Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York

Date added: October 14, 2023 Categories: New York Cemetery
South-southeast view of cemetery (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of the first New England settlers in the Town of Ellicottville. The cemetery is the last vestige of a community established as a result of land speculation and westward settlement in the period following the American Revolution. The Bryant Hill Cemetery is located in the Town of Ellicottville that was originally part of the Holland Land Purchase, 1.3 million acres of land surveyed by land agent Joseph Ellicott in 1798. In 1817, Freeman and Nathaniel Bryant migrated to the region from Chesterfield, Massachusetts and acquired land in what was originally the Town of Franklinville. The Town of Ellicottville was formally incorporated as a separate town in 1820 with the village of Ellicottville serving as the principal village and later the county seat.

After settling in an area that became known as Bryant Hill, others followed Freeman and Nathaniel Bryant in moving to the area. The settlers were drawn together by bonds of religion and family, many of them being related to the Bryants and all of them sharing the tenets and practices of the Baptist faith. This group of settlers formed the core of the First Baptist Church and Society of the Town of Ellicottville in 1824. Services were held in Nathaniel Bryant's home until 1826 when they began meeting in the school located on Bryant Hill. In time, the membership of 122 outgrew the school and the congregation moved their worship to the Town Hall.

Although the Holland Land Company deeded a lot to the First Baptist Church for the building of a church, the congregation divided over the issue. In 1856, some members wished to exchange the land for property that was closer to Bryant Hill. They proposed that the congregation acquire a property on nearby Gospel Hill but this proposal resulted in bitter disagreement within the church. The disagreement eventually led to the decline of the congregation when all but 16 members left, resulting in the dissolution of the church in 1864. With the decline of the church came the end of the distinct community of Bryant Hill.

In 1821 Samuel Bryant set aside a plot of ground near the Old Chautauqua Road on Bryant Hill to serve as the first cemetery in the hamlet. (The Old Chautauqua Road was a major east-west migration route and one of the first roads built by the Holland Land Company to encourage travel.) The cemetery's first recorded burials took place in 1824 and the last in 1901. Many of the Bryant Hill families were buried in the cemetery in the intervening years. One of the burials is of Justin Rust, born in Chester Massachusetts in 1764. Rust served in the Continental Army during the American War for Independence and lived out the rest of his life in Bryant Hill, dying in 1841.

Another important burial is that of Samuel Bryant, the man who deeded the plot of land for the cemetery. Bryant migrated to western New York with his wife and seven children in 1821. During the journey, his young son Royal fell under the wheels of their wagon and was killed. There is a stone for a Royal Bryant in the cemetery but this is for a second son named Royal, born in 1823 and dying in 1844.

Peter Drown is also buried in the cemetery. Drown was a native of Hartford, Connecticut who settled in the Bryant Hill area in 1827 after serving as a guard at Auburn Prison and after trying his hand at marketing wheat in Rochester. Drown was primarily a farmer and a dealer in real estate and cattle, as well as serving as commissioner of highways.

Another important burial is that of Barbara Olin Walker, daughter of Gideon Walker of Vermont, a judge and U.S. Congressman. Barbara was married to Gideon Walker, Jr. and lived with her husband and three children in Whiting, Vermont. During the War of 1812, her husband joined the American Army and saw service in the Niagara Frontier where he was killed at Fort Niagara. Barbara was left destitute, living on the charity of other family members until her brother arranged for her to receive a small pension based on her husband's military service. She lived out the remainder of her life in western New York with her daughter who married into the Batt family of Bryant Hill.

After the last internment, the cemetery suffered from neglect and fell into disrepair. Around 1970, Lois and Richard Siggelkow of Buffalo, New York bought land in the Town of Ellicottville and discovered that a cemetery existed in the midst of the property. They took an interest in the cemetery, began clearing the site and spearheaded efforts to document and preserve the burial ground. In 1976, the Town of Ellicottville took ownership of the cemetery and the Ellicottville Historical Society re-dedicated it as part of their Bicentennial celebrations. Over 250 descendants of the long-vanished Bryant Hill community participated in the event.

Cemetery Description

Bryant Hill Cemetery is located on a .135+ acre parcel on the south side of Bryant Hill Road in the Town of Ellicottville in Cattaraugus County. The road runs east of Route 242, approximately three miles from the Town Hall located on the square of the Village of Ellicottville at the intersection of Routes 219 and 242. The cemetery site is situated about two miles from the intersection with Route 242. The site is 84 feet long parallel to the road and 70 feet deep. There are four metal fence posts along the roadside but no fencing. The land slopes from east to west and to a lesser extent, to the south. Graves are arranged in rows throughout the site facing west, generally running north-south perpendicular to the major slope. The site is covered by grass and several trees and is currently maintained by the Town Highway Department and volunteers. The site is bounded on the east, west, and south by second-growth forest of mostly hardwood with some conifers.

In 1821, a group of the Town's earliest settlers established the cemetery as a final resting place for members of their group composed mostly of family members and followers of the Protestant Baptist denomination. The first burial took place in 1824 and the last in 1901. The earliest date of birth recorded on the stone inscriptions is 1769 for Nathaniel Bryant who died in 1832. There are 47 known graves, several marked by both a headstone and footstones and there are several depressions in the ground indicating possible unmarked gravesites.

Existing gravestones and monuments represent a wide range of memorial types/styles, some with decorative motifs and several with the identities of the gravestone carvers. The main materials in the stones and monuments are marble, sandstone, and a combination of both, and two markers of granite. Decorative motifs include a clasped right hand with the index finger pointing skyward (Peter Drown and Mary A. Washburne stones) and a willow and urn as seen in the Angeline French marker. Grave markers also include a modern granite and concrete stone for Revolutionary War veteran Justin Rust, provided by the United States Veteran's Administration in 1981. There is also a marble stone for Barbara Walker, the widow of a War of 1812 veteran. In total, there are 13 family names on the stones and monuments: Bryant, Litchfield, McKinley, Kingsley, Bixby, Williams, French, Rust, Washburne, Drown, Todd, Walker, and Batt.

At present, the Town of Ellicottville owns and maintains the Bryant Hill Cemetery. Crews from the Town Highway Department cut the grass and remove brush on an as-needed basis. In the 1960s a well-meaning town crew conducted a controlled burn of the property in an effort to remove substantial brush. It indeed cleared the land but also caused extensive heat damage to many of the stones resulting in fracturing and splitting. In the early 1970s, volunteers began repair work on the damaged cemetery, righting many of the stones and setting some in concrete. In May 2000, the Town hired Fannin-Lehner Preservation Consultants of Concord, Massachusetts partly supported by grant funding to prepare a Gravestone/Monument Condition Assessment Report. When it was completed, the report included survey information and conservation treatment for the stones and markers.

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York South-southeast view of cemetery (2002)
South-southeast view of cemetery (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York South-southwest view of cemetery (2002)
South-southwest view of cemetery (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York North-northwest view of cemetery (2002)
North-northwest view of cemetery (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York North-northeast view of cemetery (2002)
North-northeast view of cemetery (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Mary Ann Kinglsey (2002)
Marker for Mary Ann Kinglsey (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Detail view of marker for Angeline French (2002)
Detail view of marker for Angeline French (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Quartus Rust (2002)
Marker for Quartus Rust (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Angeline French (2002)
Marker for Angeline French (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Mary Washburne (2002)
Marker for Mary Washburne (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Detail of marker for Quartus Rust (2002)
Detail of marker for Quartus Rust (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Mary Ann Kingsley (2002)
Marker for Mary Ann Kingsley (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Janet Bryant (2002)
Marker for Janet Bryant (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Peter Drown (2002)
Marker for Peter Drown (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Detail of marker for Mary Washburne (2002)
Detail of marker for Mary Washburne (2002)

Bryant Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville New York Marker for Barbara Walker (2002)
Marker for Barbara Walker (2002)