Holy Sepulchre Roman Catholic Cemetery

Many of the Huff, Kettman, and Engelhardt families are buried in Holy Sepulchre Roman Catholic Cemetery. Families often bought large plots with a single gravestone, such that there are few individual memorials. Fortunately, obituaries indicate where burials will take place so we know most of those buried here. We have written the cemetery requesting a list of those buried in the Kettman plot so should soon have confirmation. Meanwhile here is some background on the cemetery.

Holy Sepulchre Roman Catholic Cemetery is the parish cemetery of Saint John The Baptist Cathedral in Paterson, NJ. The cemetery has existed since the early 1840's with roots in the original cemeteries in Paterson.

Paterson is one of the very few cities in the country — perhaps the only city in the Eastern States — where it has not been usual for the churches to be surrounded by graveyards. No church has ever been built here, since the city was founded, in 1792, with this appendage, so universal elsewhere.

The old Dutch burying-ground at Totowa met the needs of the people for twenty years after the town was established. The Protestant churches established cemeteries in the city in the first half of the Nineteenth Century which were shared by Catholics. In 1838, St. John's R. C. church bought of the State three acres on Sandy Hill adjoining the Presbyterian cemetery.

Theodore Kettmann's plot includes many of his descendants & their families.

The Roman Catholic cemetery at Sandy Hill being filled, and all the lots sold, the authorities of The Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist bought, January 30, 1866 what was known as 'the Lynch Farm,' sixty-nine acres, at the southeast corner of Market Street and Madison Avenue, for a cemetery. One or two interments were made, when in March 1866, an act of the Legislature prohibited the location or establishment of cemeteries or burial grounds 'within the distance of six thousand feet from the street monument, as established at the corner of Market and Willis streets,' in the city of Paterson. The proposed cemetery was abandoned, and the property sold.

Engelhardt plot. Not all burials may be on the stone.

In the Fall of 1866 a 25 acre estate on Haledon Avenue was purchased for a cemetery, but again an act of the Legislature, approved February 1867, prohibited the location or establishment of 'any cemetery or burial ground within the limits and boundaries of the city of Paterson.'

On May 1, 1867, the church bought three adjoining tracts of land, embracing 73 acres, at Totowa, just west of the city line extending from the Passaic River back to the Preakness mountain. Here was located the 'Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre,' tastefully laid out, containing 3,208 lots (1,126 consecrated and 2,082 unconsecrated).

The farmhouse situated on the property was changed into an orphan asylum. Since that time a number of alterations and additions have been made to the asylum, which is under the charge of the Sisters of Charity. These Sisters first came to Paterson in 1853 from Mt. St. Vincent, NY.

Walter J. & Noreen Weir Huff

Walter J. Huff, father of Janet and Nora, died in 1961 and is buried in a special section of Holy Sepulcre for military graves. His grave is located on the north side of the cemetery next to Union Boulevard and in line with Shepherd Lane. See map.

When Noreen died in 1976 she was buried in the same grave site, but there is no marker for her.

Find A Grave

Most family members have been added to the Find A Grave website, many with photos and short bios. You can locate them as follows:

Huff

Engelhardt

Kettmann

Kettman

Click on the names to see the Memorial Page of each.

Sources

History of the Catholic Church in Paterson, N.J. with an Account of the Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Establishment of St. John's Church, Author: Charles A. Shriner, 1883