201a\u00c4\u00eeit was 14 pages long! and is not even complete.<\/p>\nEdward Shepherd, son of John Farley Shepherd and Catharine Mary Anderson, was born March 17, 1849, died October 2, 1916. He married Emma W. Hoppock, daughter of George H. Hoppock and Jane Elizabeth Wolverton, on Nov. 26, 1879. His father bought a store in Sergeantsville from Henry H. Fisher in 1868 (now known as the Sergeantsville Inn) and operated it until about 1886 when he sold it to son Edward and moved to Rosemont. (The history of storekeeping in Sergeantsville is a topic I hope to cover some day.)<\/p>\n
The Samuel Higgins who owned the farm and ran his sheep in the cemetery was almost certainly Samuel M. Higgins (1811-1877), son of Nicholas Britton Higgins and Hannah Hill. Samuel Higgins got the farm from his father, who bought it from the estate of Benjamin Tyson dec\u201a\u00c4\u00f4d in 1807. Tyson got it from Thomas Opdycke, son of the original John Opdycke, in 1790. This was after Tyson had failed at managing the mill and store at Headquarters. It is somewhat surprising that Thomas Opdycke was willing to sell this property that was part of his parents\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 homestead, but he had taken up residence on Old Mill Road and was operating a mill on the Wickecheoke there.