OUR HISTORY

Not Your Ordinary Cemetery!

Fair View Cemetery located at 272 Steadwell Avenue in Amsterdam, New York, holds the remains of many members of Amsterdam's old carpet manufacturing families.


Dr. David Shepard, a surgeon in the Revolutionary War, purchased a farm near Amsterdam, New York and Fort Johnson, New York in 1802. In the late 19th century a group of people decided to make a resort of this farm. When many of the financial backers of this plan turned against it, they decided to make the farmland into a cemetery. The lands at that time were owned by Warren K. Nibble of Troy, NY.


In July 1899, a total of 3,268 shares were issued to investors and Fair View became a commercial cemetery. Cemetery records show that the first meeting of the Board of Directors was held at 362 Broadway in the City of Troy, New York on July 15, 1899. At that meeting, the purchase of the land from Mr. Nibble was approved and the cemetery was established. The records further indicate that an office was established at 46 East Main Street in the City of Amsterdam, New York for the operation of the cemetery.


Over the years, additional shares were issued and others redeemed by the cemetery. Eventually ownership of Fair View Cemetery was converted to a not for profit corporation owned by and operated for the benefit of the lot holders. It continues that way to the present. The day-to-day operations of the cemetery are under the control of a Board of Trustees who are elected at an Annual Meeting of the lot holders. In addition, the board has hired a full-time superintendent to run the daily operations of the cemetery and maintain the grounds. The superintendent lives on the cemetery grounds.


The first burial in the cemetery occurred in 1899. The remains of many were moved to Fair View from other cemeteries after it opened. The fourth burial in the cemetery was of John Kilts, who died in 1890.


Fairview is still in operation today. It currently consists of over 100 acres and contains over four miles of roads. 63 of the cemetery's acres have been developed and there are currently more than 8,000 people interned,





OUR FIRST AND VERY DISTINGUISHED PROPERTY HOLDER

Biography Of Dr. David Shepard, Revolutionary War Surgeon.

(His Farmlands Make up the Current Fairview Cemetery

and his original Federal Estate Home is the current residence of  the Cemetery Grounds Superintendent)


David Shepard (October 23, 1744 – December 12, 1818) was an American doctor, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a Minuteman, and surgeon in the Continental Army. He was an early proponent of inoculation to prevent smallpox [David Shepard is listed as arguing for the affirmative, to the question, "An morbi Lenti, quàm Acutiores, magis sint periculosi? [Are slow diseases more dangerous than acute ones?] in Yale

College, Quæstiones. Shepard was present at several key battles of the American Revolution, usually acting in a medical capacity, as a military surgeon.

BIOGRAPHY

Early life (1744–1761)

David Shepard was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, to John and Elizabeth (Noble) Shepard, their eighth child of nine.


 

(A Front View of Yale-College, and the College Chapel, 1786.  Yale students near the college President are seen removing their hats, a Yale custom of the era.

The College Chapel (left), was a recent addition to Yale College when David Shepard arrived in about 1764, having just been completed the year before.)


Yale college (1762–1769)

Shepard attended Yale at a time when the student body was caught up in the rebellious spirit of the 1760s. The students stopped going to classes and prayers and generally abused the tutors, who resigned. They would frequently speak against the British Parliament in chapel, and petitioned the Corporation with their grievances, insisting on the removal of the disciplinarian president Thomas Clap. Things at the college had become so difficult the Corporation ordered an early spring vacation, and David Shepard was one of the few undergraduates that returned. Despite the reduced student body, things continued this way until the end of the term.  Commencements were usually celebrated with copious amounts of alcohol, despite the students resolving to drink no "foreign spiritous Liquors anymore." The diary of one of Shepard's classmates records on September 9, 1766—the day before commencement—that they were examined for their degrees in the afternoon, but only after getting "Liquer (sic) in readiness for Commencement." Shepard graduated (B.A.) that September at what would be Yale president Thomas Clap's last commencement before resigning, Friday, September 10, 1766] The next year David married Margaret Clap, daughter of Ezra Clap (Yale, 1740) on December 3, 1767. In 1769 David is included in a list of Master's degree candidates, his thesis relating to the nature of slow versus acute disease. This is the same year that his wife died, leaving him with one daughter, also named Margaret.

 

Murrayfield, Mass. (1770–1774)

He removed to Murrayfield, Massachusetts (now called Chester) and married a second time to Lucinda Mather on January 7, 1773. They had six children: Mather, David, Lucinda, Harriet, Fanny and Horace.  David Shepard was a Selectman of Murrayfield, serving throughout 1772–76, and for several years through the 1790s.

 

American Revolution (1775–1783)

As Boston's conflict with the royal government came to a head in 1773–75, Shepard was appointed to the Chester Committee of Correspondence. And at the battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, he would serve as a volunteer surgeon. Following the Lexington Alarm, Shepard went to Cambridge as captain of a company of Minutemen in the regiment commanded by Col. Seth Pomeroy. On arrival, April 28, 1775, he was appointed Surgeon of Danielson's Regiment and remained at the fortifications in Roxbury, Mass. in that capacity through the remainder of that year. He served in the Battle of Bunker Hill.  He later served with a detachment of the Third Hampshire County Regiment which marched to Ticonderoga to reinforce the army by order of General Schuyler, and was present at the Battle of Bennington, August 16, 1777.  [David Shepard served in Danielson's regiment along with two of his elder brothers: John, serving as Lieutenant in Capt. Parks' company, and William, serving as Lt. Col. of the regiment, and who would later play an important role in Shays' Rebellion.]

 

(Delegates proceeded to the Statehouse following their deliberations on the Constitution,

depicted here (1793) much as it would have looked at the time.)


United States Constitution

Main article: Constitutional Convention (United States)

At a town meeting on December 13, 1787, Shepard was chosen as Chester's delegate to the State Convention to meet at Boston in January.  And, in January 1788, Shepard was recorded at Boston, Massachusetts where he served as representative of the town of Chester at a Constitutional Convention to consider a constitution reported in the summer of 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia On February 6 they formally ratified the U.S. Constitution proceeding to the Boston State House for a reception. Shepard was reimbursed for his time and travel to a total of £14.14.0.

 

Amsterdam, N.Y. (1802–1818)

In 1802 Shepard purchased a farm near Amsterdam, N.Y., and resided there until his death. This farm later became the Fairview Cemetery (Amsterdam, New York).


(Special Thanks to WIKIPEDIA)