Babylon Cemetery Boasts Its Own Special History

The gates to the Babylon Cemetery on Deer Park Avenue seem to be a standard entry to a suburban cemetery, but unknown to many residents this burial ground boasts centuries old Puritan gravestones and the family plots of the oldest Babylon-area settlers.  Some of the historic graves have been restored, while others are overgrown with trees and vegetation.

The cemetery, now surrounded by apartment complexes and residential streets, was once, as its official name Babylon Rural Cemetery suggests, amid a pastoral landscape, where prominent local families had their burial plots.  Their last names are familiar as street and place names: Higbie, Weeks, Cooper, Wicks, Udall, and Southard. Alice Zaruka, of the Babylon Village Historical Society, says that the cemetery is features two original burial grounds: the oldest part, nearest Deer Park Avenue, was moved from the original First Presbyterian Church of Babylon burying site.

Some notable Babylon residents such as Conklin family members have restored gravesites while other areas of the burial ground are grown over with vegetation.  Many headstones are broken or fallen over.  The cemetery is maintained by an association but a lack of funds has impeded any large-scale improvement projects.

The oldest graves are pre-Revolutionary and are typical Puritan-style headstones with skull motifs and archaic spelling.  Phebe and Esther Dinge, sisters, died in 1749 and 1753, when Babylon Village was still a rural outpost of Huntington.

Other graves hint at Babylon history: Ezra Sammis, buried in 1881, is a relative of the famous Sammis family, pioneers of the Babylon Village resort and trolley era.  Other families were prominent landowners from Babylon, West Islip and surrounding areas. 

A walk through the still active cemetery reveals interesting changes in the settlement and history of Babylon. The inscription for  John Snodgrass, who  died in 1903, notes he emigrated to Babylon from Londonderry Ireland in 1840.  Many 18th and 17th-century stones are for children who died as young as eight years old.