Green-Wood Cemetery
Section 63, Lot 20002.
[NOTE: Frank, Gertrude W, and Margaret Wilmarth are not memorialized by any currently visible or legible stone or inscription. A list of lot residents, with burial dates, appears after the inscriptions.]
STONES and INSCRIPTIONS
Five stones mark this lot—one of those stones memorializes a dog.
***Inscription, large stone at rear of lot:
Joseph H. Higginson,
A native of Essex, England
Died May 10th 1871, aged 46 years
An honest man & a true friend.
Emma B. Willmarth,
Died March 28th 1895,
Aged 62 years.
Lemuel Everett Wilmarth
Died July 27th 1918
Aged 82 years
[NOTE: Higginson was a map publisher, and the first husband of Emma Wilmarth (Mrs. Lemuel).]
Row of 3 stones in front of large monument, left to right:
1
Florence L.
Died Apr. 6, 1924
WILMARTH
2
***An unusual monument. In 1879, Lemuel Wilmarth requested a grave for his 23-year-old Newfoundland, Gipsy, who a few years earlier had rescued his wife from drowning. The story of the funeral ran in The New York Times on Nov. 25, 1879, and caught the attention of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, who wrote a poem to the dog. When cemetery plot owners balked at the prospect of sharing eternal rest with animals, the cemetery banned such burials; a state law followed in 1949.The plaque features this text:
GIPSY
Died 1879
A Hero Newfoundland Dog Rests Here
He's gone! The friend of many years,
‘Neath Greenwood's sod he lies;
Worthy was he of all our tears
As when a human being dies.
His name was "Gipsy," and his race
Though not of men, was pure and true;
His soul was pictured in his face,
And he could love and reason too.
No more upon the chimney hearth
His crouching form we see;
He moulders now beneath the earth,
But he's not dead to me.
He's gone! This faithful, darling friend,
Where truth and virtue dwell;
Say not that this shall be the end
Of him we loved so well.
henry Bergh (1879) Founder of the ASPCA
This monument lovingly dedicated by the ASPCA and the Green-Wood Historic Fund 2007.
3
Joseph Annin
Sep. 29. 1827 – July 1. 1893
Fany M. Wilmarth his wife
Jan. 26. 1828 – Dec. 9. 1910
***Flat stone in foreground:
WILMARTH
1905 Ralph G. 1963
1903 Gertrude L. 1993
Rest in Peace 20002
[NOTE: Lot burial list from online cemetery records, with burial dates, which may represent reburials after removal from previous graves. This list may be incomplete. Contact cemetery for complete information about this lot at http://www.green-wood.com:
ANNIN: Fannie M, 12/11/1910; and Joseph, 7/5/1893.
HIGGINSON: Joseph H, 6/14/1871.
WILMARTH: Emma, 4/1/1895; Florence L, 4/9/1924; Frank, 7/14/1943; Gertrude, 12/20/1993; Gertrude W, 7/12/1939; Lemuel E, 7/30/1918; Margaret A, 1/18/1930; and Ralph, 8/2/1963.]

Green-Wood Cemetery
Section 63, Lot 20002.
INSCRIPTION

WILMARTH
1905 Ralph G. 1963
1903 Gertrude L. 1993
Rest in Peace 20002