Clio Logo
The Southold Presbyterian Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the town. It was started in 1658, and encircled the original church which stood where the large grey granite marker sits by the opening in the fence. For many years this was the only cemetery in the town, and all of the earliest European settlers can be found within its grounds. While some settlers have a marker not all of the graves were marked.

Southold Presbyterian Cemetery, circa 1906

Photograph, Tree, Woody plant, Headstone

Southold Presbyterian Cemetery, circa 1907, the Tombs of Rev John Young and his son Colonel John Young are in the foreground

Photograph, Plant community, Headstone, Land lot

The earliest grave in the cemetery is of the wife of the soldier John Underhill.  Helena de Hooch Underhill, died in 1658. Her grave and the other early graves are all cluster in the front of the yard where they would have been sited alongside the first church. Since no stonecutters lived in the area, the stones at that time had to be imported from across Long Island Sound from Connecticut and Massachusetts. It wasn’t until the 1730s that gravestone carving became a full time occupation rather than a side job for builders and masons. Ithuel Hill, one of the earliest identified gravestone carvers on the East End of Long Island preferred carving marble to red sandstone, and several of his stones can be found in the yard. 

While variety of markers exist in the graveyard, the most eye-catching are the tombs, (the stone boxes), which are false crypts. The space immediately under the stones is empty. The bodies are buried, then the box constructed over the grave. Slab stones which are full length stones that are flat on the ground also populate the yard. 

The cemetery has always been open to all of the people of the area, and within its borders rests not only the European settlers, but also the Enslaved People of the town.  

Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of Long Island's. Historic House Inventory - Southold Town. Survey for New York State , unpublished, 1976-1987.

Duval & Rigby. Early American Gravestone Art in Photographs. Garden City, New York: Dover Publishing, 1978.

Fleming, Geoffrey K. Images of America Southold. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Forbes, Harriet M. Gravestones of Early New England, and the Men who made them, 1653-1800. Barre, Vermont: Barre Granite Association, 1989.

Gage, Mary E. & Gage, J.E. Stories Carved in Stone:  The Story of the Dummer Family, the Merrimac Valley Gravestone Carvers, and the Newbury Carved Stones 1636-1735. Amesbury, Massachusetts: Powwow River Books, 2003.

Lie Farber, Jessie. Early American Gravestones – Introduction to the Farber Gravestone Collection. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society and Visual Information, 1997.

Ludwig, Allen.  Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and its Symbols 1650-1815. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1975.

Markers, Committee for the Guide to Historic. Guide to Historic Markers. Southold, New York: Southold Historical Society, 1960.

"Town Historian Files," Town Historian's Office, Southold. n.d.

Welch, Richard. Memento Mori: The Gravestone of Early Long Island 1680-1810.  Syosset, New York: Friends for Long Island Heritage, 1983.

Whitaker, Epher. Whitaker's Southold. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1931.

Young, Selah jr.. Youngs Family, A History and Genealogy. New York, Privately Published, 1907.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Town Historian's Office of Southold

Youngs, Selah Jr., Youngs Family: A History and Genealogy