Established in 1873, Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale, N.Y. encompasses 158 acres and is the final resting place of more than 100,000 people. Many of Nassau County’s oldest families are buried here. The cemetery is also known for its Civil War monument honoring Town of Hempstead soldiers.
During several recent visits, I photographed, documented and inventoried more than 200 gravestones. As time permits, I’ll share many of the families and stories I discovered. It seems fitting to begin with one that is part of my own family history.
The Willets family became connected to my Langdon family when my ninth great-grand aunt, Mercy Langdon, married Hope Willets of Westbury, linking two of Long Island’s earliest Colonial families. Mercy’s Quaker mother-in-law, Mary Washburn Willets, owned the Milleridge Inn in Jericho. Mercy Langdon Willets was the eighth great-grandmother of President Richard Nixon.
The large Willets family plot, located in one of the older sections facing Nassau Road, contains three substantial granite monuments. At the center is a tall, obelisk-like monument inscribed WILLETS, with a carved “W” near the top. To its left stands a second monument bearing the names of eight family members, while another monument to the right is simply inscribed WILLETS. Individual headstones representing several generations surround the monuments.
The scale of the three large monuments reflects the prominence of the Willets family, one of the earliest and most influential Quaker families in the Town of Hempstead.
Within this family plot, the earliest birth date I found was Platt Willets (1784), while the latest death was Jessie Duryea (1979). Platt Willets was likely originally buried in the Hempstead Burying Ground on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead. After A.T. Stewart donated land for Greenfield Cemetery, many of those buried in the old cemetery were reinterred there, making it likely that Platt’s remains were moved at that time.
Among those buried here is Dr. Andrew J. Willets (1833–1870), a respected Brooklyn and Hempstead physician whose funeral drew large crowds before his untimely death at just 36 years of age.
WILLETS FAMILY MONUMENT
(Monument to the left of the central WILLETS monument)
Eight family members are memorialized on this monument:
- Elbert H. Willets (1831–1902)
- Julia E. Willets (1831–1911)
- Ernest L. Burrell (1865–1930)
- Alice W. Burrell (1866–1958)
- Carrie R. Willets (1859–1862)
- Andrew J. Willets, M.D. (1833–1870)
- Platt Willets (1784–1852)
- Martha Willets (1803–1882)
WILLETS INDIVIDUAL HEADSTONES
(All face Nassau Road.)
- Elbert H. Willets (June 4, 1831 – June 19, 1902)
- Julia E. Willets (June 7, 1831 – March 6, 1911)
- Sylvester W. Willets (Born March 4, 1851 – Died March 2, 1925)
- Frances Willets (Wife of Sylvester W. Willets, Born July 9, 1856 – Died July 28, 1908)
- George Willets (Son of George & Julia Willets, February 6, 1824 – June 23, 1867)
- Elizabeth Willets (Daughter of George & Phebe Willets, November 8, 1843 – September 20, 1931)
- Emma Willets (Wife of Rudolph Powell, February 5, 1860 – February 27, 1931)
- Myra Willets (Daughter of Sylvester W. & Fannie Willets, January 5, 1883 – January 16, 1883)
- George Willets (March 19, 1820 – January 19, 1892)
RELATED FAMILY BURIALS
Several neighboring graves belong to descendants who married into the Willets family.
POWELL FAMILY
- Rudolph Powell (1857–1961)
- Leonard L. Powell (1892–1917)
DURYEA FAMILY
- Cornelius A. Duryea (1839–1903)
- Emeline G. Duryea (Wife of Cornelius A. Duryea, Daughter of George & Phebe Willets, 1861–1897)
- Harold Duryea (1887–1887)
- Jessie Duryea (1885–1979)
This is only one family among hundreds waiting to be rediscovered in Greenfield Cemetery. I’ll continue sharing more of these stories as my research progresses.
“Life is lived forward but best understood backward.”
