Monfort Cemetery
Port Restoration Project
About The Stones​
A new Series
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The Cemetery Clean-up Crew (The Crew) has been busy at the historic Montfort Cemetery despite the summer heat and humidity. We are using D/2 Biological Solution to remove mold, mildew, algae, and stains from the old gravestones. One of those stones is pictured above in “before” and “after” photographs. In the “before” photograph, not only are lichen concealing the stone’s inscription, but they are slowly and surely feeding on the stone itself. Left alone, the surface of a headstone will be degraded to a point of no return. That appears to be what happened to the lower section of the stone. But as you can see in the “after” photo, the Crew got there in time, and the inscription is now fully legible:
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IN
Memory of
DANIEL BOGART
who died on the 24th of December 1828
in the 85th year
of his age.​
Our other Monfort Cemetery pages:
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Initial Press Release: Preservation and Education Initiative with the Town (TONH)
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Donations needed
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About The Stones
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Daniel Bogart (1744-1828)​
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Daniel Bogart is one of 12 Revolutionary War patriots interred at the Monfort Cemetery. He served as a sergeant in Captain Layton’s Company of Oyster Bay and fought in the Battle of Long Island alongside of his brother Tunis, who is also interred here. When the war was over, the thirteen colonies had to make the dream of a nation that they fought for a reality, and Sargent Bogart did his part. He was elected and served first as the overseer of highways in Wolver Hollow, and later as Constable and Collector of Taxes for Oyster Bay. A bachelor until the age of 50, he married Maria Onderdonk who died just 11 years later. They had no children, and he remained a widower for the last 19 years of his life.
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It wasn’t until I retired and found myself wandering around town that I got interested in local history. If a fortune teller had told me that I would soon be advocating for the preservation of an old Dutch burying ground like the Monfort Cemetery, I would have asked for my money back. But much to my surprise the process of treating a gravestone - washing, spraying, waiting, scrubbing, misting, rinsing, and doing it all over again – has been time well spent. A few hours in the peace-and-quiet of a cemetery is good for the nerves.
The slow process of cleaning stones requires patience, but when I saw Daniel Bogart’s long-lost inscription emerge before my very eyes, it was magical. Unexpectedly, I was somehow connected to this veteran. It awakened a sense of gratitude not only to him, but to the countless others whose service has secured the freedom and privilege of living as we do today. It even got me to thinking about my own father who served in the Pacific in WW11, and how I wish he could know what I’ve been up to.
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Rest in peace, Sergeant Bogart.
[ Ross Lumpkin is a Trustee at Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society and Town Historian for North Hempstead. He can be contacted at ross.lumpkin@gmail.com. ]
