Cemetery Records in Philadelphia

Cemetery Records In Philadelphia EDWIN S. DUNKERLEY HEN I WAS A YOUNG MAN families gathered on Memorial Day at the graves of their loved ones. Flowers and potted plants were placed on the graves, and the families brought picnic lunches to eat after the services. The aged veterans marched to the cemeteries with a band proceeding playing a funeral dirge, the firing squad and the veterans and their families followed. Our family went to Mount Vernon Cemetery. Some of the older folk with their children would go down to the Winfield Scott Post No. 114 lot where after the service the firing squad would fire the salute and the bugler would play the last post. We boys and girls would try to get the empty cartridges. In the afternoon we would usually go to Laurel Hill Cemetery. A train would come up on the Reading Railroad and stop at the station at Laurel Hill, the Meade Post No. 1 would disembark with a choir from one of the city churches, a band and the families of the veterans. Services were always held at the graves of General George Meade. Some years the Post came by boat up the Schuylkill River. Funeral trolleys were used in Philadelphia until 1930. They were painted black and hung with funeral draperies, suitable space was provided for the casket and seats for the family and the pallbearers. These cars were run to any cemetery adjacent to the regular trolley lines. Before 1800 Philadelphia graveyards were provided by the city or were laid out near the churches. With the westward growth of the city the repositories for the dead, once consecrated by the tears of the bereaved and, for awhile, preserved in decent keeping by grateful affection, were left to neglect and forgetfulness, with every prospect of being ultimately disturbed. By an Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania approved I April 1803 the Board of Health was incorporated, to be composed of members from the city of Philadelphia, the Northern Liberties, Southwark and Moyamensing for the inspection of incoming vessels. The Board also began to supervise interments within the city. In 1826 the first mutual and associate type cemetery was organized and laid out. To assist those searching for 19th century burial W 173 174 Cemetery Records In Philadelphia records there follows a list of these cemeteries. It is suggested that when seeking information from these cemeteries one should list the names wanted; ages, if known; lot and section, if known; last known name of person or family buried in the lot and if possible last known address. The reason for these suggestions is that the office workers or employees in most cemeteries are few in number and do not have much spare time to devote to looking up records. Many of the old day books are not readily available; some records are kept in folders, some on cards, and permits are in envelopes in the vaults. The first of the associate type cemeteries was The Mutual Burying-Ground Association who bought ground on the south side of Washington Avenue east of Tenth Street in 1826. This was followed by the Philadelphia Cemetery on Passyunk Road between Twentieth and Twenty-Second Streets. The Union Burial-Ground Society cemetery extended from Fifth and Sixth Streets, and Washington Avenue and Federal Street. The Machpelah Cemetery Society bought ground on the north side of Washington Avenue, at Tenth Street, about 1827. In the same year The Philanthropic Cemetery on Passyunk Road was established. Ronaldsons or Philadelphia Cemetery was laid out by James Ronaldson, at his own expense, as a public cemetery on land bounded by Ninth and Tenth Streets, and Federal and Wharton Streets. At some point 13,500 bodies were removed from there to Forest Hill Cemetery. The site of Ronalson's is now a city playground. All of the above mentioned cemeteries have disappeared, as well as Old Oaks, Fairmount, Mt. Lebanon and Beechwood. The last two being projected one after another in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County on ground long since occupied by the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo. The proprietors of Laurel Hill Cemetery were the first to encounter the risk and expenditure to establish a cemetery on a scale comensurate with the needs of a large population, removed from the probable approach of business or private dwellings. Located four miles from the center of Philadelphia, it lies between Ridge Avenue, Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill River, consisting of about ninetynine acres. The first interment was that of Mrs. Mercy Carlisle on 19 October 1836. Over the years various churches have moved graves from their burial grounds to Laurel Hill. The vault of The First Presbyterian Church: "The Vault beneath/lie the remains removed from/The Burial Ground of the/First Presbyterian Church/in Bank Street in 1847.48/". St. John's Lutheran Church founded in 1806 by seceders from St. Michael's and Zion moved the bodies from their original burial ground on Race Street to Section Y, where a few The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 175 tombstones were reset. Their second burial ground on Frankfort Turnpike Road was moved to Section 0. St. Stephen's Church organized in 1822 on Tenth Street, north of Chestnut Street, moved their burial ground to Section L about 1866. The Fifth Baptist Church organized in 1811 as Sanson Street Baptist Church, purchased Section 6 in South Laurel Hill Cemetery, and moved the dead there from the Sanson Street ground. The Society of Friends purchased lots in Section 4, South Laurel Hill in 1852. Bodies from the First German Reformed Burial Ground at Race and Orianna Streets were removed to Section 13, South Laurel Hill in 1857. There is a stone in memory of the Philadelphia doctors, nurses and druggists who died while aiding the yellow fever victims in Norfolk, Virginia in 1853. Monument Cemetery on the west side of Broad Street and the southeast side of Turners' Lane, in South Philadelphia Township, was laid out in 1836.37 by Dr. John A. Elkinton who owned the property. It was originally called "Pere La Chaise Cemetery". It is no longer in existence. Lafayette Cemetery was founded in 1839 in Moyamensing, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, and Federal and Wharton Streets. Over 47,000 people were buried here, the last in 1942. Today this is a city playground. The cemetery records are in the possession of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Woodlands Cemetery on Woodland Avenue, adjoining the Veterans Hospital still remains; it was purchased by a group of citizens in 1840. The Tenth Presbyterian Church moved graves here in 1849, to Section G. The Sixth Presbyterian Graveyard was moved to Section I, in 1851. The Heston Burial Ground which was on Master Street, near Fifteenth Street, was removed here. The Scotsman's Lot was established by the St. Andrew's Society for "friendless Scotsmen dying far from home and kindred", has seven stones, the last dated 1940. Franklin Cemetery was established in 1840, as a rural cemetery of about nine acres on the Frankford Road, north of Lehigh Avenue. Olive Cemetery, at Girard and Belmont Avenues, and Lebanon Cemetery, at Broad Street and Passyunk Avenue, were both established as cemeteries for negroes in 1849. Both have disappeared and the bodies removed in 1923 to Eden and Mt. Zion Cemeteries. Odd Fellows Cemetery Company was established by an act of the State Legislature in 1849. Lots were assigned to various Lodges of the Order, and a portion set aside for sale to the general public. 176 Cemetery Records In Philadelphia It was enlarged in 1865 by a tract of twenty-eight acres on Lamb Tavern Road, known as Mount Peace. In 1907 they purchased fiftyfive acres in Rockledge Borough, Montgomery County called Lawnview; this was later expanded to total seventy-five acres. The original cemetery at Twenty-Third and Diamond Streets was designated in 1951 as the site for public housing; the 65,000 bodies buried there were disinterred and moved to Lawnview Cemetery where a tract was set aside as a Memorial Park. The American Mechanics' Cemetery was projected by members of the Order of United American Mechanics and Daughters of America on ground adjoining the Odd Fellows Cemetery in 1849. The Cathedral Cemetery in West Philadelphia, at Forty-Eight Street and Lancaster Avenue consisting of forty-three acres was purchased by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1849. Glenwood Cemetery at Ridge Avenue and Islington Lane was incorporated in 1850, made up largely of Odd Fellows members. Mount Moriah Cemetery three miles from the Market Street Bridge on Kingsessing Avenue, extending into Delaware County, consists of fifty-four acres purchased by private parties in 1854. Two hundred and twenty-seven acres were added later surrounding Cobb's Creek. Many church burial grounds were moved to Mount Moriah over the years. Among these was the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church founded in 1827 on Chestnut Street, the new church was built on the site of the old burial ground. The Ninth Presbyterian Church established in 1823, sold their burial ground on the southwest corner of Nineteenth and Race Streets in 1865. Graves were removed here to Section 44; more graves moved here in 1915. The Welsh Burying Ground, from Market to Ludlow Streets between Fortieth and Forty-First Streets, was purchased in 1809 by the St. David's Society. They conveyed it in 1834 to the Welsh Society. Bodies were removed from here in 1864 to Section 203. Bodies from The Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, organized in 1842, were removed to Section 114. The United Presbyterian Church Lot is in Section 133. The Fourth Presbyterian Church, founded in 1799, has a large lot in Section 207, but it contains only two tombstones. The Olivet Presbyterian Church has Section 113. Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church lot is in Section 130. Also St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church has a lot here. The Methodist Conference of Philadelphia is in Section 113. There are two German Church lots in Sections 109 and 116. Section 200 has a lot known as Soldier's Rest. The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 177 Mount Vernon Cemetery at Ridge and Lehigh Avenue was organized in 1856 on twenty-eight acres opposite Laurel Hill. In 1869 graves from the Second Presbyterian Church Burial Ground were moved here. Leverington Cemetery on Ridge Road in Roxborough was established in 1857. Ivy Hill Cemetery on the Easton Road near Germantown, consisting of eighty acres was established in 1867, as the Germantown and Chestnut Hill Cemetery Company. The name was changed to Ivy Hill in 1871. Over 300 bodies from the Second Baptist Church Burying Ground on New Market Street in Northern Liberties were moved here, to Section C in 1869-71. Greenwood Cemetery on Adams Avenue in Frankford was established by the Knights of Pythias in 1869. However the property which was originally the home of Commodore Stephen Decatur, known as Mount Airy, had many Revolutionary soldiers buried here. West Laurel Hill Cemetery on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, opposite Manayunk, was chartered in 1869. It consists of one hundred and ten acres. Mount Sinai Cemetery on Bridge Street, above Jackson Street in Frankford, adjoining Adath Jeshurun Congregation Cemetery was laid out in 1872. As a Jewish cemetery it became non-congregational in 1894. National Cemetery on Limekiln Turnpike near Germantown, where in 1885 the United States moved 283 soldiers bodies, including five Confederate soldiers. In Bala-Cynwyd, Lower Merion Township, there is a Chinese Burial Ground that was founded in 1888. Most of the Chinese population of the area are buried here. It is to be hoped that this listing of 19th century Philadelphia area cemeteries will be of help to the searcher of family grave records.