A Forgotten Graveyard in Cavey's Hollow

Newtown Enterprise - April 23, 1881 

“Cavey’s Hollow. – Our country is too new for many old historical legends, but still, having a few we must take the best uses of them.  Start out on the road from Newtown to Brownsburg, and on reaching the crossing of the one from Wrightstown to Taylorsville, we find ourselves on high ground, where there is quite an extensive view.  At this season of the year the range of hills commencing at the river and running off into New Jersey above Titusville is plainly to be seen, also the hills about Lambertville.  Nearer is the curving line of the Jericho hill, and under its shadow is the camping ground of the little Continental army, led by George Washington, in 1776, and the houses wherein he and Gen. Greene lived during the eventful winter of 1776-7.  Just at that cross road above mentioned, cast your eye to the left, and a ravine or hollow will be noticed, down which flows a small stream.  It is a cleft between wooded hills, though now it is partially cleared.  It must have been partially cleared before the revolution, for in this hollow lived Cavey, a man who was murdered.  Many a man has been killed and left no sign, but Cavey’s soul would not rest, and he came back again, came back without a head!  He was seen many times and oft.  It appears that a road once led down through this valley or “hollow”, and in the early years of the century, many a young man who at a late hour at night had reluctantly broke himself away from the arms of his dearest, encountered the headless form of Cavey.  Whether Cavey yet appears we cannot now learn, for the road is now blocked up, and the young men now go home around by Canaan in spar-spring buggies.

In the hollow, on the farm occupied by Peter Hogeland, is an old grave yard, where are buried the bodies of Washington’s soldiers.  Some upright pieces of red shale rock mark a number of the graves, and the plow has not molested the sacred ground.  This is one of the few places where, without doubt, still rest the remains of the noble martyrs of ’76.  Considering what our country is now, and what we owe to these men who voluntarily took up arms to achieve its independence, should there not be some public recognition of them, something at least to mark their last resting place?  Let there be a wall built around this sacred spot, and a plain monument erected with a suitable inscription, in this Cavey Hollow Cemetery.” 

1876 Atlas Showing Cavey's Hollow