CLASSIFICATION: Stones removed from original positions.
LOCATION: In the city of Poughkeepsie, in the marble yard of Martin Collins on Main street.
CONDITION: In good repair.
INSCRIPTIONS: 2 in number. Copied in 1914 by J. W. Poucher, M.D.
REMARKS: The stone bearing the name of William Low probably stood originally on Dutch church land. It is not known how it reached the marble yard. The memorial to Polycarpus Nelson was standing in 1848 in the Nelson family burial ground on Nelson Hill, Mamaroneck (see Bolton's Hist. Westchester Co., N. Y., vol. 1, p.30.). At an unrecorded date it was removed thence to Sleepy Hallow Cemetery, Tarrytown. About 1895 Van Wyck & Collins of Poughkeepsie erected a Nelson monument at Sleepy Hollow and the old stone, being in the way, was brought to their marble yard at Poughkeepsie. Since 1914 it has been moved from the marble yard to the Rhinebeck cemetery where it is well cared for.
1. Low. "William Low, aged 24 year, 6 months, died June ye 24, 1739."
2. Nelson.
POUGHKEEPSIE RURAL CEMETERY
CLASSIFICATION: Community Ground.
LOCATION: On the West side of the New York and Albany Post Road, just south of the corporation line of the city of Poughkeepsie.
CONDITION: Well cared for.
INSCRIPTIONS: See "Remarks".
REMARKS: The Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery is the largest burial ground in Dutchess County and is as beautiful as art and nature combined can make it. It was opened in 1853 and about 20,000 interments have been made in it, of which the cemetery corporation possesses almost complete records. A great many removals from older and more or less abandoned burying grounds have been made to the Poughkeepsie Rural but it has been impossible to obtain a separate list of them. If entered on the hooks of the Corporation, they are not entered in such a way as to make it practicable to pick them out without endless time and labour. The site of the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery was formerly the estate of the Hon. Smith Thompson, sometime Secretary of the Navy and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who died in 1843. The Thompson estate was known as "Rust Plaets" (Resting Place) from the name of a stream which crosses it and it is a pity that this fitting title was not perpetuated by the modern cemetery corporation. The Hon. Smith Thompson married Sarah Livingston and he and his wife were buried in the Livingston family ground adjoining the Thompson estate to the north. Recently the Livingston ground has been incorporated into the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.
Copied by Charlotte Carey Dingee and transcribed by Liz DuBois