My Connection to the notorious "Dark Moon Cemetery"

WRIGHT FAMILY

(Jan) John (Reyt) Wright was the maternal grandfather of Rebekah Green who married our 6th great grand father FRANCIS GLOVER. Rebekah's parents were: Samuel Green and Hannah Annatie Wright (Reyt).

John Wright's other daughter Hannah married Samuel Green.

Rebekah Green worked as a "bar keep" at the notorious Dark Moon Tavern where she met and subsequently married my 6th great grand father Francis Glover.
****************************************************************************
(Jan) John (Reyt) Wright is interred in the "Dark Moon Cemetery)
On North side of road:

John Wright, who died in 1797, (also of note is M. Luce, who died Feb. 8, 1796)

In Memory of John Wright Sen. who died Aug VI 1797 in Lx ? year of his age.

Under the clods of dust & ruins lie remains of meekness, kindness and piety

To be revived when Christ in glory comes

To raise his keeping & call em home

In Memory of an Infant Daur of John and Anne Wright Who died July 25, 1779 aged 9 days.

In memory of Mary Wright

Dau of John [and Anne?] Wright who died July 9th 1791 in the 17th year of her age.

Other Marked the resting places of family members include:

Thomas Allen, who died Jan. 27, 1796, at the age of 65;

Anne Hunt, wife of Abram Hunt, who died Nov. 16, 1796, at the age of 26;

HAZEN FAMILY
The only two remaining markers on the crest of the hill are of identical design. One is in memory of Moses Hazen who died Oct. 11, 1799, at the age of 23

In Memory of Moses Hazen, who died October 11, 1799 in the XXIII year of his age.

Is this the fate that all must die

Will death no ages spare?

Then let us all to Jesus fly

And seek for refuge there.

 

On the ground nearby is a broken headstone which once marked the grave of James S. Hampton who was born Jan. 18, 1835. Church Elder.

LANNING FAMILY

Some distance away, surrounded by a concrete wall erected in 1925, is the grave of Isaac Lanning, Senior Elder of Hardwick Church, who died Aug. 30, 1811, at the age of 64. This Isaac Lanning from my research married Aaltje Elsie Hunt. Isaac Lanning and Aaltje Elsie Hunt's daughter Aaltje Elsie Hunt married Benjamin Wilcox. There is great confusion regarding Benjamin Wilcox on Ancestry so I will include here an article from the Hopewell Herald 1903 for reading / researching the "Hunt" family which is also connected to the Lanning & Wilcox Pioneers of "The Dark Moon".

Of note this Isaac Lanning line is connected to Euphemia Glover. Well who is Euphemia Glover you might wonder. Euphemia Glover is the granddaughter of our Francis Glover and Rebekah Green. Euphemia married John Wilcox Smith (son of John Cooper Smith and Hannah Wilcox. Hannah Wilcox is the daughter of Benjamin Wilcox and Elsie Lanning. Elsie's parents were "Aaltje Hunt and Isaac Lanning).

Also I'm posting the family tree from the Lanning Family Research: Lanning History Page 10

Isaac Lanning's grave bears a rusted insignia of the New Jersey G.A.R. According to Schnell’s 1880 History of Sussex and Warren Counties, the burying ground, in which “lie the remains of many of the pioneers of this valley and the hills surrounding it,” contained even earlier graves.

The historian reported that the inscription on one of the now-missing headstones read “Here lies the body of Anne Reeder, the … of Benjamin Reeder, who departed this life in the 25th year of her age, June 25, 1769.”

Schnell also documented a fragment of another marker with only the date of 1772. The historic account, published in 1880, relates that the cemetery was also known as the “Dyer Burying Ground” as a man by the name of Dyer owner the land in that neighborhood (quite possibly the owner of the Dyer farm on the Allamuchy-Johnsonburg Road) from which a pre-Revolutionary road marker was removed for placement in the Warren County Museum at Belvidere, an event drawing sharp criticism from Frelinghuysen Township officials).

The neighborhood hear the cemetery was known, and still is known to many, as “Dark Moon Tavern,” a name derived from a pioneer hostelry operated in that area prior to and for a long time after the Revolutionary War, which had an old fashioned swinging sign with a black moon painted on a white background.

Schnell history indicates “many storied and thrilling adventures are told of this tavern, which in its palmist days was the rendezvous for the most desperate characters for miles around. The Sunday amusements, “the historian"went on, “were horse-racing, quoit – pitching, card-playing, etc., and tradition has it that the monotony of these scenes was enlivened occasionally by the murder of some unsuspecting guest.” It is possible, but unlikely, that any of the victims of the tavern’s lack of hospitality were buried in the cemetery. Reposing there are the men and women who settled and farmed the land and who raised the families that populated this area of the country in its early history." Data research @ Alexander Library, Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey.