Cemeteries

Thurman Bishop (a.k.a “Junior”) was the Town of Westerlo Historian from 1988-1993. During that time he did a magnificent work of organizing town data which at the time were myraids of aging paper in boxes at the town hall. He created volumes of data covering town births, marriages and deaths that go back to the town’s incorporation of 1815!

I believe his biggest contribution was documenting the 60+ cemeteries in town. He recorded every word on every stone that could be read. If he couldn’t read a stone he went back to the work of previous historians such as Tom Blaisdell, Peg Tozer and William Van Derpoel Hannay for earlier readings. He drew accurate maps of the layouts of each cemetery and even added life information as to what people did for work, who they were related to and what they died of. The finished data was a 7 volume set of 3 ring binders that is presented here in digital form. Previously these volumes were found in the town hall, town library and in the possession of the town historian. Now they are accessible to the whole world. Thank you “Junior” for your labor of love. It truly is priceless!