A follow-up to the July 14 story on the Cohoes graves in Halfmoon was published in the TU on Thursday: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Churchill-Cleanup-of-forgotten-graves-halted-by-5642569.php Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple <http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=local&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Craig+Apple%22> sent inmates to clear a portion of the forgotten cemetery. The work would be continuing today, if the mayor of Cohoes hadn't asked that it stop. "I told them to hold off until we know what's going on up there," (said) Mayor George Primeau <http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=local&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22George+Primeau%22> The mayor said he hasn't closed the door on continuing to clear the land. He said he'll settle on a course of action after meeting Thursday with Halliday and Tom Ballard <http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=local&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Tom+Ballard%22>, the president of Union Cemetery. *But he's certainly leaning toward leaving the cemetery alone.* "Sometimes death is harder on the living than the dead," Primeau said. "We'll always remember that they are up there, and we'll say a prayer for them. It is what it is."

I was at the meeting yesterday with Mayor George Primeau, Corporation Council Greg Teresi, Halfmoon resident Sue Halliday, Halfmoon Historian Ellen Kennedy, Crescent Union Cemetery President Tom Ballard, and other trustees of the cemetery at City Hall. The Mayor indicated they would do some more work there. However, it’s unlikely that the entire Cohoes section will be cleared until some unspecified date in the future (leaving it an open question as to whether it will ever happen). It’s partly due to Cohoes’ finances, but unsettled questions about the cemetery don’t help. It seems that Cohoes owns their own cemetery adjacent to Union Cemetery on land they’d bought from Union Cemetery, rather than Cohoes owning a section of Union Cemetery, but I’m not sure if Cohoes would agree with that interpretation or not. It’s unclear how much of the land was actually used for burials. Cohoes took the position that there were no records of burials but I think it’s possible some records still exist somewhere - they did at one time. The records had been good enough they could identify remains in unmarked graves from the location they were found in the old Cohoes City Cemetery on Columbia Street. "Yesterday some men employed in exhuming the remains from the old cemetery came across the petrified body of a man. It was in lot No. 425, section No. 5. A reference to the original map and the record of deeds proves it to be the remains of William Brown who was buried in October, 1845. He was a shoemaker by trade and the old residents may remember him.” “Found a Petrified Body.” Cohoes Republican. June 24, 1896: 1 col 1. By the terms of a law passed by the NYS Legislature and Governor, Cohoes was supposed to move and reset grave markers, and to supply grave markers for all unmarked graves other than those for reinterments of potters’ field burials. “All remains removed by said common council as hereinbefore provided shall be reinterred in the lands to be purchased by the city of Cohoes in one or more existing cemeteries as hereinafter provided, and all monuments, slabs, stones or other marks of their burial place shall be well reset in their proper place so as to preserve the identity of each, and in case there is no present mark distinguishing the person buried, said common council shall cause to be placed on the lot or grave to which the remains are transferred, a wooden or stone slab on which shall be marked the number or other designation of the lot in the burial grounds from which the body or bodies were exhumed, but this provision shall not apply to the graves in which are interred the bodies of the indigent poor heretofore interred at the expense of the city of Cohoes.” L. 1889, ch. 192 § 8. The Mayor said he hasn’t received one phone call about the cemetery, so it might help if he did (particularly from anyone living in or formerly a resident of or having a connection to Cohoes). Thank him for having begun cleaning it up and express hope that he’ll finish the job and perhaps diligently search for any surviving records at City Hall (offices of the City Historian, City Clerk, City Engineer, City Comptroller, Public Works: Streets etc.) Albany County coroner’s office, and perhaps put a call out to local churches, funeral homes, individuals for any records they might have pertaining to the reinterments or later potters field burials handled by the City of Cohoes there. The city had a folder on the cemetery, but I would bet The forerunner of the Comptroller, the Chamberlain, among other things had to handle the cemetery bonds used to cover the cost of reinterments and damages settled on with lot owners of the Columbia Street Cemetery for loss of their land there. The Streets Department in conjunction with the (no longer extant) City of Cohoes Cemetery Committee handled the reinterments. The City Engineer surveyed the property, copied the map of the old Columbia Street Cemetery, and had also been a member of the City of Cohoes Cemetery Committee. Chris