FINK's BASIN CEMETERY (abandoned)

Town of Danube, Herkimer County, N.Y.

October 14, 2000

Steven Knight of Herkimer, NY did this reading on the afternoon of Oct. 14, 2000. The inscriptions on many of the stones in this cemetery are nearly illegible. The information given in those cases is my best guess and is indicated by Italics typescript & underlined. There are a total of fourteen headstones and several (but fewer) footstones. Most of the footstones are misplaced and are now leaning against other stones. It appears that someone has made an effort to keep these footstones near the interred person or at least near someone of the same surname.

1) Garret House died May 3, 1849 in the 71 year of his age
2) John Youngs died Nov. 20, 1854; aged 66 years, 6 months & 27 days.
3) Margaret wife of John Youngs; died April 17, 1848 in the 63rd year of her age.
4) Francis P.; son of Peter & Rozemond House; died Sept. 7, 1847; age 3mo. & 15 days; against the base of Francis' headstone are two footstones with the initials F. P. H. & G. H.
5) Orville R.; son of R. D. & Eliza Jones; died April 9, 1847; aged 1 year, ? mo. 21 days.
6) Anson; son of R. D. & Eliza Jones; died Feb. 5, 1848; aged 2 mo. (the rest of the stone is buried in the ground but appears to record the number of days
7) John Rightmeyer; died Nov. 21, 1888; aged 76 years, 10 mo. & ? days.
8) ?elly wife of John Rightmeyer; died Oct, ?, 18?8; in her ?6 year. (the first letter of her name looks like a C or G but could be most anything)
9) Christopher H.; son of ? & ? ?; died May ?, ????; aged ? years, ? mo. & 2? Days.
10) Margaret; wife of Seymour E. Wolcot; died Sept. 16, 1843; age 22 years, 9 mo. & 16 days.
11) Emely A. Wolcott; died Sept. 27, 1818; age 2 years & ? days.
12) George A. Dockstader; died Sept. 20, 1848 in the 60 year of his age.
13) The top of this stone is broken but the letters "zabeth" are clearly visible. I assume that name is Elizabeth; wife of Michael Bauder; died Oct. 1, 1819; aged 48 years.
14) ??? wife of Peter Dominick; died May 12, 1830; in the ?1 year of her age.

This is the cemetery located on the eastern side of Rt. 169 about 100 yards north of Rt. 5S in the town of Danube, Herkimer Co., NY. Someone has cut the brush and the cemetery is quite visible at this time. The ground is very uneven and could very well be hiding other headstones that have fallen over and been covered up over the years.

Steven Knight
October 2000

This brand new reading of Fink's Basin Cemetery was made and contributed by researcher Steven Knight. Steven told me he's researching his great-grandfather, Andreas Nabinger (ca. 1820 - ca. 1878), who emigrated from Baden/ Wurtemburg, Germany. Andreas came to the Town of Salisbury about 1850 with his wife Elizabeth Hoppanacher (sp?) (ca. 1818 - aft. 1880). They had 9 children that survived to adulthood. He's also seeking any info about his maternal grandparents William J. Warner (1830-1906) and wife Emily Jane Fineout (1835-abt. 1928), who are buried at Indian Castle Cemetery in Danube. If you have info to share, Steven looks forward to hearing from you.

10/18/00 Fink's Basin Cemetery has already received valuable feedback. Thank you, Mark Wentling, creator of the Legends site! Mark's site contains extensive historical information about the Mohawk Valley region.

John Young and his wife Margaret Ryan, buried here, had a son Benjamin Youngs, who married Janette Wolcott. Janette's brother Seymour E. Wolcott is also buried here. Benjamin and Janette were my great-great-great-grandparents and I have extensive biographical and genealogical info about them on my website, with photos. By the way, these people all lived in the Town of German Flatts in case you want to link from there too.

Benjamin & Janette Youngs, had a daughter named Ella Youngs who married my great-great-grandfather John Jacob Thorp of Little Falls in 1875. John was a descendant of Joshua Thorp (father), and Ebenezer Thorp (grandfather) who were originally from Charleston, and later were pioneer settlers of the Town of Root, specifically Rural Grove, where John Jacob Thorp was born in 1848. I am currently trying to determine what connection this family had to Abner Thorp of Charleston, who died there in 1871 at age 105 (John Jacob Thorp had a son, Benjamin, who lived to nearly 102). Abner came from New Jersey and was living in Charleston as early as the 1790s.

The URL to my homepage is: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~legends/welcome.html -- Just click, Youngs, Wolcott, or Thorp from the main menu.

Mark A. Wentling
Washington, D.C.

You will notice that I have already submitted a query saying that Eva is "probably" buried in Fink's Basin, but I would call it almost certain.

Eva Weidman was the daughter of Jacob Weidman and Margaret Zimmer. She was baptized 14 Dec 1777 in the Schoharie Lutheran Church, Schoharie, Schoharie, New York and married Peter Dominick about 1797. It looks like they left Schoharie County between 1800 and 1810 and settled in the town of Danube, Herkimer County. I found that Peter later moved on to Onondaga County, and he is buried there. But Eva was always a mystery. I'd always suspected that she died in Herkimer county, and it's good to know for (almost) sure.

9/18/05 On a recent September weekend, Mark Wentling took pictures of stones #2, 3, 10, and 11. Click on their entries above to see large photos that will appear in pop-up windows.

One particular photograph solved the mystery of the first name for Headstone #11 - "I also took a photo of the stone for "Emely A. Wolcott, died 1818 age 2yrs," also buried at Finck's Basin. I honestly am not sure how she fits into the Wolcott family, but will let you know if I figure it out." Mark contributed more information about the Youngs and Wolcotts back in 2000 (see entry above). Be sure to visit Legends, Mark's remarkable history and genealogy website.

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