[1] The largest marker is a 14-ton (13-tonne) monument to Enoch Crosby added in the early 20th century to replace his previous stone, destroyed by vandals and souvenir-hunters.

The future cemetery was part of a tract of land leased by Frederick Philipse III in 1756 to Thomas Crosby, Enoch's father.

"[1] In 1766, the cemetery received its first burial, Sarah Smith, as the surrounding farm was leased to a new tenant, James Dickenson.

The stone walls, probably meant to keep livestock from neighboring farms out in the early days, were augmented by work paid for by local benefactor Ferdinand Hopkins, who also had the gates and Crosby's monument added.

This collection of funerary art is more extensive than in other American cemeteries of this size from this period and illustrates changing Protestant notions of death.

[1] Sarah Smith's 1766 gravestone, the oldest in the cemetery, is made of slate and features an inverted half-moon and semi-circular finials.

Other graves from that early era are carved mainly from red sandstone, with a few postwar markers of fieldstone reflecting the economic stress of the war.

[1] Later in the 19th century, winged cherubs begin to appear atop headstones, symbolizing the soul's escape from death's clutches into new life.

In the 19th century, when white marble became the tombstone material of choice, this belief remained but was symbolized instead through neoclassical imagery of an urn and willow tree.