Baby’s headstone from 1793 mysteriously appears in Borough Park garage

June 29, 2018 By Gordon Walker Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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A surprising discovery to say the least was made when a man found a headstone dating back centuries in his Borough Park garage.

Richard Shilling was rummaging through his garage attempting to clear out some junk, but ended up making a chilling finding.

“I was like ‘This is creepy. This is not supposed to be here,’” Schilling said.

What he was referring to was an engraved gravestone dating back to Sept. 30, 1793. The headstone bears the name of Lucas Pond, a baby who survived a mere 52 days, son of Enoch and Peggy Pond. Using FindAGrave.com, Schilling traced the headstone to Ashford, Connecticut, a town more than 150 miles away.

James Revichsky oversees the Babcock Cemetery in Ashford and believes the headstone to be authentic, although he has no clue how it could have ended up in a Brooklyn garage, NBCNewYork reported.

Schilling’s family has owned the Borough Park home for almost 100 years, but their tenants have come and gone, and he believes maybe one of them left it there.

“It’s such a creepy thing to keep as a souvenir,” said the puzzled Schilling, “Why would anybody want this?”