BERKELEY – At one time, our towns were very agricultural. As these farms turned into housing developments, some residents remained, and they will for all eternity.
The Rogers family cemetery is one such resting place snuggled between residential lots, fenced off and out of sight. It’s in a block of homes behind the ShopRite on Route 9. Bell Street is in a neighborhood of streets named after inventers, like Carver, Ford, and Edison.
To learn more about this cemetery, The Berkeley Times viewed documents from the Berkeley Township Historical Society and interviewed member Kelley Butler.
The cemetery’s inhabitants are all relatives of John Rogers, who was born on January 7, 1746 in Morristown. He married Abigail Woodmansee, who was born on May 4, 1750 in Forked River. She passed away in 1789. She is buried with her family in Good Luck Cemetery.
This map shows roughly where the old Rogers farm had been. (Photo by Chris Lundy)
There was a dedication on August 28, 1977. At that time, the following names were listed in the program, with information coming from their epitaphs:
Elizabeth Rogers, John Rogers’ second wife, died July 22, 1842 at the age of 83
John Rogers, 78, died July 20, 1824
Lydia Jeffrey, 77, died October 19, 1824
John (R?) Rogers, 37, died June 25, 1816
Sarah Rogers, August 24, 1779-February 19, 1861
Lydia, wife of Jesse Rogers, died December 2, 1855 at the age of 80
Jesse Rogers, died October 27, 1857
Adaline L., daughter of Samual and Mary T. Rogers, died August 10, 1854, “aged 8 years, 7 months, and 16 days”
Paul P. Rogers, infant son of Samual and Mary T. Rogers
Hetty Ann Lippincott, daughter of John and Sarah Rogers, died December 23, 1834, at the age of 29
Daniel Rogers, died January 5, 1816, at the age of 50
Abner Rogers, died November 11, 1861, “aged 64 years, 2 months and 2 days.”
If you look at the cemetery, you’ll see that it’s a few feet higher than the street. That’s because the topsoil all around it was sold.
The family owned quite a large farm with dairy cows. Historical documents note soybeans were grown there but that might not have been the only thing. In describing the farmhouse, documents said it had cedar siding cut and milled on the farm. The roof at one point covered this with asbestos shingles.
“Rogers farm and/or Common Veeder House” is written on the inventory nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places. The building still stands today on Veeder Lane.
They Rogers family wasn’t the first people to own the land, however. The property itself was granted to Greene Worth from the king of England.
After John Rogers died, the land stayed in the family for a while.
The building was conveyed from David Rogers to Samuel T. Rogers on January 14, 1857. The paperwork describes the property in terms like “300 acres more or less.” One of the boundaries is a stone where a tree used to be. The land went all the way to the Barnegat Bay, but this was before developers built housing projects out there, creating finger lagoons and extending the land into the water. The property’s neighbors were John Jeffrey and Edward Worth.
The owner at one point was Edith Veeder, whose address was listed as 105 Walchest Drive in Toms River. She spent much of her life in that home.
When the land was sold off to a developer, the neighborhood was named North Gate.
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