Dark Moon Burying Ground

My 6th great grand mother Rebekah Green's grandfather was John Wright who is interred in the Dark Moon Burying Ground. In order to understand my family tree better I traced it from The Dark Moon Hotel in New Jersey, USA to Ontario, Canada. In the process I found information that I thought I would "blog" about in the hopes that these families connections would not be "forever lost". Below is the disclaimer I found (see citing date) regarding the Dark Moon Burying Ground.
DISCLAIMER
This burial ground is on private property with a very PRIVATE owner at the time of previous researchers information. Photos were forwarded anonymously.  and is also noted here that "It is NOT recommended that a person try to visit this place EVER". I am listing below an excerpt concerning the Dark Moon Burial Ground and some of the interesting character of the place.

"The Burial Ground is located on excessively marked private property, it is NOT recommended one go onto the property without checking with the owner.... who is reported to be somewhat... eccentrically anti-social."... Copied Jan. 21, 1891 by GEORGE WATSON ROY corresponding Member of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey

LOCATION OF STONES/ MARKERS IN CEMETERY

Overhead View of The Dark Moon Burying Ground location off of Route 519.

#1 South side - of the access road, original location of log Church and Hazen graves

#2 North side - location of Wright graves

The Upper Hardwick Presbyterian log meeting house was erected about 1763 on the south side of the road leading from Log Gaol to Springdale, near the bridge over Trout Brook, and at the eastern end of a narrow ravine. A short distance up stream stood a double log tavern known from its sign, a black crescent, as Dark Moon Tavern. (this is where my 6th great grand mother Rebekah Green dau. of Samuel Green and  my 6th great grand father Francis Glover met and later wed. Rebekah worked at the Dark Moon Hotel as a "bar keep").

The name Dark Moon came to be applied to the meeting house, the carriage house, the graveyard and the ravine. The log church was later abandoned in 1786 when its congregation erected the Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church in a more central location.

REFERENCE: "There a new cemetery was opened, causing gradual abandonment of the Dark Moon Burying Ground." "For 92 Years The Star Has Been the Great Family Newspaper Section 2  THE STAR 2 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1960".

Remaining markers in the Dark Moon Cemetery are those of Moses Hazen and John Wright families has been my conclusion after reviewing/researching those VERY few markers that remain. Another reason I wanted to write this in my blog is I am very much a novice at blogging and this was a perfect project to document.

At the extreme left of Moses Hazen's marker is that of Thomas Hazen, perhaps Moses’ father, who died in 1802 at the age of 79. Other graves in the untended burying ground date back to 1796, according to scant historic accounts.

Dark Moon Cemetery aka Old Warren Burial Ground JOHNSONBURG – Frelinghuysen Township’s Dark Moon Cemetery, ranks along with Independence Township’s Shades of Death and Washington Township’s Murderer’s Bridge as one of Warren County’s most ominously-named spots, which actually looks like a serene pastoral scene to the few individuals aware of its out-of-the-way location.

The cemetery, burying ground of SOME of the area’s pioneer settlers, is situated on a knoll overlooking County Road 519 about two miles east of Johnsonburg, on what once was the farm owned byMayor Russell Hendershot, of Frelinghuysen. Its name came from the Dark Moon Tavern of notorious reputation in the time of the American Revolution.

Untended for many years, a situation which brought criticism from Hackettstown Historian J. Harold Nunn, the cemetery grounds are now used for pasturing of cattle. Only close examination, once the spot is located, reveals the two headstones which remain standing on the knoll and a third surrounded by a concrete wall. (On South side of road) 

 Research @ Alexander Library, Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ.