Youngs Memorial Cemetery
Youngs Memorial Cemetery has been a burial ground since 1658, and is still in use today as an active cemetery. In 1640, English colonists arrived on Long Island by sailing from New Haven and settling the town of Southold near Orient Point. They were led by the Reverend John Youngs and his family. The second son of Reverend John Youngs was Thomas Youngs, who built a home in Oyster Bay Cove and set aside a nearby hill for use as a burial ground, where he was buried upon his death in 1689. The original home of Thomas Youngs housed nine successive generations of the Youngs family continuously through 1929. The last male in the line of Thomas Youngs was William Jones Youngs (1851-1916), who served as Secretary to Theodore Roosevelt during Roosevelt's term as Governor of New York. We have included a waypoint marking the portion of the cemetery containing the graves of early members of the Youngs family, along with many of their slaves (whose graves are marked by white wooden crosses). Because the Youngs family has such a deep history on Long Island, they often intermarried with members of many other prominent Long Island families. Throughout this cemetery, in addition to the Youngs and Roosevelts, you can find the graves of members of the Underhill, Jones, Weeks, Townsend, Bayles and Baker families. (Youngs Memorial Cemetery Corporation. (n.d.) The Story of Youngs Memorial Cemetery [Brochure]. Oyster Bay, New York: n.p.)
