A few months ago I had occasion to research the fate of the Universalist Cemetery, and came up with the following message sent to an inquirer: ------- I checked out the Florence Ward file at NYSHA, and to my delight immediately found a memorandum prepared in 1963 by the NYSHA Librarian (Dorothy Barck) on "Cemetery of the Second Universalist Society of Otsego, Beaver Street, Cooperstown, N.Y." from which I learned that: "The burying ground on Beaver Street, Cooperstown, was used for interments by the Second Universalist Society of Otsego during the latter half of the 19th century. In the early decades of the 20th century, bodies were gradually removed by kinsfolk to other cemeteries, and the few remaining in 1936 by the Society itself prior to the sale of the empty acre in 1937." The memorandum goes on to cite numerous details about the cemetery and its closing. It seems that the few remaining bodies were in 1936 transferred (by Ralph W. Ellsworth) to a lot purchased for the purpose in the Fly Creek Valley Cemetery. In 1937, after getting a permit for sale from the Otsego County Court, the Universalist Society (which occupied what has recently been called "Toad Hall" on Pioneer and Church Streets), sold the now vacant cemetery lot to Deuel C. Lake of Oneonta, who in turn sold it to Moses Lippitt, who sold it to Stephen C. Clark in 1943. It is now, as you surmised, converted into a parking lot for the Hospital, next to Bassett Hall. ---------------- I note that two children of Penelope and Zenus Chapman, John and Eliza, are buried in the Bates/Chapman cemetery in the Fly Creek Valley. (Shirlee S. Ratbone and Cathy A. Rose, "A Collection of Epitaphs, Family Plots, and Small Cemeteries in The Town of Otsego" (2004), p. 13. They show a none-too-legible photograph of the children's tombstone. The Freeman's Journal of June 15, 1855 noted the following death: "June 8, Zenas Chapman, in 86th yr., Cooperstown, res. T. of Otsego 54 yrs." I don't find any newspaper record of Penelope's death. The Fly Creek Valley Cemetery (http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyotsego/fcvc.html) has lots of Chapmans, but not Zenas or Penelope. I'm afraid that's all I come up with at the moment. Hugh MacDougall Official Historian Village of Cooperstown 8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016 coophist@stny.rr.com