Honoring Civil War Black Soldiers at the Lamington Black Cemetery

The Lamington Black Cemetery is an African American cemetery in the Lamington section of Bedminster Township, New Jersey, located on Cowperthwaite Road. It is also known as the Cowperthwaite African American Cemetery. The cemetery is a contributing property of the Lamington Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1984. Funny what you stumble on when you’re riding a motorcycle for a leisure ride.

The Lamington Black Cemetery, also known as the Cowperthwaite African American Cemetery, rests quietly along Lamington Road in Bedminster Township, just beyond the manicured fairways of what is now Trump National Golf Club. Long before this land became synonymous with golf tournaments and presidential retreats, it was home to a small but enduring African American community that lived, worshiped, and worked in the Lamington Valley. The cemetery, established around 1857 and maintained by the Lamington Presbyterian Church, provided a sacred space for Black residents of the area, many of them formerly enslaved or descendants of those who were. The earliest known burial, Samuel Lane in 1848, predates the church’s formal purchase of the land, revealing that this ground had been used for burials even before emancipation.

Today, the cemetery’s roughly ninety-seven graves sit within view of the rolling hills that now form the border of Trump National’s northern edge. It is a striking contrast, a solemn patch of hallowed ground surrounded by one of the most exclusive landscapes in the state. Fewer than forty burials are marked with names; the rest are identified only by simple fieldstones, a testament to the humble lives of those interred there. Yet among them lie veterans of the Civil War’s United States Colored Troops, including William H Van Horn of the 43rd Regiment, William Dodd of the 8th Regiment, George W Lane of the 63rd Regiment, and Richard Hurling of the 25th Regiment, men who fought for a freedom that only a generation earlier had been denied to their ancestors.

The Lamington Black Cemetery is now recognized as a contributing property within the Lamington Historic District and listed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Though small, it tells a powerful story of faith, perseverance, and dignity, one that endures just steps from a landscape now known for privilege and power. For those who pause to visit, the quiet cemetery on Lamington Road serves as a reminder that before there were greens and estates, there were people here whose lives and struggles shaped the valley’s earliest history.

This cemetery appears on the 1873 map but not on the 1850 map. By deed dated June 1, 1857, Martin Kline conveyed .34 acres to the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church at Bedminster in the Counties of Somerset and Hunterdon for $55.00. The black community was historically an important part of Lamington. At one point, there were twenty-five black members of the Presbyterian Church.

Although the cemetery had been forgotten for years, it was rediscovered in the 1990s by William “Buzzy” Hundley. Hundley observed the cemetery’s condition and assembled a group of volunteers to clean it up. Through the efforts of Hundley and many other concerned citizens, the cemetery was cleaned, preserved, and rededicated on October 7, 2001.

Lamington Black Cemetery:19th-century burial ground on the National Register of Historic Places. There are 97 identified graves here: 36 with names and 61 unknown, including former slaves and free blacks who were members of the Lamington Presbyterian Church. Remains of 5 Civil War veterans who fought heroically for the Union are here. As you walk through the grounds, note the Bible passages on some of the markers and enjoy the feeling of peace. Source: Bedminster Historic Preservation Commission

“Historical records indicate that those buried in the cemetery, which belongs to the Lamington Presbyterian Church, were both slaves and freed blacks.

Related MLH Local Black History Posts

Our Readers’ Top 10 MLH Posts this Week

Lamington Black Cemetery – Know Burial Details

Name	Life dates	War	Unit	Rank on record	Notes
William H Van Horn	d. 1887	Civil War Union	43rd U S Colored Troops Co H	Private	Name and unit on the veteran stone. New Jersey Civil War Gravestones
William Dodd	1828 to 1908	Civil War Union	8th U S Colored Troops Co B	Not stated on stone	Veteran stone text notes service in 8th U S C T and clarifies not the 8th New Jersey. New Jersey Civil War Gravestones
George W Lane	1840 to 1869	Civil War Union	63rd U S Colored Infantry Co D	Private	Veteran stone lists unit and rank. New Jersey Civil War Gravestones
Richard Hurling	1815 to 1881	Civil War Union	25th U S Colored Infantry Co A	Not stated on stone	Veteran stone lists unit. New Jersey Civil War Gravestones
Samuel Lane	1793 to 1848	—	—	—	Earliest documented burial at the site. Wikipedia
Betsy Traphagen	d. 1874	—	—	—	Name and date quoted in the Lamington Historic District nomination. NPGallery
Samuel Field	1834 to 1906	—	—	—	Burial listed for Lamington Black Cemetery. Find A Grave
Aleah Fisher Hurling	1819 to 1890	—	—	—	Burial noted for Lamington Black Cemetery. WikiTree
Harriet Neuel Layton	b. 1829	—	—	—	Memorial notes burial at Lamington Black Cemetery. WikiTree
Nathan Branch Sutphen	1881 to 1882	—	—	—	Burial recorded for Lamington Black Cemetery. WikiTree
Jacob Pierson	1779 to 1864	—	—	—	Burial recorded for Lamington Black Cemetery. Find A Grave
Mary Pierson	1782 to 1856	—	—	—	Burial recorded for Lamington Black Cemetery. Find A Grave