Situated on the borderline of Bloomfield and Glen Ridge along Belleville Avenue, the Bloomfield Cemetery is the final resting place of numerous Revolutionary War veterans, some who gave their lives during the war.
On July 1, a headstone, with a plaque bearing their names, was unveiled before 100 spectators. Among the guests were Margo Perl and Mary Sellitto-Curcio, sisters and descendants of Allison Dodd, who founded the cemetery.
“This cemetery is unrecognized,” Bonnie Sharkey, the regent of the Major Joseph Bloomfield Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, said before the ceremony. “We want to bring awareness. There are 32 veterans of the American Revolution here.”
Mary Jones, the cemetery director, credited Sharkey and Michael Perrone, a local mason and president of the Belleville Historical Society, for making the dedication possible. Perrone has made it a personal mission to clean the headstones of veterans interred in northern Jersey cemeteries, including the Bloomfield Cemetery.
During the dedication, violinist Jessica Valiente played compositions from the 1770s and ‘80s including “A Toast to George Washington,” by Francis Hopkinson, and “Chester,” by William Billings.
Welcoming the spectators, Jones said the dedication was for America’s first heroes and veterans. Everyone then sang the National Anthem.
Perrone, wearing a Revolutionary War military costume with tricorn hat, spoke.
“I took an oath when I joined the military to serve and honor,” he said. “The men here served and honored and their lives were taken away early. When you take an oath, it doesn’t expire.”
Perrone, who fabricated the headstone, and Val Hadshinow, a professional monument engraver who engraved the names, unveiled the monument. According to Perrone, Hadshinow was responsible for engraving all of the roughly 3,000 names on the 9/11 monument located at Eagle Rock Mountain Reservation.
Following the placing of a wreath and multiple cannon salutes, an activity for which Glen Ridge warned its residents so not to cause any alarm, the ceremony concluded and Perrone spoke to this newspaper. He said he had located 22 of 32 burial sites.
“I’m sure we’ll find the others,” he said. “We’re not looking for them, but a majority of the graves are marked and have stones.”
He said so many Revolutionary War veterans’ headstones were located that he figured a ceremony was necessary.
“We were able to do it in about two weeks, the whole idea,” he said. “No one had the intention of doing it for the Fourth of July, but you need to have a Fourth of July celebration here every year.”
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