Newark Union Cemetery was established in 1687, though earlier graves are present there on land donated by Valentine Hollingsworth in part because there were already people buried on the spot, even if the locations of those graves are unknown. The earliest dated headstones include Dinah Cartmell, her husband Thomas Cartmell, and a rock inscribed "AB 1759" that research identifies as the resting place of Alice Beeson. Many members of Brandywine Hundred’s prominent families are buried in the cemetery, including families whose names became familiar on local roads and neighborhoods such as Beeson, Carr, Foulk, Grubb, Husband, Miller, Pierce, Talley, Weldin, and Wilson. Maps from 1849 and 1868 show these families owning large tracts of land, mostly for farming, and many of their original farmhouses still stand. Their importance extended beyond farming, with links to local historical sites such as George Miller Sr., innkeeper at the Blue Ball Barn, his son George L. Miller who was born there, George Mousley and Thomas Babb who fought at Brandywine Battlefield during the Revolutionary War, and George W. Weldin who guarded Confederate soldiers at Fort Delaware during the Civil War.