Peter married Hannah Chambers, daughter of Capt. Robert Chambers and Francina Reeder, after 1805.¹

     Canarsie Cemetery

Canarsie Cemetery — the decrepit boneyard that was the last in the five boroughs to be managed by the city — is coming back from the dead thanks to new private ownership, and it won’t be long before people will once again be dying to get in.
The city sold Remsen Avenue’s dilapidated, 167-year-old graveyard to the owners of Cypress Hills Cemetery three months ago, and new management is breathing life into the final resting place of more than 4,900 — while finding room for more customers.
The new ownership says it’s added 200 new grave sites to the neighborhood stone farm that is bordered by Avenue K, Church Lane and E. 86th Street, and its installed a handsome, wrought iron balustrade to replace the existing worn-down, chain link fence at its borders.
And the new owners say that fix up is just the beginning.
“We’re clearing out areas that had nothing but weeds, unsightly brush and debris that had been thrown in the back over the years,” said. Patrick Russo, Canarsie Cemetery’s new vice president. “We’re also redoing the front entrance and repairing a ramp visitors use as they come inside.”
The changes will certainly improve the dilapidated memorial park which the city left to die, investing just $250,000 a year in employee salaries and maintenance costs before selling it to Cypress Hills in August for the ghoulishly low price of $50,000 — about $10 a headstone!
Russo admitted that the cemetery was in ghastly shape when Cypress Hills was given the keys.
“I met a woman on Remsen Street two weeks ago who told me, ‘Welcome to the ghetto cemetery’,” Russo recalled. “But I told her it was going to change. I’ve seen other cemeteries in worse condition. [Canarsie Cemetery] is a quaint community cemetery that just needed a little TLC.”
But Cypress Hills isn’t just going to beautify the place.
In addition to the purchase price, it has agreed to buck-up an additional $1 million — $500,000 at closing and an additional $500,000 over the next 10 years — for a state-mandated permanent maintenance fund to guarantee the necropolis an eternal life.
Cypress Hills also agreed to keep Canarsie Cemetery’s name, which other buyers refused to do, and work with a community advisory board on future changes.
Local leaders hailed the resurrection.
“This is a win-win for everyone,” said Councilman Lew Fidler (D–Canarsie). “The city of New York had no business being in the cemetery business. It just wasn’t good at it and it was losing money. At the same time the community benefits because [Cypress Hills] is going to spruce up and maintain the cemetery.”
Democratic District Leader Frank Seddio, a Canarsie native, agreed.
“Cypress Hills is really going to make the Canarsie Cemetery a dignified place once again,” he said.
And even more people will soon be able to call the cemetery their final resting place, as new ownership plans to find even more room for, well, able bodies.
“We’re also scouting out locations for mausoleums that will be built in a year,” Russo explained.
©2011 Community Newspaper Group.¹

     Canarsie Cemetery article from online The Brooklyn Eagle, published online 11 Jan 2010.

Special to The Brooklyn Eagle What is more fitting for Veterans’ Day than to have a column about a cemetery with Civil War veterans among those buried there? And a little known cemetery recently rescued from ignominy?
Today sections of Canarsie, founded in 1664 when the Canarsee Indians signed a treaty with the Dutch, are being re-constructed, causing its history to vanish. The history of Canarsie Cemetery has preserved memories and memorials back to 1880, when it opened. Gravesites date back to 1838, when it was a family cemetery that later became a church cemetery. In 1888, it was acquired by the City of Brooklyn from the estate of John Remsen. With over 6,000 graves in its 13 acres, the City of Greater New York took it over as a non-sectarian community cemetery with the city’s consolidation in 1898.
Prominent Canarsie families had gravesites there but the New York City Department of General Services put the burial grounds up for sale in 1982 and again in 1988. No other cemetery was interested because of the many unclaimed and abandoned graves. Some plots have illegible headstones and temporary markers. Graves include those of Native- and African Americans as well as veterans.
Again in 2009, the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services issued a request for proposals to purchase Canarsie Cemetery. Once Green-Wood Cemetery expressed a possible interest but then pulled out. As of this June, Cypress Hill Cemetery, a partially national cemetery, plans to take over and renovate it after public hearings, according to the Canarsie Courier. Cypress Hills on Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn was established in 1848 as an early non-sectarian burial ground.
In addition to repairs of the gravesites and adjoining land, Cypress Hills plans to construct small mausoleums. A directory of graves and the re-opening of a chapel on the grounds are among other plans. So after 25 years, the city has finally landed a potential buyer of this non-profit business.
In its search, the city explored over 40 organizations that fit the legal criteria for purchasing a cemetery. With room for an additional 4,000 graves, the purchase has an up side. After support from Congressman Lew Fidler, the sale is very close. Its location at the corner of Remsen Avenue and Avenue K make it easily accessible.
Among the names in the official records of those buried there are several with borough-wide recognition, including members of the Lott family; the Schenck family; William Warner, developer of the Canarsie Railroad; and Borough President John Cashmore. Ira Kluger, president of the Canarsie Historical Society, said the preservation of the cemetery, originally owned by Grace Church with additional land donated in 1843 by John Remsen, a Dutch settler, is essential for the community. The Town of Flatlands, in which the Village of Canarsie was located, was the last independent town to be annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1896. Kluger has recently decried the “ongoing wholesale destruction” of Canarsie’s historic buildings by developers, such as with the DeGroot-Van Ahen house and barn, which could have been landmarked.
Not only is Canarsie famous for historic houses but also for the Golden City Amusement Park with hotels, a music hall and saloons, which was created on the banks of Jamaica Bay in 1907. The park also had the requisite attractions: a funhouse, a roller coaster, a merry-go-round, a tunnel of love, the whip, a penny arcade and a boat ride. Golden City attracted many visitors en route to amusements in the Rockaways. The park was destroyed by a fire in 1934 and later gutted by Robert Moses for the Belt Parkway.
With a history of over 350 years, Canarsie finally has an historic future to look forward to with the acquisition, preservation and rehabilitation of one of the city’s oldest cemeteries.
© 2010 John B. Manbeck manbeck@brooklyneagle.net.

     Abigail C. Chambers, daughter of Capt. Robert Chambers and Francina Reeder, was born on 7 October 1790.¹

     Abner died in childhood; in childhood.¹