Field check by Daniel H. Weiskotten, April 10, 1994
This cemetery is on the present (1994) Charles Pickard farm at Ingalls
Corners in the town of Lincoln. It lies in the middle of the pasture
about 1000 feet north of the farm house and 500 feet northwest of the barn
which stands on Nelson Road. It appears that a road used to pass
this way and an old house site is found a few hundred feet north-northwest
of the cemetery.
The cemetery is situated about 60 feet from the south line of Lot 21 of the Purchase of 1802 (Late Oneida Reservation,) on the slope from a low and level scarp of Onondaga limestone near the bank of a small stream. The cemetery is probably located here because it is a small island of soil in an area that is primarily limestone bedrock. Why the burials were not made in the nearby Cranston Cemetery is not known.
Only two graves, that of Nathaniel Cole and his daughter Mary, are marked here here although there is room for at least four adults within the walls which delineate the cemetery. A well-built stone wall, measuring 16 feet square (12 feet square on the interior), surrounds Cole's grave, and there is a 6 by 16 foot addition on the north side made of roughly piled stone. The additional area is filled with a few feet of earth to provide sufficient soil for burial in this rocky ground. The old road which once passed by this spot is to the west and a narrow ledge or step is on the roadside of the stone wall. Nathaniel Cole's large marble headstone is centered in the main enclosure but, because his daughter Mary's small shale stone has been broken and displaced it is not clear where her body lies. There is no indication of additional burials within the main enclosure and though someone must lie in the northern addition, there is no stone their either. The resting place of Nathaniel's wife and Mary's mother is not to me known, but she may lie along side Nathaniel as there is room on either side of him in the main plot.
It appears that Nathaniel Cole's wife's name was Sally and that he had a son Nathaniel K. Cole,whose wife's name was Polly. Only one deed for Nathaniel owning part of Lot 21 was found, that being when he purchase part of the lot from Joshua G. Palmer in 1817 (Deed Q:113). He also owned various land in the immediate vicinity and his son Nathaniel K. later owned parts of Lot 21 (Deeds E:332, G:467, L:451, M:328, M:501, O:38, O:40, P:11, AP:236, BE:276, and BP:172). Parts of Lot 21 are described in Deeds BE:276 and BP:172.
Nathaniel Cole's marble tombstone appears to have been acquired by his daughter-in- law, Polly Cole, through "A. Palmer." Palmer does not appear to be a tombstone carver although he may have been an agent for one (see my Tombstone Carver Geographical Index) and he may have been Asher H. Palmer, a trustee of the nearby Cranson Cemetery. The receipt for the stone is found in Cole's surrogate file in Madison County (File 531) and states:
Received of Polly Cole, twenty dollars in full for one set of
grave stones
A. Palmer
Lenox, February 3, 1830
A. Palmer
Lenox, February 3, 1830
This cemetery is noted by Scott and Meyer on their list of 1961 (:36), and is also on Tuttle's Burials and Veterans list as being at Goff's Corners (Goffs lived here according to the 1875 map). This may also be the former Danehy farm where Clezzie Gallup reported two stones but she did not give any names. Her crude map indicates about the right spot.
Cole, Nathaniel, Elder, died July 4, 1828, age 48 years.
Cole, Mary, a daughter of Nathaniel Cole, died June 7, 1813,
age 2 years, (small shale stone, broken).