Mary VanCampen: Her Short Life and Special Gravestones
Mary VanCampen’s two gravestone markers.
We know very little of Mary’s life. Dying young was not at all uncommon at that time, and her life was less than two years in duration. Hardly time to develop a full personality, yet something about her grave suggests that she was especially cherished.
Records are somewhat confusing and contradictory, due to the reuse of first names in the generations of the VanCampens, and different reports online having been compiled by various descendants and sources. Legal records so far have eluded our search. She was most likely the great granddaughter of Colonel Abraham VanCampen, the patriarch of the VanCampen line in what was then Sussex County, NJ, now part of Warren County; more specifically in what was at the time known as Pahaquarry, now part of Hardwick Township within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. But what was her specific lineage?
Mary’s Lineage
Notwithstanding any genealogy differences, based on records of the Latter-Day Saints’ Family Search site (free account setup required) at https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pedigree/portrait/L6F6-2V7, and
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/about/L6F6-2V7, show her lineage as:
- Colonel Abraham VanCampen, 1698–1767, and wife Susanna Dupuy.
- Their son Abraham VanCampen (Jr., designation not used), 1736-1811, whose second wife was Maria DuPuy (m. 1768).
- Their son Abraham VanCampen (III, designation not used), 1770-1848, with wife Sarah Cape.
- Their daughter Mary VanCampen, 1795-1797.
Mary’s grave is quite close to those of Abraham III and Sarah. Mary’s headstone does not cite a middle name, but the above link indicates it was Jane.
A different Mary VanCampen (no middle name listed) is portrayed by the same Family Search site at https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pedigree/portrait/LJTK-76Lc, but does not seem to fit.
……
Suffice it to say that our Mary is buried in the Calno-VanCampen cemetery in Pahaquarry, with the life span of 1795-1797 indicated on her stones. Her grave lies in an area of older ones.
Given the important role played by Col. VanCampen in occupying and developing the area, a more authoritative and definitive reconciliation of lineage would be helpful. Notwithstanding, based on initial information, her grave at the Calno-VanCampen cemetery is the second oldest that is evident, with apparently only Jacobus VanCampen being earlier, 1771-1779.
At the time of Mary’s passing, Colonel VanCampen was deceased, but his son Abraham Jr., Mary’s grandfather, was the oldest surviving male son, having lived until 1811. Having been deeded the Colonel’s home nearby along the Old Mine Road by his father in 1766, he most likely was the occupant of the extant Abraham VanCampen house, and likely occupying an honored family role. Whether Mary’s brief life was spent in that home is not known, but it is not at all unlikely.
The juxtaposition of Mary’s two stones is seen above. The inscriptions on both are on the eastern side, whereas most nearby stones are inscribed on the western side. One is 12″ x 8″, the other is 31″ x 13 1/2″.
It should not be a surprise that Mary’s gravestone is unique to the cemetery in that it has stones at both ends, one a simpler declaration of name and year of death, and the other side with the following carving:
Here lays the
body of Mary Van-
Campen, Daughter
of Abraham & Sarah
Vancampens (sic), who
departed this life
Jan’y 24th, 1797.
Aged 18 months.
—————
My dearest friends
why do ye weep
I am not dead
but here asleep
Within this solid
lump of clay until
the Resurrection Day.
—– J. S. Teetzel
An amazingly informative study of John Solomon Teetzel, who inscribed his name at the bottom, can be found in John Soloman Teetzel and The Anglo-German Gravestone Carving Tradition of 18th Century Northwestern New Jersey, by Richard F. Veit, anthropologist and currently Provost of Monmouth University. (Veit, Richard F. “John Solomon Teetzel and the Anglo-German Gravestone Carving Tradition of 18th Century Northwestern New Jersey.” Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies 17 (2000): 124-161. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/mrk.2000.a956332.)
Veit identified two grave carvers of this period in Northwest New Jersey, one of whom was Teetzel, who lived in adjacent Hardwick Township for just over a decade before moving to Canada. Veit cataloged some 99 stones he had carved, not including Mary’s. He often signed his work, but only in one other instance as “J. S. Teetzel.” No others inscribed in such a manner have been located in the VanCampen cemetery, from which we conclude that Mary’s memory occupied a special place in family memory.
An additional point of interest came to us from recently retired Kathleen Sandt, of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area staff, namely the wording on the stone. She recounted another poem “Immortality,” written by either Clare Harner or Mary Elizabeth Frye – authorship is disputed.
“Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep….”
A similar sentiment, yet Teetzel’s inscription came first!
And perhaps too, young Mary had a special smile, making her loss ever the more painful and meriting such a special recognition in this gentle place.
For questions, or to help support the work of reviving this cemetery, contact Ken deLodzia.
