The Lost Cemetery: Cedar Hill Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

By 1820, Mechanicsburg's founding fathers including John Gosweiler and Henry Stouffer among others had laid out a number of town building lots, so it was not surprising that by this time there were 30 to 35 houses built in the town along with a public square. In 1828 the town's leaders moved to have the site incorporated as the Borough of Mechanicsburg in Cumberland County. Its original boundaries were Simpson Street to the south; Hoguestown (York) Road to the west; Green Street to the north; and Silver Spring (Walnut) Road to the east.

The most widely known cemeteries in this area were outside those boundaries including Silver Spring Presbyterian Cemetery; Trindle Spring Cemetery (Lutheran); and Peace Church (now St. Johns) Cemetery (also Lutheran). Although these cemeteries were popular, they did not provide appropriate burial grounds for other groups, such as Methodists, Mennonites and Brethren who lived in the Borough.

This lack of a cemetery for other groups was recognized and a group of early residents created Cedar Hill Cemetery. It was not within the boundaries of Mechanicsburg at that time, but it was less than a half mile away in Silver Spring Township along Trindle Springs Road. The actual date of the creation of the new cemetery remains a mystery, but it is believed that Cedar Hill Cemetery continued to be used for new burials at least until 1862. In that year, borough leaders developed Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Upper Allen Township. Fourteen years later, in 1876, Mechanicsburg Cemetery was developed. Since Cedar Hill Cemetery was only on an acre of land, the borough likely realized there would be no room for expansion, and thus decided to develop other alternatives.

There are many sources that confirm the existence of this early cemetery located at the corner of today's West Main Street and West Street in the western end of the Borough. Among those sources are many deeds that cite the cemetery with the name Cedar Hill. The individuals listed on the deeds come from significant families of the Borough. Some of these early residents include the Coover family, in particular, the daughters of John Coover and their husbands. These include Susan Coover, wife of Dr. Philip Long; Sarah Coover, wife of Ephraim Zug (Sarah would later marry William Oswald); and Elizabeth Coover, wife of Levi Kauffman. These early deeds from the 1850's and 1860's included a covenant that" ... this lot of ground shall not be used for any purpose but that of a cemetery or burying ground for the dead". It was a covenant that continued with each change of ownership.

Although there are many missing details concerning Cedar Hill Cemetery, it is possible to develop an historical scenario by weaving the known evidence. There were a number of individuals memorialized (with names and dates of birth and death engraved on stone markers) at Chestnut Hill and Mechanicsburg Cemeteries who died many years before either cemetery existed. A list of all the names and their associated families is available at the Cumberland County Historical Society's Hamilton Library, however, some of particular interest will be mentioned below.

Two of the earliest deaths in 1823 and 1827 were the death dates for Barbara Longnecker, two months of age, and Sarah R. Longnecker, ten months of age, respectively. Their father, Henry Longnecker died in 1837 and their brother, John P. died in 1852. Even though these individuals died ten to forty years before the creation of the Chestnut Hill Cemetery, they were all listed on a large stone obelisk in Chestnut Hill Cemetery. Other Longnecker relatives, who died after Chestnut Hill had opened, were also engraved on this monument including: Elizabeth, 1873; Matilda, 1881; Hyman, 1888; Rear Admiral Edwin, 1923; and Maude H., 1982. 

Another death that occurred September 17, 1832 and was memorialized at Chestnut Hill was Maria W. Dorsheimer, the daughter of J. and M. Dorsheimer. When Mr. Dorsheimer died in 1879, Mrs. Dorsheimer purchased a monument for his grave in August, 1882 from Coble and Arnold. Two years later in December 1884, Mrs. Dorsheimer purchased a sculpture of a young girl to be placed in Chestnut Hill to commemorate the death of her daughter, Maria, in 1832. What is particularly interesting is that Coble and Arnold’s ledger notated that they had bought the “old” stone and credited Mrs. Dorsheimer’s account. Coble and Arnold’s ledger for the 1870’s, 1880’s, and 1890’s cite a number of these transactions involving the Chestnut Hill and Mechanicsburg Cemeteries.

Another prominent resident of Mechanicsburg involved in multiple cemeteries was William Cooper Eckels and his family. He and his wife, Sarah Ann Proctor, had two children: a son, William Officer and a daughter, Mary J. Both died within seven days of each other in May 1857 from scarlet fever. William was not quite seven years old and Mary was only two years old. Even though these two children died almost twenty years before the opening of the Mechanicsburg Cemetery, they, their parents, a brother and his wife, and two maternal aunts were all engraved on one monument located in the Mechanicsburg Cemetery. The aunts died in 1883 and 1887. Both parents died in 1899 and the brother, Walter Lowrie Eckels, died in 1911. An interesting oddity in this story is that there is an old broken gravestone with the date 1857 and a verse that would only be appropriate for a young child located on Stouffer Alley at the end of a private driveway in Mechanicsburg. One wonders if it was once in the Cedar Hill Cemetery for Mary J. Eckels.

Another reputable family of Mechanicsburg who were now possibly interred in the Mechanicsburg Cemetery were Henry Kimmel, his wife Catherine, and their seven children: Samuel, John, Jacob, Abner, Elizabeth, Sarah and Kate. Only Kate survived to adulthood. The other six children died between 1827 and 1842 and each had a brownstone monument placed in the Peace Church Cemetery. Their father, Henry died in 1849, but there is no record of his burial or a stone in the Peace Church Cemetery. A large monument was purchased by Mrs. Catherine Kimmel for Henry and the family in May 1879 from Coble and Arnold. The monument has the names of all the children including Kate (married name was Kate Bailey) who died in 1877 and both Henry and Catherine. Catherine died in 1882. According to the ledgers of Coble and Arnold, Catherine brought the whole family together on one stone in the Mechanicsburg Cemetery before her own death. It appears that this stone, at least, memorialized the deaths from the two cemeteries, Cedar Hill and Peace Church, since Mechanicsburg Cemetery did not exist until 1876.

There are many instances where it can be documented that family members were brought together many years after their deaths. One involved the family of Andrew Seifert. By using the records of Coble and Arnold as well as the readings of Jeremiah Zeamer, we can track the journey of the family. Andrew and his wife Susan had twins: a girl, Leah J. and a boy, Austin M. on May 19, 1869. Sadly, in less than four months both children had died from cholera. In this instance, the children were buried in the Trindle Springs Cemetery. Fifteen years later, Andrew purchased a double stone for his twins’ grave and it was placed in the Trindle Springs Cemetery on October 14, 1886 as documented by Coble and Arnold’s ledger. His wife, Susan died in 1892. During the 1894 – 1895 timeframe, Jeremiah Zeamer documented the double burial stone inscription in the Trindle Springs Cemetery. He recorded Austin and Leah but not their mother, Susan. In 1893, however, Andrew purchased a family stone which was placed in the Mechanicsburg Cemetery. Sometime after Zeamer’s recordings and before 1911 when Andrew died, the double stone originally purchased for the twins was moved to the Mechanicsburg Cemetery. It can be recognized by the sketch made by Coble and Arnold in their ledger. Also, more recent readings of the Trindle Springs Cemetery have not been able to find the double stone Zeamer had recorded in 1895.

This Seifert Family story illustrates that early burials took place in older cemeteries and were later moved to newer cemeteries like Mechanicsburg and Chestnut Hill. However, very few of the fifty-six families recorded in the appendix have been found in any of the older Cumberland County cemeteries that have documented lists of the transcriptions of the stones. This research was conducted using the Church and Cemetery Records at the Cumberland County Historical Society. Without finding evidence to the contrary, these family members may have been buried in the Cedar Hill Cemetery and later moved or memorialized to Mechanicsburg and Chestnut Hill Cemeteries.

Since the majority of these families appeared to have individually memorialized these early deaths on new family or individual stones in the new cemetery, there was apparently no mass re-interment of the bodies and/or stones from the Cedar Hill Cemetery. Such a process would have required court action of which none has been found thus far. Therefore, it appears that stones and/or bodies were slowly moved from Cedar Hill Cemetery as older relatives died. At that time, the kin that had died earlier, mostly children, joined the family either in the Mechanicsburg or Chestnut Hill Cemeteries.

By the late nineteenth century, Cedar Hill Cemetery was becoming only a memory. In 1891 the land surrounding the one acre cemetery was annexed from Silver Spring Township and was made part of the Borough of Mechanicsburg. The cemetery was frequently cited in the Borough Council minutes as a landmark or a boundary. Most of the time, however, it was cited due to the owner of the property not maintaining the pavement and curbing or not removing snow or weeds.

After many transfers of ownership, the “old cemetery” was sold to the Honorable Judge Wilbur F. Sadler in 1884. Although he sold it almost immediately to Robert H. Sayre, Sadler and two attorneys, John Hays and George Hostler were cited in the tax records from 1892 to 1906 as owners and paid the taxes for the property. Prior to this time, the cemetery was not listed in the tax records because active burial grounds were not taxed. From the 1850’s until the 1884 sale to Sadler, the property surrounding the cemetery was owned by John Nisley. Nisley was taxed for his land minus the one acre of cemetery ground.

In 1907, the estate of Robert H. Sayre was sold and H. H. Mercer, Esquire, a well-known attorney in Mechanicsburg, purchased the “old cemetery”. Only a few years after H. H. Mercer, Esq. acquired the cemetery grounds, there were discussions at the Borough Council meetings that resulted in a notice of the opening West Street between West Simpson and West Main Streets. In 1908, the solicitor for the Council was requested to write a legal opinion concerning whether the old cemetery property could be considered a nuisance and therefore taken over by the Borough for a park or a road. The solicitor, George G. Lloyd, reported that the Borough could not declare the property a nuisance and could not legally take it and make it into a park. Mr. Lloyd was less definitive about making it into a road, since such an action had to be proven as necessary for the good of the public. He cautioned the Council that the families with relatives buried there may protest the action.

In 1910 West Street was again proposed. The street bordered or possibly overlapped the cemetery property. When the Council published the notice of the proposed street in the Mechanicsburg Journal, H. H. Mercer took action to stop the proposal. At the next Council meeting in December 1910, a letter from H. H. Mercer was introduced into the meeting minutes. The letter cautioned the “Council against entering, or in any manner trespassing upon the premise located between Main and Simpson streets at the Western end of the Borough, known as ‘Cedar Hill Cemetery’ and more commonly known as the old cemetery.” The written reply was not recorded in the Council minutes. According to the records in later meetings, West Street was proclaimed opened. However, in the early 1940’s West Street was remembered as a dirt road with weeds and tree stumps growing in the middle of it.

H. H. Mercer and after his death in 1921, his son, Forrest Mercer, were listed in the tax records from 1907 until it was sold to Edwin E. Nailor in September 1943. During these thirty-six years, Mercer was frequently cited in Borough Council minutes as the owner and the one responsible for maintaining the appearance of the property.

In the 1930’s and early 1940’s, children on the west end of the Borough used the cemetery grounds as a playground. Baseball, kickball, and other games were frequently played on the lot regardless of the overgrown weeds. There is no memory of tombstones on the property at this time, possibly because the stones had been removed by relatives or neighbors. There have been a number of stories from senior citizens that gravestones were seen on residents’ private property in the neighborhood of the cemetery.

In 1944, the western part of the acre cemetery was sold to Ann Schubauer. Schubauer already owned the lot at 615 West Main Street. In March 1946, Edwin Nailor sold the rest of the cemetery grounds, bordering Simpson Street on the south, West Street on the east, and West Main Street on the north. To Dr. C. Richard Brandt. Unlike the earlier deeds, there was no covenant about the original purpose of the land. However, there was a covenant prohibiting any structure to be built on the first twenty-four feet of land directly south of the West Main Street curb. This covenant was followed for both 601 and 603 West Main Street houses. These twenty- four feet were to remain green. Another covenant stated that the land was not to be used for business and commercial purposes.

In 1946 through 1947, Dr. Brandt built his home and doctor office on the grounds. It was reported by Dr. Brandt’s son that bones were found during the excavation for the house. Some of the children who used the property as a playground remember finding brass hinges on the property which may have been used on the coffins.

Although there are a few long time residents of Mechanicsburg that remember discussions about the old cemetery, no one appears to know how it was created or how it was dismantled. It was common knowledge among the town councilmen as late as May 1941, when the cemetery was cited for needing the weeds cut by Burgess Hutter in the Council minutes. One wonders why a prominent piece of ground on the Main Street of the Borough could become so mysterious in such a short period of time.

Obviously, there are still missing pieces to the puzzle of the Cedar Hill Cemetery that have not been uncovered thus far. In addition to the obvious questions like how was it created and how was it abolished, there are two questions that are particularly mysterious. The first is why the Mercers continued to own and protect the cemetery for thirty-six years. Forrest Mercer, like his father, was a prominent attorney in the area. He was even the solicitor for the Borough Council during part of this time period. The Mercers were not natives of Mechanicsburg, but they apparently felt some responsibility for the cemetery until such time as they decided to leave the direct vicinity of the Borough and move to Camp Hill.

The other intriguing question is why was land that held the graves of so many children from prominent families of Mechanicsburg be allowed to be forgotten and thus two houses permitted to be built on this sacred ground.

It is doubtful, if we will ever know the complete story of the Cedar Hill Cemetery. The story and the names of all those buried there will remain a mystery. If the surviving relatives did not remain in the area or died prior to the creation of the Chestnut Hill and Mechanicsburg Cemeteries, there would have been no opportunity for the removal of those graves from Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Since it was reported by Dr. Brandt’s son that bones were found during the evacuation for the house, it is highly probable that at least some bodies were never removed. In actuality, it cannot be documented that any bodies were really removed. The deaths may just have been memorialized on the new tombstones or the only old stones were removed to the new site.

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