| Cemetery Number | NT004 |
| Town | NEWPORT |
| Cemetery Name | BRAMAN CEMETERY |
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| Graves List | Display Graves List |
| Location | FAREWELL ST |
| State | RI |
| Direction | E |
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| Distance | 15 |
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| Size in Feet | 500 |
| Size in Feet | 300 |
| Inscriptions | 2450 |
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| Exist? | YES |
| Last seen date? | 2009 |
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| Comment | "This cemetery is also called Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Newport #4. It is located on Fairwell (sic) Street opposite the Common Burial Ground. Only husband and wife pairs born through 1850 were recorded by Beamon until 2020, when the entire site was documented. It was active during most of the twentieth century and includes Jewish sections, sections for U.S. Navy related burials, and reflects the diversity of the city.
This cemetery has 16 sections (A-Q with no K). The section field shows the section letter. Some of these sections have a Jewish section. This is deliniated with a "J" after the section letter (i.e. FJ for the Jewish part of the F section).
The cemetery was established in 1898 by David Braman, Daniel Braman, and Robert Fell on land that had been part of the family farm. It was active during most of the twentieth century and includes Jewish sections, sections for U.S. Navy related burials, and reflects the diversity of the city. In 1981 the site was forfeited to the City of Newport which currently maintains the site. The original site plans and plot sale records are located in City Hall.
Naval burials- Newport has had a connection to the U.S. Navy since colonial times. A “new” navy hospital opened in 1910 and was expanded in 1918 to accommodate 1000 patients. In addition to graves for people who served in the military living or retired in Newport, the cemetery also has two sections purchased by the hospital for those who died there.
Greek burials- By 1896 four Greeks were known to have been in Newport from the island of Skiathos and would be soon joined by others from Skiathos and Lesbos. Opportunities in the local fishing industry and tensions between Greece and Turkey may have encouraged people to move to Newport. The growing Greek community would be employed in a variety of jobs in the city in addition to the fishing industry. Saint Spyridon congregation was chartered in 1915 and worshipped many places before buying their current house of worship on Thames street in 1924.
Jewish sections-Newport’s Congregation Jeshuat Israel (CJI) established a cemetery fund in October of 1895 but didn’t immediately act to purchase land. In the meantime, a group of Newport Jews, not all of whom were affiliated with the congregation, formed the Goel Zedeick Society and purchased six lots in the City-owned North Common Burying Ground. This is the small fenced area located near the northwest corner of Van Zandt Avenue and Farewell Street. There were only 3 internments there, the last one taking place in 1944. The death of Mrs. Florence Engell in November of 1898 moved CJI to use the previously established burial fund to purchase 10 lots in the privately-owned Braman Cemetery, located on Farewell Street south of the North Common Burying Ground; two additional lots were purchased between 1899 and 1905. These comprise the present Section III. The granite and limestone entrance gates were dedicated in 1911. At least two people, a Dannin daughter and grandson, were reinterred in Section III from unspecified unconsecrated ground. Four more lots were purchased by the congregation sometime later in what became Section II. Another portion of Section II consists of 20 lots south of the CJI section purchased and resold between 1906 and 1935 by a number of individuals and organizations, many of whom were not affiliated with Touro Synagogue. Separate areas were owned by CJI, the Cheva Kadisha (a burial society established circa 1913), B’rith Abraham Lodge No. 294, and B’rith Shalom Lodge No. 255. Section I consists of 8 lots purchased between 1925 and 1927 with some plots being resold into the 1930s. Most of the people buried here were members of Newport’s Congregation Ahavas Achim, but the lots were purchased by individuals or families, not by the congregation. All of these various burials were brought together under the oversight of the newly chartered Jewish Cemetery Unification Association in 1976.
The gravestones in this cemetery were photographed in 2020-2021 by Lew Keen. |
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