So here’s an interesting side note that we uncovered while digging through the highly useful Encyclopedia of Union College, dated 2003 and apparently written by Wayne Somers. Apparently, if you’re a faculty member at Union College, you’re entitled to a free burial plot in the College cemetery in Vale Cemetery.
“About half way between Union and State streets, on Nott Terrace, the entrance road to Vale leads eastward up the hill. The first road to the left crosses a bridge between two ponds in the woods. On the left is a fenced area with signs identifying the grounds of Union College. The actual burial grounds are on a secluded terrace, surrounded by woods on three sides, and overlooking a small pond on the other. Toward the back of the plot lie the graves of Eliphalet Nott and his third wife, Urania . . . Other faculty members and their families and a few alumni and administrators have continued to be buried in the plot down to the present. With a total of about 192 burials (and a few additional markers) through the year 2000, the plot is getting full, but perhaps a quarter of the spots are still available.”
The Encyclopedia reports that although the college cemetery was not formally established until September 1863, “the need for College burial grounds had been under discussion for several years.” Because, obviously, you can’t just let the dead faculty members pile up.
I know this (sub-)cemetery well, as it is where my mother was interred in ’65. Unfortunately visiting her grave now requires Union campus police to meet us at the gate to let us in, because Vale unfortunately sees a lot of vandalism. Beautiful spot.
Unfortunately, I’ll have to agree. I’ve never felt unsafe in any cemetery except Vale, which I’ve only visited on tours or with groups, and each time my sense of it is confirmed.