From Revolutionary War figures, to murder victims and culprits, there are plenty of fascinating stories behind the graves at Oakwood Cemetery in Islip.
The Historical Society of Islip Hamlet hosted its bi-annual tour of Oakwood Cemetery on Oct. 4, where dozens of attendees visited 10 sites around the cemetery that told the stories of local heroes and villains.
Volunteers from the historical society dressed up as the interred people whose life story they shared along each stop, which included twists and turns that brought laughter, shock, and horror to the captivated audiences.
“[This event] shares the history of the area,” said Historical Society of Islip Hamlet president Susan Hantz-West. “People live someplace and sometimes don’t realize what history is around them. And when you look at some of the names here, it’s the names of streets… and people still living here.”
Some of those local stories included Ebenezer Hawkins Jr., a War of 1812 veteran, who at 11 years old offered his services to a local New York State Militia company as a servant or waiter for Capt.. Davis Haynes in Sag Harbor from September 1814 to February 1815. As an adult, Hawkins operated a strawboard paper mill along a creek in Islip next to current-day Islip Middle School.
“Widows” dressed in black Victorian mourning attire helped escort each group of roughly 40 attendees throughout the cemetery.
But the first stop didn’t feature a grave. Instead, volunteers Ray Ebarb and Christine Scibelli dressed up as Otto Mueller and his wife Anna Luther, a Prussian immigrant who lived in Newark before moving to Islip with Mueller. Luther was killed by her husband, who was actually married to multiple women and named Fredrick Gebhardt, and buried at Oakwood Cemetery in a pauper’s grave.
Along the tour route included numerous Revolutionary War figures, honored by commander of The Order of the Ancient & Honorable Huntington Militia, Patrick Mantle, who fired a musket in honor of the six Revolutionary War veterans buried at Oakwood Cemetery, including Henry Leonard Crum, portrayed by Joe Benty, and Nathanial Brewster, played by Robert H.P Finnegan, who researched and gave oversight to the day’s content alongside Eugene Murphy.
Crum moved to Islip in 1813 with his wife, Susannah, and volunteered in 1782 as a Minuteman while based in Bergen County, N.J., in his late teens. While he never saw battle, Crum was assigned to protect the coastal areas of New Jersey, near Jersey City and Bergen Point, from British raids that started across the harbor in New York City. One time, Crum even captured a Tory named Dobbs. Crum died at age 84 in 1845.
Brewster joined the First Regiment of the Suffolk County Minutemen in April 1776 alongside 44 other Islip men, and 2,000 Suffolk County soldiers in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. After losing the largest battle of the war, Brewster returned to Islip and had to sign an oath of allegiance to the crown after British troops occupied Long Island.
Other notable Oakwood Cemetery graves remembered on the tour included Judge Moses Drake, who oversaw the trial against Nazis at Camp Siegfried in Yaphank during WWII, and Edward Clock, a Brooklyn volunteer firefighter who died at a call in 1866. The killer of Bay Shore woman Eve Wilkowitz is also buried at the cemetery, and was revealed through DNA evidence in March 2022, 42 years after her murder.
The cloudy skies and light rain and breeze provided an apt atmosphere for the day’s tours, which attendees said provided for interesting stories.
“It’s super informative,” said Steve Pellegrano, who attended alongside fellow members of the Penataquit Point Association in Bay Shore. “The variety of stories was very cool. Like history versus something that happened a little more recently.”
To learn more about the Historical Society of Islip Hamlet, visit isliphamlethistory.org.
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