Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainFounded in 1718 — predating the county, the state, and the nation — Morris County's oldest cemetery holds roughly 450 veterans and settlers and hosts an annual torchlit Halloween walk through the stones.
325 Route 10 East, Whippany, NJ 07054
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Grounds open to the public at no charge. The annual Halloween torchlight tour may carry a small fee; check the Hanover Heritage Association or Hanover Township for current tour details.
Access
Limited Access
Maintained cemetery grounds with grass between historic markers, some uneven. Route 10 is a busy road — use the marked entrance.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1718 · Oldest cemetery in northwest New Jersey (founded 1718) · Predates Morris County, New Jersey statehood, and the United States · First school and first militia training ground in Morris/Warren/Sussex Counties · National Register of Historic Places (2009) · Veterans: French and Indian War, Revolution, Civil War, WWI
The Whippany Burying Yard opened in 1718 on what was then the frontier of European settlement in northwestern New Jersey. At that date, neither Morris County nor the modern State of New Jersey existed in their current political form, and the community gathered here predates the American nation by nearly six decades. The site served not only as a burial ground but as the location of the first school and the first church in the region later divided into Morris, Warren, and Sussex Counties, and as the earliest militia training ground in that territory.
The approximately two-plus-acre grounds contain roughly 450 graves spread across more than three centuries of interment. Veterans buried here span the full arc of American military history from the colonial period through the twentieth century: soldiers from the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War I are all documented among the marked graves. The early settlers of the Whippany area — families who arrived in the first decades of the eighteenth century and established the farms, mills, and churches of the Passaic River watershed — are represented across multiple generations of markers.
The burying yard was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 11, 2009. It is maintained by the Hanover Heritage Association under Hanover Township oversight. The grounds sit on Route 10 in the Whippany section of Hanover Township, and the site is one of the more accessible historic cemeteries in Morris County for visitors traveling the Route 10 corridor.
Sources
The Whippany Burying Yard does not carry a single dominant ghost narrative in the manner of some of New Jersey's more storied haunted cemeteries. What it carries instead is the accumulated weight of 300 years of burials: soldiers from six conflicts, the earliest European settlers of Morris County, generations of families whose descendants still live in the region.
The annual Halloween torchlight tour organized by the Hanover Township Landmark Commission and Hanover Heritage Association leans into that weight directly. Costumed guides walk visitors through the grounds at night by torchlight, covering the stories behind specific stones — who fought in which war, which families lost children to the same winter fever, which graves predate any organized township in the region. Costumes are encouraged and refreshments served, and the event draws community members alongside visitors from outside Morris County.
Paranormal investigators have noted the site in online documentation, drawn by its age and the density of military dead. The cemetery predates electricity, modern road noise, and much of the built environment of Whippany, and in the dark hours along Route 10 the contrast between the 1718 stones and the surrounding commercial strip is stark. Reports of anomalous cold spots and unexplained sounds appear in regional paranormal accounts, though no specific haunting tradition has crystallized around a named entity.
Walk the two-plus-acre grounds of Morris County's oldest surviving cemetery, established 1718. The approximately 450 stones span veterans of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War I, alongside the earliest European settlers of the Whippany region. Markers range from worn 18th-century sandstone to Victorian-era carved granite.
The Hanover Township Landmark Commission and Hanover Heritage Association host an annual torchlit Halloween walk through the burying yard, with costumed guides covering the stories of notable stones and early Morris County settlers. Held each October; costumes encouraged, all ages welcome. Check the Hanover Township website for current scheduling.
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