(Noah Hallock Cemetery Entryway)
Suggested by a friend, my next visit is a local cemetery, established by Noah Hallock when he buried his wife Bethia in 1766. At the top of a hill, an ear shot from the tides of the Long Island Sound, sits this single-family cemetery where the remains of approximately 40 members of the Hallock family rest for eternity.
(Headstone of Bethia Hallock, wife of Noah Hallock
Noah was the great grandson of Peter Hallock, one of the first European immigrants who landed in Southold, Long Island in 1640. The Hallock’s became a prominent family in Rocky Point, a town on the North Shore named for the many large rocks such as the one which stands in the corner of this cemetery. They owned thousands of acres of farmland and were the main employers of the area at the time.
(Noah Hallock Cemetery, Rocky Point)
It all began when Noah married Bethia and the young couple moved from Aquebogue to settle here for the remainder of their lives and beyond. Their three sons and several grandsons fought as soldiers in the Revolutionary War, most coming home to live and die in Rocky Point and be buried here with their family.
(Headstone of Noah Hallock, son of Noah & Bethia, 1728 - 1805, Age of Death 76-77)
Many headstones are barely legible and sadly damaged by the elements and salt water air, yet some of similar age seem quite untouched. I enjoyed walking amongst the different sized and shaped stones, taking in the details of each.
(Headstone of Sarah Hallock, Great Granddaughter of Noah & Bethia, 1790 - 2/24/1792, Age of Death 2)
I became enamored with these 4-foot stones, each with a chiseled weeping willow over an urn. I then casted my gaze on stones similar but broken on the ground. Here lies Noah’s Grandson Deacon Phillip Hallock and his wife Ruth.
Originally carved on Ruth’s stone were the words:
Behold the tomb, this mournful tomb
My heart chills at the sound
My wife, the partner of my youth
Lies mouldering in the ground.
Her husband Phillip was buried less than two years later with the saying:
Beneath this stone I rest my head
In slumbers sweet; Christ blest abode
Don’t weep for me, my pains are o’er
We soon shall meet to part no more.
(Headstone of Phillip Hallock, 3/19/1767 - 11/1/1841, Age of Death 74)
I sensed the love yet deep somber emotion as I read the inscriptions, looking beyond their fallen gravestones to find six of their ten children, buried here long before their parents.
(Headstone of Joanna Hallock, Daughter of Philip & Ruth Hallock, 1/28/1795 - 4/7/1799, Age of Death 4)
Around the corner from this family resting place is the pre-Revolutionary War era Cape Cod Noah constructed in 1721 for his wife. On a once expansive homestead where eight generations of Hallock’s were wed in front of its brick fireplace, it is the towns oldest standing home.
(Noah Hallock Homestead, Rocky Point)
The final burial here was Emorette Cecilia Hallock, Great Great-Granddaughter of Homestead creator Noah. The final Hallock to own the house was Sylvester Heathcote Hallock, living there with his wife and children, the eighth generation. He handed down a story that the rock in the cemetery of his family marks the grave of sailors shipwrecked in the Long Island Sound near Hallock Landing Road. Sylvester sold the farm in 1964.
In 1995, members of the Rocky Point Historical Society began a project including repairs and restorations of the cemetery and stones. In 2015, they acquired the Noah Hallock Homestead and offered guided tours which are currently suspended. I'd be interested in checking it out in the future.
Subscribe and stay tuned for my next visit! Thanks for reading!
(Headstone of Eliza Hallock, Daughter of Philip & Ruth Hallock, 3/29/1800 - 7/28/1802, Age of Death 2, repaired & donated by the Rocky Point Historical Society )
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