Knapen Cemetery

Beekmantown, Clinton County, New York

• This cemetery was copied completely by Hugh McLellan June 1931.
• McLellan wrote: "A small enclosed cemetery, on the road near the southern line of the town, on west side of the State Road, about three miles north of Plattsburgh. The stones in this cemetery, with the exception of one which had fallen face downward, were hastily transcribed in June, 1931. A return visit a few months later, for more complete transcriptions, found every stone gone -- broken off at the ground, evidently with a sledge hammer.
• This cemetery is located on Beer's Atlas (1869), on Lot 82 of the Beekman Patent. Mr. Kelly of Plattsburg told me (Hugh McLellan) on Sept. 4, 1941, that this cemetery was known as the Adams Cemetery; that he had been present when many of the bodies were disinterred prior to 1912. The bodies (some, at least) were reburied at Swanton, Vt. That the Adams Family came from Adams Landing, Vt. That Lucy Adams married a railroad man, George Schoolcraft, who now (1941) lives at Swanton, and who could tell something about the matter. Mr. Kelly also mentioned a Miller family as having been buried here. He said that the old stones were broken up and used in the foundation of a house nearby."
• These records are part of what is known as the McLellan Cemetery Records. Beginning in 1933, Hugh McLellan, his son, Charles Woodbury “Woody” McLellan, and his daughter-in-law, Hulda (Bredenburg) McLellan traveled to various cemeteries throughout Clinton County copying the inscriptions from cemetery stones. Upon his death, these records were to have been donated to Cornell University. However, Dr. Allan Everest of SUNY Plattsburgh convinced the McLellan family to keep the records locally, and they were eventually donated to SUNY Plattsburgh. Complete sets of these records are also available at the Plattsburgh Public Library, the Clinton County Historian's office in Plattsburgh, and the Northern New York American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Keeseville, New York. Each Town Historian has a copy of their segment as well.
• 11 Stones, 11 Persons

BOWLES
Ann E. BOWLES / died / Aug. 14, 1852 / Ae 25 yrs. /

BOWLES
George W. BOWLES / died / Sept. 25, 1856 / Ae. 33 years. /

BOWLES
John D. BOWLES / died / June 8, 1857 / Ae 20 yrs. /

JACKSON
Wilson A. JACKSON / died / May 18, 1877 / Age 54 years. /

JACKSON
Samuel H. / son of W. A. & E. / JACKSON / died Nov. 28, 1861 / Ae 7 yrs. & 11 mo's. /

KNAPEN
Jeremiah H. KNAPEN / died / Sept. 5, 1852. / Age 79 years 8 Mo's & 10 D's. /

KNAPEN
Olive, / wife of / Jeremiah H. KNAPEN / died July 17, 1863, / AE 82 Y'rs. /

KNAPEN
Samuel H. KNAPEN / Died / Aug. 12, 1838 (or 1858) / Age 52 yrs & 2 mo. /

KNAPEN
Jeremiah H. / Son of / S. H. & L. KNAPEN. / Died / Sept. 19, 1840. / Age 1 yr. 10 Mo's / & 24 days. /

KNAPEN
Althea / daughter of / S. H. & Lucy KNAPEN / died / May 3, 1861 / Ae 17 yrs & 6 mos. /

KNAPEN
Mary A. / Daughter of / S. H. & L. KNAPEN / died / June 22, 1876 / Ae 30 /