Is there a forgotten cemetery on N. 7th St.?
Earlier this year I visited the N. 7th St. home of Gabor and Kristen Sztancsik, a short way up from the Boulevard. The visit was a follow-up to a most unusual phone call I received from Mrs. Sztancsik. She told me “When we landscaped our yard, we found granite tombstones and when I do gardening, I find bits and pieces of granite from tombstones.” I said to myself, “Gosh, is there a long-forgotten cemetery on N. 7th St.?”
My visit confirmed large granite grave stones – the kind placed flat to the ground. One was engraved. Another was not. Just as Mrs. Sztancsik told me beforehand, there were chips and pieces, too. The stone was that of WWI veteran Joseph Albert Tellone, a private in the 33rd Infantry of the 17thDivision.
Questions arose. “Was the Sztancsik yard part of a long-forgotten N. 7th St. cemetery?” “Who was Pvt. Tellone?” “Was he a local soldier who slipped from local memory?” “How did the stones get there?” Research brought some answers.
Research revealed that Pvt. Tellone was one of three children of Italian immigrant parents and was born in Newark, N. J. on April 10, 1895. He served in the U. S. Army, 1917-1920, during WW. He and his wife Sadie resided in Newark and later moved to Florida where he died on February 3, 1945. He is buried in the Restland Memorial Park, East Hanover, N. J.
As a deceased veteran, Pvt. Tellone is entitled to a military grave marker. The application denotes that a granite marker ordered August 1945 was “never received” by Restland Cemetery. Months later a second marker was ordered – this time in bronze. It made it to his gravesite. So, how did the granite marker end up in a N. 7th St. backyard?
An old-time N. 7th street resident, who no longer lives in town, recalled that as a boy, homes were built on the west side of N. 7th street in the early 1950s. Trucks loaded with dirt dumped it to help level rear yards. It’s possible that wherever the fill dirt originated, that it contained discarded grave stones and bits and pieces of others. Since some were blank, it seems plausible that the stones were discards of the grave marker company and that the “never received” Tellone stone accidentally was discarded with others by the grave marker company.
Mrs. Sztancsik stated, “As a matter of respect to Private Tellone, we’re going to keep the stone and not toss it out.” She is a Cranford school teacher and her husband, Gabor, is a landscaper. They moved to Kenilworth in 2002 and have two children. They are thanked for sharing this unusual discovery that is now part of Kenilworth history.
If you have something to share contact historian Walter E. Boright at 908-256-5200 or drbori@aol.com. Data for this article were supplied by Kristen Sztanscik and Ancestry.com public documents.
