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New Book Traces Lives of People Buried in Moravian Cemetery

By Nicholas Rizzi | February 5, 2016 3:40pm | Updated on February 8, 2016 9:00am
 Local historian Richard Simpson published a book,
Local historian Richard Simpson published a book, "A Walk Through Moravian Cemetery," that traces the history of the people buried in the historic cemetery.
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Staten Island Museum

NEW DORP — A new book by a local historian traces the lives of people buried in the historic Moravian Cemetery.

"A Walk Through Moravian Cemetery" by Richard Simpson features biographies of more than 350 Staten Islanders buried in the cemetery, with guest pieces from other historians about the more than 250 year old cemetery.

"My book does not talk about death," said Simpson, who gives public tours of the cemetery.

"I don't promote death, I promote what the person did while they were living. I keep their memories alive by telling their real life stories.

"Some of these people have towns, streets, parks and schools named for them. They invented various things, they were prominent doctors and lawyers here on Staten Island."

After Simpson retired from his job at a financial institute in Manhattan about 10 years ago, he started to get interested in the history of Moravian Cemetery, at 2205 Richmond Road, and began collecting obituaries of the people inside.

He said he was always interested in architecture and when he started to research the people who built his favorite homes in the borough, he found many of them were buried at Moravian.

He started to host his own public tours of the 114-acre cemetery to show people the lush greenery inside and give them a lesson on Staten Island history.

"Most people go to a museum. People love museums," he said. "Moravian is like an outdoor museum."

People on the tour started to ask him to put the history down on paper. Simpson spent the next three years collecting obituaries from people buried at Moravian, including some of the earliest Dutch settlers of the borough, not mentioned during his tours.

Biographies inside the book include John M. Carrere, who helped designed the main branch of the New York Public Library in Midtown, Joseph E. Humphreys, one of the most popular boxing announcers up until the 1930s and William Abner Eddy, who invented the box kite.

"Some people were born here on Staten Island, some people married their spouse who came from Staten Island, sometimes they had business in Manhattan and they lived in Staten Island," Simpson said. "Yet they come back here to be buried."

Simpson said the people in his book — which he self-published and will sell through his website — were left out of other Staten Island history books and he hopes his work will be used as a research tool for future generations.

"It follows the demographics of Staten Island," Simpson said.

"A lot of people are afraid of cemeteries because of death, I inject humor into my walking tours because I want to get people comfortable.

"I’m promoting history, they just all happen to be buried at the cemetery." 

"A Walk Through Moravian Cemetery" can be purchased for $29.99 through Richard Simpson's Facebook page or by emailing him at cemeteryguy@earthlink.net