Ivandell Cemetery

The entrance of Ivandell Cemetery is located on the north side of Somerstown Road about one-quarter mile east of Somers Road (Route 202) and 1/10 mile west of Purdy’s Road (Route 116). The Union Meeting Burying Ground and Public Burying Ground were considered separate locations until they merged with the Ivandell Cemetery in 1894. The Ivandell Cemetery Association was incorporated in 1866 and purchased the land for the cemetery in 1867. The cemetery increased in size by several land acquisitions. The cemetery is unique due to the significant people buried here.

The Union Meeting House was built in the early 1800s as a house of worship for the Episcopal and Presbyterian congregations in the hamlet of Somers Plains. Around this same time period two burial grounds sprang up around this church building. On the west side was the Union Meeting Burying Ground, which was used by the members of the two congregations, and the Public Burying Ground in the north, which was available to the others citizens of Somers. On July 7, 1894, to ensure the preservation and maintenance of the two burial grounds, the Somers Town Board sold the land surrounding the meeting house to the Ivandell Cemetery Association. 

A fifteen foot granite monument is a prominent feature of the cemetery. This monument was erected in 1865 by the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society to honor the 25 men of Somers who gave their lives for the U.S. during the Civil War.

Another monument in the Public Burying Ground of the cemetery honors Hachaliah Brown (1822-1853). He was an officer in the 3rd Artillery Regiments who served in the Mexican American War. He died while on active service at the Jefferson Barracks near Saint Louis, Missouri.

A third and most notable monument was to Hachaliah Bailey (1774-1845) who was noted for importing “Old Bet”, an African elephant, into U.S. “Old Bet” was the second of her kind to be imported to the United States. She was killed in 1816, and Bailey had a monument to the animal placed in front of his “Elephant Hotel.” Bailey was originally interred behind the Union Meeting House, but his remains were later on moved to the Invandell Cemetery. Bailey’s monument in the cemetery has a statue of an elephant on it. The Ivandell Cemetery is still open today and available to the public.

1. Rafferty, Patrick. The Cemeteries of Westchester County . Volume I. New York. Westchester County Historical Society , 2011.
2. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past National Register Sites in Westchester County. Elmsford, New York. Westchester County Historical Society , 2003.
3. Walogorsky, Tom. The Marvelous Elephant Hotel, tapinto.net. August 2nd 2021. Accessed October 22nd 2021. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/somers/sections/community/articles/the-marvelous-elephant-hotel.