MONUMENTAL MYSTERY -- When the tombstone shop, headquartered in a barn across from the cemetery, went out of business in 1961, a big granite monument was left behind. Weighing at least 2 tons, it lay in four pieces behind the barn. Three of the elements were sound, but the top part had broken into pieces.
The monument is inscribed with the names and birth and death dates of Jonathan R. Kugler (1824-1891) and wife Ann (1827-1910). Kugler was an Alexandria Township farmer. Why his tombstone was scrapped is anybody's guess.
In about 1996 Jeff Scott and Jean Herb were fixing up their 50 Trenton Avenue property, which included the old barn. Builder Dorsey Reading told me that, with a front-end loader already on site, Scott asked him to relocate and assemble the monument on the western end of the lot, near the state hiking and biking trail.
According to an article in the 2016 New Jersey Monthly by Michael Aaron Rockland, Scott explained, “I thought people should see it,” and added, “I get a kick out of watching the occasional person on the trail stop, scratch their heads and wonder why a couple from long ago are buried alone… in the woods.”
That property is now owned by ArtYard, an organization that appreciates quirkiness like no other. So the monument is likely to remain there.
Passersby will continue to think the monument marks the Kuglers' graves.
If it does, it would be a really, really amazing coincidence.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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