St Agnes Cemetery, Menands NY- Plot#2 Gravestone Inscriptions

   “The Marble Keeps Merely A Cold And Sad Memory Of A Person Who Would Else Be Forgotten…….”

The above quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne was the inspiration for a local boy scout, Jordan M. Brock, to document the gravestones in Plot 2 of St. Agnes Cemetery for his Eagle Scout Project which started on September 30, 1990.

St. Agnes Cemetery has a blueprint and listing for all its graves except for the Plot 2 Section.  Most of the gravestones, caskets and bodies in this Plot were moved in 1916-1917 from the old St. Mary’s Cemetery which was located on Washington Avenue and which is now the site of the Albany High School.

Thanks to Jordan and his fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 33, the inscriptions on these deteriorating gravestones have been preserved for history and can now be name searched on this data series. Sadly, there are a number of gravestones where the first and last names were eroded or unreadable.

The gravestone inscriptions are quite interesting as they indicate dates of birth, dates of death, age, relationships, maiden names of spouses, etc.  There are a large number of veterans of the Civil War whose gravestone inscription gives their unit names.  Some of the gravestones for Irish immigrants identify the Parish Name and County of their origin.

One of the more interesting gravestone inscriptions was the one for William F. Murphy who was killed in action on July 30, 1899 during the Philippine-American War.  His stone has the following quote as his last words:  “Come Boys, Let Us Show What Old Albany Can Do”.

St Agnes Plot#2 Inscriptions