There was a wooden fence around the property at first and this was replaced by the iron railing that now encloses it. The high brick wall around St. Patrick’s was put up just before the anti-Catholic excitement of 1836 and served as a protection to the old church that largely helped, when manned by stout defenders, to awe the mob that assembled to plunder and destroy it. In the same year, June 5, 1836, it was determined to rebuild St. Peter’s Church in Barclay Street. The graves in the little space about the church were opened and most of the remains reinterred in St. Patrick’s graveyard. Some of the pioneers were left undisturbed and still repose under the walls of the new church built over the old site.
The dead who sleep about the walls of old St. Patrick’s made up the very flower of the pioneer families, mainly Irish, who built up the church in New York. Among the long list are the first pastors and their assistants, Fathers Michael O’Gorman, Richard Bulger, Charles Brennan and Peter Malou—who was a general in the Belgium army and then a Jesuit. One of his sons became a bishop in his native land—Fathers Luke Berry, of St. Mary’s; Gregory B. Pardow, an uncle of the Jesuit of our day; James Neale, Carberry J. Byrne, Thomas C. Levins, John N. Smith of St. James’ and Dr. John Power, V. G. The remains of the bishops of the See, except the first, were transferred from old St. Patrick’s to the crypt of the Fifth Avenue Cathedral after it was opened.
The parents of Cardinal McCloskey were buried in old St. Patrick’s and so were a son of the famous French general, Moreau, Capt. Pierre Laudais, of the navy, who fought with Paul Jones in the Revolution; Thomas, the father of the great lawyer, Charles O’Conor; Thomas S. Brady, father of James T. and Judge John R. Brady; Capt. James McKeon, of the army in 1812 and father of John McKeon; Andrew Morris, Stephen Jumel, Dominick Lynch and his numerous children; John B. Lasala, the Denmans, the Hargous, Binsse, Coughlan, Brandegee, De Londe, Shea, O’Brien and other prominent old New York families.
In the Eleventh Street graveyard the 41,016 dead are of a later period, but include many names of special local interest on the old stones, such as the Murphy, Lynch, Carroll, Hanly, Sweeney, Bradley, Davey, McMahon, Holahan, and other families. A local character, who died September 26, 1838, and was buried here, was an Italian named Joseph Bonfanti, who kept what might be called the first “department store” in New York. It was located at 297 Broadway, and it was his boast that no one could go into his store and ask for anything in fancy articles he could not produce for sale. He advertised in rhymes and some of the efforts in this direction are wonderful productions. Local fame had it that he kept poets on salary to supply his needs in this direction. His tombstone told that he was born in Monticello, December 9, 1798, was “universally esteemed as an affectionate husband, a kind father and a sincere friend,” and that,—
“Cheerful he journeyed through life’s chequered wild,
Honest, sincere, benevolent, mild.
As husband, father, friend, fulfilled his part,
Affection’s smile the sunshine of his heart.”
Capt. John McMahon had a monument erected to him by the Montgomery Guards, of whom he was commander. He was a native of Limerick, Ireland, and died aged 37 years on April 17, 1849.
Another epitaph was as follows: