Hillside Cemetery, Madison, NJ

Hillside Cemetery, Madison, NJ (2/18/06)

Hillside Cemetery has been a burial ground for Madison residents since about 1747. At that time the town was known as Bottle Hill, officially becoming Madison nearly 100 years later.

In August of 1902 the cemetery was nearly destroyed by flooding from a severe rainstorm. It was a gruesome scene with 59 graves washed out, corpses scattered about; 28 bodies were never identified. According to the book The Madison Heritage Trail Dugald MacDougall was present that night at the cemetery helping to locate the disinterred cadavers when he heard an "awful hair-raising noise". He followed the noise to a decomposed corpse propped up against a bush, the wind howling through its neck! "I never heard a sound like it before or since" said MacDougall. Click here to see photos taken the next morning when the bodies had already been taken away.

Additional information on at least 220 graves at Hillside can be found here at Find-A-Grave.

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