Bethel Chapel is located south on Old Post Rd. from the Church (between Rt 129 and Cleveland Drive). The entrance is on Old Post Road South, across from the Croton-Harmon High School, up the driveway to the top of the Cemetery Hill. It is a functioning house of worship. Funerals, weddings and Christmas Vespers are held here. Each year during August our regular Sunday Worship is held here.
Bethel Cemetery is located at the intersection of Radnor Avenue, Old Post Road and Cleveland Drive (formerly known as the Five Corners). Croton residents, of all religious denominations, have been buried here over the past two hundred years!
The cemetery is managed by the Trustees of the Asbury United Methodist Church.
A limited number of plots are still available for sale. Contact Tom Quartuccio, Cemetery Manager, at 914-271-3468 for details.
Information about the graves – photos and locations of individuals – may be found at https://billiongraves.com
[for your searches Bethel Cemetery is located in Westchester County, New York State]
History
Altar inside the Chapel
The Pierre Van Cortlandt family opened their home to traveling ministers and political figures, including Benjamin Franklin. A corner bedroom was kept at the manor in readiness for visitors. The room was used so often by Methodist Circuit Riders, and well-known preachers, including George Whitefield and Francis Asbury, that it became known as “The Prophet’s Corner”. Circuit Riders were Methodist ministers who traveled by horseback to prescribed areas of the country to preach and perform authorized religious ceremonies for congregations that did not have resident ministers. Before the completion of Bethel Chapel, services were often conducted from the porch of Van Cortlandt Manor.
An organized Methodist Society existed in Croton in the late 1780’s, when plans were made to build a church that is now called Bethel Chapel on land ceded by Van Cortlandt. The Chapel was completed in the early 1790’s. Situated on a hill adjacent to the old Albany and New York Post Road, and overlooking the Hudson River, Bethel Chapel numbered among its worshipers many of the men prominent in the early history of our nation and more particularly in founding of Cortlandttown and Westchester County.
It was at Bethel Church, according to Bolton’s history of Westchester, one Sunday evening when Colonel Van Cortlandt was attending services, that he chanced and to see a well-dressed Indian leaning on a windowsill, listening to the sermon. On learning it was Brant, the Mohawk Indian chief, who was stopping at the tavern nearby, Colonel Van Cortlandt invited him to dine with the family at the Manor House instead. The elite wars became the topic of conversation. The Colonel had once chased Brant and had been conscious that Indian sharpshooters had attempted to kill him while he was leaning against a tree. When the Colonel spoke of this incident, Brant replied: “I ordered one of my best marksmen to pick you off, but you seemed bulletproof. “
Freeborn Garretson, a clergyman known as Methodism’s “Paul Revere”, spoke at the “new” Chapel in 1793. When Frances Asbury visited the Van Cortlandts in 1795, he came as the first Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. During this visit he wrote in his journal “I had a comfortable time in Croton Chapel with Romans 1:16.” In 1804 Rev. Billy Hibbard became the first resident pastor for the congregation.
Bethel Chapel remains very much as it was when Bishop Asbury preached there. There is no central heating or electricity. A storage lean-to has been added to the back of the building. The Chapel is an inspiration to ministers who preach here, knowing that they preach where Bishop Asbury preached.
Within Bethel Cemetery rest many men who have given their lives for their country. Every war, including the War of Independence far back in 1776, has contributed its quota. It likewise shelters in its bosom many of the men and women who served our community well and helped to build and plan our beautiful village of Croton-on-Hudson.
Bethel Chapel and Cemetery are listed On The New York State and National Register of Historic Places.
