Speer Cemetery

Old Bergen's Speer Cemetery is located at 145 Vroom St in the Bergen Square neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, between Bergen Ave. and Van Reypen St. Speer Cemetery is frequently confused with the present day Bergen Cemetery owned and operated by Old Bergen Church, a portion of which also fronts on Vroom St but is further east, at Tuers Ave. The two cemeteries always operated independently of each other. The land Speer Cemetery sits on was originally part of apple orchards owned by the Van Waganen family of Apple Tree House fame. After title to the property was transferred from the Van Waganens to Matthias DeMott, it became the Bergen DeMott's family burial ground. It is the oldest and only known family burial ground in existence in Jersey City. The Bergen DeMotts were early settlers to New Netherland first in Esopus (present day Kingston, NY) and later, Long Island, NY before later generations, including Mathias, settled in Bergen, New Netherland (present day Old Bergen, Jersey City) in the 1770s. Old Bergen's Speer Cemetery is colloquially named for Jane Speer and her husband, Abraham Speer, the local undertaker and former sexton of Old Bergen Church during the mid-1800's. They bought the land from the De Mott estate in 1857 and made it a public cemetery, selling burial plots for $16 each. Despite Mr. Speers' affiliation with Old Bergen Church, one did not have to be a

Cemetery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).