Little Lost Cemetery

The Little Lost Cemetery is located behind the Littleton Road, District 6 Firehouse, Parsippany, NJ. It is a very small cemetery, containing only 14 tombstones.

This cemetery is believed to have belonged to the Orphanage in Parsippany. Thanks must go to our valiant volunteer firefighters who do a wonderful job of maintaining this small plot of memories.

Grateful thanks must also be given to David LeHerissier, without whose efforts this information would not be available. David located the cemetery and transcribed the stones.

From Richard Haycock we have:

The Genealogical Magazine of NJ; NJ Genealogical Society; January 1975; p25: QUOTE Morris County Gravestones ---- "Little Lost Cemetery"
The "Little Lost Cemetery" is located in Parsippany Troy-Hills Township directly behind the District #6 firehouse, which is at the northeast intersection of Littleton Road and Interstate Highway 287. The existence of this small burial place, of about 20 by 30 feet, was virtually unknown to township residents until recent years, when the I-287 right of way threatened its removal. Today the cemetery is protected by a concrete retaining wall as north bound traffic speeds by barely fifty feet away.

Mrs Frances V. Kaminski, of the Parsippany Troy Hills Historical Sites Preservation Committee, states that the cemetery served the Morris county children's Home. The home was an outgrowth of the old Boonton Almshouse, now submerged under the Jersey City Reservoir. The 22 children in the almshouse in 1882 were removed to a colonial frame mansion, known as Ailanthus Hall, near the present cemetery site and interments were made in this burial plot over the years. In addition to the 14 marked graves, one of which has only a crude fieldstone marker (the "Lost Little Angel" described by someone in this group?), it is possible that other children were buried here. In particular, it is rumored that during the influenza epidemic of World Was 1 a number of children were hurriedly buried without the benefit of gravestones. In 1929 the policy of placing children in foster homes brought on the closing of Ailanthus Hall. The mansion mysteriously burned down in the early 1950s, leaving but few to remember the burials. Recently the Historical Sites Committee has maintained the cemetery, and erected a sign for the "Little Lost Cemetery."

During her research Mrs Kaminski has determined that James Bowman was the father of Maud, and that Andrew Shawger was the father of Frances.

The inscriptions, copied earlier by Mrs Kaminski, were checked by Edward J. Raser on October 28 1973.
BOWMAN, Maud, b. Aug 9 1893, d. Apr 29 1896
BRADLEY, Clarence, b. July 23 1888, d. May 10 1892
DALY, Fanny, b. Nov 4 1894, d. June 24 1906
ESPOSITO, Rose, b. Jan 28. 1899, d. Jan 29 1903
HAMM, Lizzie, b Mar 4 1898, d. Sept 8, 1902
KIMBLE, Lucy, d. Jan 20 1887, age 4 yrs.
McCARTY, Ida, b July 5 1888, d. July 26 1904
MESLAR, Vliet, d. Jan 3 1895, aged 4 years
MORGAN, Frank, b. May 16 1892, d. May 20 1899
PECKWILL, Raymond, b. June 10 1890, d. Apr 30 1896
RICHARDS, Samuel, b. Feb 28 1891, d. Jan 7 1899
SERAY, John E., b. Apr 14 1882, d. Sept 9 1893
SHAWGER, Frances, b. July 4 1874, d. May 14, 1892
END OF QUOTE

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