Hollow graves, faded headstones prompt repairs at Monfort Cemetery in Port Washington

On a steamy July morning, Ross Lumpkin, the Town of North Hempstead’s historian, crouched in front of Geertruy Onderdonck’s nearly 300-year-old headstone. He knocked on the left side of the stone, and then the right.

The second knock produced a deeper sound.

“Hollow,” he said. She died in December 1731, the stone read, and there was a hole in the month’s "D," producing the sound. “You can hear it.”

Lumpkin is the steward of the Monfort Cemetery, a roughly third-of-an-acre plot of about 150 headstones on a hill that leads to Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington. The fenced-in cemetery, which is pocked with patches of dirt and overgrown grass, is home to some of North Hempstead’s earliest residents, including Revolutionary War veterans.

Many of the headstones are in need of repair — some are tipped over, others are cracked.

The town recently passed a resolution allocating $10,000 — half from the town, half from the Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society — to begin a restoration of the cemetery, which Chris Bain, president of the society, said is expected to start in the fall. Huntington-based Steward Preservation Services will perform the restoration. 

Lumpkin has cleaned a number of the headstones. He considers the caretaking a “spiritual” act.

“You feel connected to your history. You feel connected to the ground,” Lumpkin said, standing amid the sandstone headstones. “It’s full of stories.”

Dutch roots

The cemetery was established in the 18th century, Lumpkin said, as an informal burying ground for a family of Dutch settlers. It grew to include four more families, including the Onderdoncks. Adrian Onderdonck, the first supervisor of North Hempstead, is among those interred there.

Lumpkin is particularly excited to restore Geertruy Onderdonck’s stone, he said, because women are often less appreciated in history.

“She had been married for 20 years; she gave birth to 10 children, [many] of whom participated in the [Revolutionary] War,” he said. He called the family “the most important figures" in the town's history.

The historical society has raised $18,000 for the restoration, Bain said, but because the cemetery is owned by the town, it has to be spent in chunks matched to the town's spending.

"Then they'll see what's been done, and if they're satisfied with the work and impressed with the plan going forward, then next year I'm sure they'll do it again," Bain said in an interview. "We'll do another [$5,000 and $5,000] or maybe even more, depending on how the work goes."

Honoring faded graves

Supervisor Jennifer DeSena expressed support for the restoration effort in a statement.

“North Hempstead has this rich history that unfortunately gets lost with Long Island’s constant change and economic growth,” DeSena said. “Not much has been done for Mo n fort Cemetery so I love that we can finally preserve it and give our town a better sense of our place in American history.”

When the cemetery was deeded to the town in 1984, Lumpkin said, it was in a state of neglect. 

"You've got kids from school coming, doing what they want to do in here, partying," Lumpkin said. "The town put the fence up to protect it."

On Memorial Day, Lumpkin led a group of elected officials and veterans in planting American flags at the grave sites of 12 veterans from the Revolutionary War.

The veterans deserve clean headstones, he said, as do some of the less celebrated people buried there. 

Lumpkin again crouched and pointed to a smaller grave marker, with most of its letters and numbers faded. He deduced the stone belonged to two of Adrian Onderdonck's daughters, who died while he was imprisoned by the British.

"The story of these girls is telling," Lumpkin said. "To me, it captures the feeling you lose when you say, 'Oh, it was terrible here.' Well, it was. But there's real people."