Funeral Customs On Display At Allaire Sunday

The funeral customs of the 19th century will be re-enacted this weekend as the re-creates the funeral of Frances Duncan Allaire during a free event Sunday.

Wife of owner James P. Allaire, Frances Allaire died from an unknown illness in March of 1836, and each year the historic village, on Allaire Road, honors her memory by re-enacting the funeral services, Allaire officials have said.

The funeral re-enactment is an annual tradition that began about 20 years ago.

James Allaire founded the village, which was called Howell Iron Works, in the 1820s to produce iron for his steamship building company in New York City, but after the invention of steel, iron became obsolete and put the village out of business by the 1850s, Tichansky said.

More than 100 years later, the abandoned village in 1957 was declared an historic site by the State of New Jersey and turned into a state park.

The historic village mimics what life would have been like in 1836, during the village’s most prosperous year, just before its steady decline into bankruptcy.

“Most of the area was farmland, so this was a very industrial area for Monmouth County in the 1830s,” she said. “The village was only in operation for about 20, 25 years.”

The funeral procession will begin at 2 p.m., starting at the Allaire Family Mansion and ending in the village chapel. Admission is free.