Our History
The second cemetery of the Bound Brook Presbyterian Church, called the Bound Brook Cemetery, opened during the Civil War on the east side of Mountain Avenue, north of Union Avenue. Bound Brook Cemetery is an active, nonsectarian cemetery owned and operated by Bound Brook Presbyterian Church since 1863. As of 2016, it has nearly 14,000 graves and cre-mains. The present church building, dedicated in 1898, on the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue and Union Avenue, stands opposite the Bound Brook Cemetery.
The Church Trustees purchased just over twelve acres on the east side of Mountain Avenue north of Union Avenue on September 7, 1863 from John D. Voorhees. The Trustees used $2,736 of existing church funds to buy the land. In a will dated March 18 of that same year, Peter L. Van Deventer bequeathed $3,000 to the church, to be used for beautifying a cemetery, should the church trustees elect to establish one prior to Mr. Van Deventer’s death or within three years of his death; otherwise the bequest would become void. The church used the be- quest according to the terms of the will. The Bound Brook Cemetery was enlarged through a second purchase from John D. Voor- hees of close to eleven acres in 1888.
The present church building was erected across from the southern end of the cemetery in 1896 and 1897. In 2015, Bound Brook Cemetery received ap- proval to expand northward onto its land in Bridgewater Township, beyond the Bound Brook border, increasing the size to approximately 24 acres.
Nicholas Conover, a Civil War soldier, was the first person to be buried in the Bound Brook Cemetery in 1864. His marble stone is pictured at left. Death dates prior to 1864 on gravestones in the Bound Brook Ceme- tery indicate conclusively that remains were interred elsewhere and subsequently moved to this cemetery. While burials continued at the Old Presbyterian Graveyard until 1900, they became less frequent as the number of burials in the new cemetery increased.
(Adapted from The Old Presbyterian Graveyard, Bound Brook, New Jersey by Hannah Kerwin and Mary Nelson, Bound Brook Memorial Library)