Part 2: Caledonia Hills Cemetery and the Bigelow Estate

When we left off last week, Talman Bigelow had found an open grave on his father’s property.  Ernest Bigelow’s ex-secretary, who still lived on the estate, revealed the story to the Long-Islander of what exactly happened.  We'll get to that in a minute.

The second strange event to happen at Caledonia Hills Cemetery actually predates the discovery of the open grave.  The Reverend Joshua Hartt, who was commonly known as “Priest Hartt,” and his wife Abigail were excavated from the cemetery in May 11, 1911 and reentered at the Hartt plot at the Northport Rural Cemetery.  He died October 3, 1827, at 91, and she passed away on September 14, 1799, at 45.  They had been married on January 13, 1977.

Hartt was born at the Hartt homestead, called Caledonia Farm in Dix Hills near the cemetery.  He was well known during the Revolutionary War as an outspoken patriot, and as a result was arrested several times by the King’s representatives. 

One arrest led to a six-month imprisonment in New York City; a fellow prisoner was the acclaimed Colonel Ethan Allen.  Hartt became known as “marrying preacher,” for it is said he “tied the matrimonial knot for hundreds of couples… and that it was the general feeling of engaged couples of that period that they could not be properly married unless the Rev. Joshua Hartt performed the ceremony,” according to his great granddaughter in the March 23, 1928 Long Islander. 

It is therefore likely that the Nostrand farm was originally the Hartt homestead, Caledonia Farm.  And it explains why Joshua and Abigial Hartt were buried in the Caledonia Hills Cemetery.  Relatives must have decided in 1911 that it was best to move them to the new Hartt plot at Northport Rural Cemetery. 

According to the June 2, 1911 Long-Islander, “when the body was removed only the skull and a few bones were found.  His wife, Abigial, has been dead 112 years, and a very few bones were found… A marker was placed upon the graves by the Sons of the American Revolution.”

On Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, the relatives held special exercises at the site of re-interment at Northport Rural Cemetery.  “The exercises were arranged by the Sons of the American Revolution of Huntington, and Mrs. Charles Soper, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a great granddaughter, residing in Brooklyn,” according to the same article.  The Star Spangled Banner was sung, and Mrs. Soper gave a short address.

Ernest A. Bigelow, and his wife, Helen Talman Bigelow, became the owners of this farm five years after the excavation of the Hartt’s grave, and were the owners at the time that the open grave was found. 

Ernest and Helen were no strangers to death and outlived two of their sons.  First, Ernest A, Bigelow, Jr. died at only 27 years of age, on May 15, 1919 at his parents' New York City home, according to his obituary in the May 16, 1919 Long Islander. 

His brother, Talman Bigelow, who discovered the open grave in 1927, committed suicide just a few months after its discovery, at the age of 29.  According to the December 14, 1927 New York Times, “Talman Bigelow of 168 East Seventy-fourth Street, a young real estate operator, shot himself through the head about 1 o’clock this morning, according to the police of the East 67 Street police station.  The wound was fatal.”  No reason was given, and it was noted that he had spent the night having dinner with his parents and he seemed to be in good spirits. 

Though I could not find the exact date of sale of the Bigelow property, they are still identified as the owners on the 1941 map.  Yet on July 2, 1943, there is a reference in the Long-Islander to “John Junius Morgan, owner of the former Bigelow estate in Dix Hills.”  And by February 8, 1945, the Long-Islander announced, “Charles Stoll of Hicksville has bought the Bigelow lands in Dix Hills which he plans to develop in desirable acreage plots.” 

He must not have done this right away though, because an October 3, 1946 Long-Islander article reported, “Judge and Mrs. Charles Stoll enjoyed a fine weekend at their farm, the former Bieglow place.” 

The Bigelows sold their Dix Hills land only shortly before they passed on themselves.  The burdens of two houses must have been too much for them.  Helen Talman Bigelow was the first to go, and her obituary was published on October 6, 1944 in the New York Times.  She passed in her Bronxville home at the age of 75. 

Four months later, Ernest followed her.  His obituary was published in the New York Times on January 9, 1945.  He died following a brief illness in the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals at 105 and Fifth Avenue.  He was 76 years old.

Today Caledonia Hills cemetery is locked in by privately held homes on all sides.  Though the cemetery is Town of Huntington property, there is no right of way allowing entrance.