The Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery is a rural cemetery located in Poughkeepsie, New York and includes the gravesites of several notable figures.[2] It also has a crematory. The forty-four acres of land used for the cemetery were purchased by Matthew Vassar.[3]
Some of its architectural features were designed by J. A. Wood. His work includes the cemetery gates and gatehouse, the Frost Mausoleum, and a monument for Matthew Vassar's nephew, John Guy Vassar.[4]
Hamilton and Schuyler families
Several relatives of Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father of the United States, are buried at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery:
Notable burials
Other notable individuals interred at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery include:
- Theodorus Bailey (1758–1828), politician (Member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate)
- Stephen Baker (1819–1875), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives)
- Jane Bolin (1908–2007), judge (New York City Domestic Relations Court)
- Harvey G. Eastman (1832–1878), educator (founder of Eastman Business College) and politician (New York State Assembly)
- James Emott (1771–1850), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives and New York State Assembly)
- Margaret Hamilton (1902–1985), actress, played the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz[note 1]
- Frank Hasbrouck (1852–1928), lawyer, county judge, Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department
- Dustin John Higgs (1972–2021), American convicted murderer executed by the United States federal government[5][6]
- Charles Johnston (1793–1845), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives)
- Anandi Gopal Joshi (1865–1887), first female Indian doctor, buried under the name "Anandabai Joshee" with the Carpenter family.[7]
- John J. Kindred (1864–1937), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives)
- Henry A. Livingston (1776–1849), politician (New York State Senate)
- Johnny Miller (1905–2008), gyroplane pioneer, test pilot and airline pilot
- Samuel Neilson (1761–1803), Irish nationalist
- Homer Augustus Nelson (1829–1891), politician (Member of the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate and New York Secretary of State)
- Edmund Platt (1865–1939), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives) and member of United States Federal Reserve
- Charles H. Ruggles (1789–1865), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives) and judge (Chief Judge United States Court of Appeal)
- James Fields Smathers (1888–1967), inventor
- William Wallace Smith I (1830–1913) and Andrew Smith (1836–1895), founders of Smith Brothers Cough Drops
- John Thompson (1809–1890), politician (Member of the US House of Representatives)
- Smith Thompson (1768–1843), Associate Justice United States Supreme Court and politician (United States Secretary of the Navy)
- Rip Torn (1931–2019), actor[8]
- Isaac Van Anden (1812–1875), publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle
- Matthew Vassar (1792–1868), brewer, merchant, founder of Vassar College
