Honey Brook Presbyterian Church recently established a memorial garden located at the entrance of the Presbyterian Cemetery that dates back to the early 1800's.

According to the history of Honey Brook Presbyterian Church (1835 – 1985), written by the late Margaret R. Eppihimer, burial grounds were formerly called graveyards, and it was in the later years that they became known as cemeteries. Many families in Honey Brook have buried their relatives in a walled area of their farms.

Cemetery records indicate that in the early 1800's, the Emery family established a large area in the northwestern part of the cemetery designated as the Emery/Emrey or Union Cemetery. During the mid-1800's, the cemeteries were combined as one, which, until 1885, were separate and distinct from the church. In those days, the church sexton was in charge of the cemetery, and this gave him the privilege of a using a church pew without charge. He was paid $2.00 for digging an adult grave.

When the church was established in 1835, membership entitled individuals to a free grave. Today, visitors to the cemetery can find the headstones of many of the founders of the church and community of Honey Brook, but free graves are no longer available.

In 1881, an iron fence was placed around the cemetery, and the sexton was advised to lock the gates to prevent horse-driven teams from making a sport of racing through the cemetery paths. The earliest memorials in the cemetery were tablet-style stones of poor quality, and today the engravings on them are almost illegible.

On April 7, 1937, the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church incorporated the cemetery as a non-profit corporation and designated 10 church trustees be responsible for its maintenance.

When the church was able to purchase more adjoning the cemetery over the years, gravesites diminished at a rapid pace. Today, with the lack of land available, the idea of a memorial garden became quite popular. The memorial garden is for cremations only and is open to the public.