Southeast, NY

Milltown Cemetery is on Milltown Road, a little east of Route 22.  It is still in active use, but also holds many of the town’s earlier movers and shakers.

Seth B. Howes, who was a prominent Brewster resident and is considered ‘the father of the American circus’ is in the large gravesite near the west end of the cemetery (closest to Route 22).  It is a stone structure with a ring of fencing around the perimeter.  I have heard the fencing represents the circus ring.  Seth B. Howes built and lived in Morningthorpe, the large house on Brewster Hill Road near the Sodom Road intersection.  He later built the castle on Turk Hill Rd that now holds the Delancey Street Foundation.  It is said Seth moved from Morningthorpe when the dam and reservoir were built behind his house because he feared the dam would fail.

Note: George Merrick of Foggintown Road’s Merriland Farm is buried in Miltown Cemetery.  Merriland Farm was a dairy farm that included the land the Brewster Schools are built on.  From my research, it seems that some of Mr. Merrick’s farm was taken via eminent domain to build the town’s schools.  Why do I care?  Because I believe I own the house he lived in.  He died in my home and his viewing was held in the house.

Sources:

-Personal visits, various dates.

-http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0DEFDC1F38E733A2575AC1A9639C946097D6CF, accessed 4/22/15.

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