File:Schenck Family Burial Ground in the Brooklyn Eagle on 29 November 1880.jpg

Human Remains. Removing Bodies from the Old Schenck Cemetery at Bushwick. Records a Century Old. A few blackened relics, with nothing at all about them suggestive of humanity, are being dug out of the old Schenck Cemetery, in the rear of Mr. Nicholas Wyckoff's residence, in Bushwick. One of the few remaining private burial grounds in this county is disappearing, and the old residents of Bushwick are regarding the work with very solemn interest. Those who are charged with the duty of collecting the remains have all they can do to distinguish them from the surrounding earth, the ashes which will be reinterred in the Evergreen Cemetery having nothing in their appearance to indicate that they once were a very different shape. A century ago there were a hundred just such cemeteries in the county. Upon about every farm was set apart some remote corner as a burial ground, those who were laid in it being generally members of the farmers' own family, or some very near connection. County Treasurer Schenck is a descendant in direct line of the first of the family who settled on the borders of the creek and utilized the water power by the construction and operation of the old Schenck mill. The latter has disappeared for so long a time that its very existence is assuming a traditional character, the oldest of living residents of Bushwick only having heard it talked about. The ground formed a part of The Wyckoff Farm, though the Schenck had expensive possessions of their own. How largo a domain they were masters of will be conoelvsd when it is Etoted that they sold the Evergreens Cemetery property to the present holders, the tract embracing over one hundred and forty acres. This sale waa made to 1662, and its consummation is aoarcsly a pleasant memory for the Sebeucke. Lose than one hundred and fifty dollars an acre was the price paid. The County Treasurer, whose brother is supervising the work of disinterment, says that he is unable to establish the identity of the first 8chenok settler in Bushwick. He believes that in common with all the other Schenckin this county, who pell their name as he does hie, he owes hie existence to one of the brothers who came to this country from Holland whon the population of the country exclusive of the Indians were to be numbered by the hundreds. The old burial ground was not used exclusively for tho receptloi it remains of members of the Schenck family, the t odies of thoae who had become related to them by marriage being sometimes Interred in it. Whether or not It was an invarioblo custom to adorn each grave with a headstone Is uncertain, so that it cannot he stated whether the number of monuments represents emtly the number of interments. It Is probable, however, tb.t the latter very much outnumber the former. The County Treasurer, who is well advanced in years, has a very lively recollection of the Primitive Modes Of Life which prevailed in his youthful days, and very naturally regards the disappearance of the cemetery as the obliteration of a landmark. The following are the inscriptions on the headstones now being removed:

• Johannes Schenck ye flrat of the family departed this life February ye 5 17 W aged 92.
• Corn. Schenck 1740.
• Neeite Schenck died 1703 aged 17 years.
• Maria Magdelena died 1779 aged 17 years.
• Eisle Schonck departed October ye 2d l. - agtd ot vears. Else Schenck 1772 aged 2o. Maria Scbonck 1710 aged 30. ...... , Maria Maide'.cua Schouck ye first departed th:s life April ye loth 1729 vbi 70.
• Maria Schenck 1788 aged 19 years. Maria Magdeltna Kcheuck 1784 aged 1 year.
• Teunis died July 31, 1800, aged 3 years, 2 months, 8 days; his wife Catharine died April 9, 17M, aged 65 ,, They had twelve children, Voter 'l. (son of aoove m Sarah Schenck) died December 31, 1808, K?iiahetn ft'Veale. daughter of Catharine and Teuuis. Elizabeth (.laughter of Teunis and Catharine) mar - riea JoUd 0'K. who died SUjrW. 1810. aged B4. Catharine, wife of Timothy Dandy, daughter of Israel Hoheuck, died May 30, WIS, in 33d year.
• Catharine Schenck died 1858, aged 18 years, and Peter Schenck died 1832, aged 39, children of Peter and Sarah.

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