Help Us Remember Romance Wyatt & His Family

Calumet & Cross Heritage Society is committed to honoring Brothertown Indian history and preserving Brothertown burial sites. We are remembering Romance Wyatt and his family with a new readable marker and a hydrangea bush in the Deansboro Cemetery in New York.

Romance Wyatt (1826-1907) was born in “Old Brothertown” and is often cited as the last Brothertown Indian to live in the area. The identities of his birth parents are unknown, but Cynthia Dick took him in at a young age and raised him. Romance worked as a boatman for 30 years on the Chenango and Erie Canals, and he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he married Eunice Ann Beach, a white woman, and had a daughter, Nettie, who died at age fifteen. Romance planted a hydrangea tree to mark Nettie’s gravesite in Deansboro Cemetery. He and his wife are buried beside her.

We'll have the marker and bush ordered by March 7, 2026. We hope to celebrate the event on Eeyawquittoowauconnuck Day, November 7, 2026. It will also be close to Veterans Day!