Troop 25

Boy Scouts of America

c/o Red Oaks Mill Fire Company #3

213 Vassar Road

Poughkeepsie, New York 12603

E-Mail: bsatroop25@excite.com

Dear Researcher:

For the Eagle Badge in Boy Scouts, a boy must choose a project to do that shows leadership and benefits the community. My project was a survey of the cemetery of the First Reformed Church of Fishkill. It includes a map locating each known grave and a permanent record of each headstone in the cemetery.

The primary source of all data in the book is from the headstone itself. Since there are instances when stone carvers make mistakes, the information on the headstone might not be correct. What is written on the headstone though is in this book. The information was done to the best of the ability of the workers. It is the responsibility of the individual researcher to verify if the information that is written on the headstones is correct.

Every stone was cross referenced with the books Old Gravestones of Dutchess County by J. Wilson Poucher & Helen W. Reynolds and the book Tombstone Inscriptions from the Churchyard of the First Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill by E. W. Van Voorhis for accuracy. When the information was incomplete, such as a stone sunk too deep to dig and read, or weathered too much, the information was taken from one of the books. In these cases, the part of an inscription that part was taken from the book has an asterisk, as does the book it came from.

Chalking of the stones was done with special permission of the Church, for preservation purposes only. In order to preserve the stones for future researchers, the church requests that you do not do any chalking, rubbing, water spraying, or other reproduction method that involves physical contact with the stones. The married women are listed by their married names, since some do not list their maiden names. If maiden names are known, they are included. Any Dutch inscriptions found in the cemetery were sent to Cor Snabel and William Rabbelier in the Netherlands, members of the Dutch‑Colonies Roots Web genealogy list via e‑mail. I cannot thank them enough for translating the inscriptions. I also have to thank Mrs. Antonia Houston as my contact with the Church, and for the resources that I used and her continuing help. She located and transcribed all of the handwritten notes in the Van Voorhis book. The original copy of the Van Voorhis book with the handwritten notes is located in the Local History Collection of the Blodgett Memorial Library in Fishkill. Rev. Titus even took time to come out into the cemetery and help us try to read inscriptions. I would like to thank all of my friends and adults who put bits of their summer and fall of 2000 on hold to help me finish my project. Finally, I thank my parents for their support in the work of my Eagle. I hope that you can find who you are looking for in the cemetery, and that my project has made it easier for you to find things.

Sincerely,

William Wolf III