Highland Cemetery is located in the western edge of Hopewell Borough, and its 14 acres cover a steep hillside of the Sourland Mountains. A small portion of the cemetery is in the borough, with much of it located in Hopewell Township.
The original property was purchased in 1873 from Edward VanDyke and his wife, and the cemetery was established on May 17,1877. Several graves are marked with sand stones and field stones dated in the early 1860’s.
This suggests that a graveyard could be found on the VanDyke estate, and these were the first residents of Highland Cemetery. There was no borough when the cemetery was created, and in 1891 Hopewell Borough was established with its western border in the cemetery.
In 2023, the Board of Trustees expressed concern that all of the cemetery’s documents were paper-only records, with specific concern about preservation, access and risk of loss of such documents. Discussion and research began as to the process and cost of digitization of the cemetery’s paper lot cards, paper maps and hand written ledger books. Board members spent many hours learning how information is extracted, digitized and stored for a cemetery.
Most software platforms involved sending personnel to scan the lot cards and copy the existing maps. A map and digital record of this information would be created and stored on a cloud. Some challenges to this platform were that Highland’s lot cards, over 4,000 in total, are handwritten in cursive. The companies that create the maps using lot cards shared with us that many younger employees cannot read cursive.
A company that intrigued the board was Chronicle Cemetery Software Company. Chronicle, based in Australia, uses existing paper maps, geocoding, artificial intelligence and drone photography to create a digital map and database. After the board met with several companies, Highland Cemetery partnered with Chronicle.
The first phase of the project involved a drone pilot coming to the cemetery to photograph every headstone to a 2-inch resolution. That was supposed to commence in June of 2024; however, it was discovered that a large percentage of the headstones in the cemetery were illegible due to a growth of lichen/moss on the stone’s surfaces.
The photography was postponed, and the cemetery’s board and volunteers set out to clean the stones. Over the summer of 2024, each stone was scrubbed and rinsed. Throughout that June, July and August, board members could be found early mornings and evenings pulling over 3,000 feet of hose, buckets and brushes through the cemetery grounds.
Starting on Sept. 4, 2024, the drone photographer spent four full days taking pictures of the more than 4,089 headstones and footstones. Each photo was geocoded to record the exact location of every headstone.
The information was sent to Chronicle’s Geographic Information System team in Australia, and the work of creating the digital map began. The map was released to the board in March 2025, but was not made immediately available to the public.
The board began the tedious process of comparing each individual lot card to both the paper and digital maps to confirm spelling, dates and location of family members interred in each lot. That process started with our more recent sections and continues today with the oldest section, with interments from 1877 through 1900.
Highland Cemetery is the resting place for more than 400 veterans representing every war. They are commemorated with grave markers, flags and military color guard honors every Memorial Day.
On the new digital map, each is marked with a dog tag icon and many decorated veterans will be highlighted on the map as well. We are continuing to work with the Hopewell Valley American Legion Post 339 to identify and record veterans on the digital map to make sure each is honored and every veteran accounted for.
Families can honor their loved ones by creating digital memorials with biographies and photos through Chronicle’s platform. Each memorial submission directly supports Highland Cemetery, with 40% of fees going toward the ongoing care and preservation of the grounds.
You can visit our website at highlandcemeteryhopewell.org and access the digital map at map.chronicle.rip/highland_cemetery_hopewell. You can also scan the QR Code on your phone or tablet to navigate the grounds and walk straight to any grave.
If you’re curious, try looking up a family member, friend or someone you know to explore their plot and details. We hope that this new tool makes connecting with the history and stories within Highland Cemetery easier and more meaningful for everyone.