NEWPORT HISTORICAL CEMETERY #: NT019 ST. MARY'S OLD CATHOLIC CEM. NEWPORT RI [aka St. Joseph's Cemetery] Also known as Barney Street Cemetery northwest of MT. VERNON & BARNEY ST. 28 burials with 24 inscriptions from 1828 to 1853 Owner: St. Mary's Cemetery, 80 Memorial Blvd, Newport RI 02840 (401) 846-4926 NOTE: Although currently linked with St. Mary's Catholic church, this cemetery was originally set out for St. Joseph's, the first Catholic church in Rhode Island, which was formed in 1828. Its stones commemorate early Irish immigrants, most of them in the prime of life, giving their original town and county in Ireland. The church grew to become St. Mary's, and the first building (a former schoolhouse) was sold. The "Newport Mercury" for Feb. 27, 1864 says: "Workmen are at present busy in stripping off the boards and taking up the floor, previous to its removal, of the old Catholic Church on Mt. Vernon St. It was sold at auction to Mr. Michael Butler in Perry St., who intends using the boards in the erection of small tenements, a class of house now much needed" (index card at NHS). The marble stones now lie flat, set in the turf, their inscriptions gradually dissolving. Bertram Lippincott III published transcriptions and a brief history of the church in "Rhode Island Roots," Dec. 1990, pp. 109-111).