Boy's 1845 gravestone back in right place

When Donald Boland bought his Noyack Road home in the early 1980s, he took a stroll around the Southampton property, as most new homeowners often do.

In the carport he found an old gravestone leaning against the wall. A quick glance at the stone told Boland it was old -- really old -- and of a young boy named Samuel E. Robinson. Samuel was 9 when he died in 1845.

But Boland wasn't sure what to do with it. One day, he and a friend placed the grave marker in the ground in the back of his property out of respect, thinking perhaps the young boy was buried there.

"I was really bothered by that," Boland said of not knowing where the headstone really belonged. The Boland family has a Madonna statue by the pool, he said, and Samuel's gravestone was in direct sight line from it. "Sammy was part of the family."

As the decades went by, Samuel's grave marker stayed with the Boland family. But in August, Boland, 78, read a news story about Southampton Town's unique inventory of its historic graves. Southampton, arguably the oldest settled town on Long Island, has headstones in its graveyards dating to the mid-17th century, and each has been meticulously identified with a photo and relevant information on the town clerk's website.

Remembering Samuel's backyard gravestone, Boland called Zachary Studenroth, the town historian quoted in the story, and told him about the gravestone. After researching information on its website, Studenroth knew where it belonged: at the Squires Burying Ground in Hampton Bays. "These are sacred sites," Studenroth said at a ceremony last month to mark the return of Samuel Jr. to his rightful burial place.

Very little is known about "Little Sammy," as the boy is called by those who worked together to get the grave marker back in its place. But he was buried alongside his mother, brother and father at the Hampton Bays site.

Southampton's unique cemetery website, on the town clerk's page, has about 2,000 grave markers inventoried from the 10 town-owned burial sites. The data includes location, inscriptions, physical condition and photographs of each stone.

With a New York State grant, Southampton purchased a scanner and new software that takes words that are lost in the crease of a book and makes them readable, said town clerk Sundy Schermeyer. The computerized versions make the historical documents accessible to anyone and keep the works, which are usually very fragile, from being handled too much.

Little is known about how Samuel's grave marker traveled the approximately 10 miles from Hampton Bays to Noyack Road. Perhaps it was a prank, some officials speculate. But it no longer matters, they say.

Sammy's home.

THE ROBINSON FAMILY

A snapshot of young Samuel's family, as is known to historians through headstone engravings, reveals that they are buried together in a row in the Squires Burying Ground in Hampton Bays on Red Creek Road. According to Southampton historian Zachary Studenroth, people were buried with their feet at the east and head at the west so they could sit up on the dawn of the resurrection and greet the sun.

Samuel Robinson Jr.: Believed to be the first of his family buried at this cemetery. He died May 19, 1845, at the age of 9 years, 5 months and 17 days.

Samuel Robinson (father): Died Jan. 24, 1884, at the age of 82 years, 10 months and 29 days.

Jane Robinson (Samuel Robinson's first wife and Samuel Jr.'s mother): Born July 30, 1804, and died Dec. 12, 1852. Information on the database reported by the American Daughters of the Revolution said there was an "extra loose footstone unrelated" at Jane's grave, but no "nearby marker to relate to it." It belonged to her son, Samuel.

Benjamin F. Robinson (Samuel Jr.'s brother and son of Jane and Samuel): Born Oct. 25, 1827, and died Dec. 3, 1853.

Elizabeth Robinson (second wife of Samuel Robinson): Died in 1880 at the age of 66 years, 6 months and 8 days.

On the site -- hgsdb.info -- is access to cemetery maps as well as the database to search by name, inscription or date of death.