emmaus united methodist church in smithville, nj is where you will find the powhatan memorial. fate had doomed the powhatan and all souls aboard, when in 1854 after setting sail from lahavre france, intended to arrive in new york, a nor'easter blew in and ran the ship aground in beach haven, splitting the ship in half and killing all on board. sad, right? well, it gets worse. because the ship ran aground in the winter months, recovering and burial of the bodies was difficult work. while some were buried near the wreck site, others were found floating in inlets, bays or creeks. local men found these 54 germans and brought them back to be buried at their church. although the residents did the best they could by having a coffin and burial clothes for each, the bodies were buried in a mass grave without individual headstones (i believe many were buried without names), a spooky little side note to this story is that because the ground was frozen, they couldn't be buried right away so they were stored until spring when the gound had thawed. thing is, when they removed the bodies from storage...some were missing and no one knows what happened to them. this is according to local folklore, i am not sure there is any truth to it...but still spooky! the emmaus united methodist church is on route 9 right across from the shoppes at smithville and you can see this monument from the road. this is a very old cemetery and i do suggest you take a walk through and read some of the headstones. some have been there a very long time. there were a couple odd things i came across, which is normal when visiting older cemeteries. i just thought i would share...
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