When considering those things of cultural significance in our heritage, one rarely, if ever, thinks of tombstones. Yet pre-1850 stones and their art offer valuable insight into how our ancestors viewed death and life after death, and also reflect changes in the perception of death and rebirth.
The Industrial Revolution brought an end to the individual stonecarver and the use of traditional folk art on markers. Now, because of attrition, due less to over two hundred years of weathering than to modern air pollution, the old stones are in danger of being lost forever with their coffins, hour glasses, and cherubs, their tulips, hearts, and trees of life. The following survey, done in the spring of 1978, is an effort to record the symbolism on the old stones of Cumberland County before it disappears completely.
The primary source for the locations of Cumberland County cemeteries was a Pennsylvania Highways Department map, printed in 1974, which pinpointed eighty-five graveyards. The author found thirteen more cemeteries, bringing the total to ninety-three. Of this number, one was private, two were not to be found, and fifty-three did not yield any symbols for the period surveyed, either because they did not exist before the cut-off date of 1850, or because the stones were devoid of any motif. Only fifteen of the remaining forty-two were really rich in symbolism. They are noted on the map (Figure 2) by stars, while the less fruitful cemeteries are marked by dots. Each cemetery has a number, the key to which will be found in the index. Regrettably, there are probably some small family plots which were missed and are, therefore, not included in this survey. Taking into account all forty-two cemeteries which produced useful iconography, the religious represented were Church of Christ, German Reformed, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist and Presbyterian. Some seemingly had no religious connection, and a handful were family cemeteries. Churchyards which had no stones which came within the scope of the survey were those of several Churches of the Brethren, Churches of God, one Reformed Mennonite, one Evangelical United Brethren Church, and several United Brethren in Christ. Some of these are plain sects which do not countenance embellishment of any kind.
Early stones in the County were fieldstone, bluish-gray, green, and black slate, red, brown, and tan sandstone, and marble. Although stones of all materials were used in most graveyards, sandstone was found most often in German yards, while marble appeared to be the choice in those of the Scots-Irish.
The condition of cemeteries varied. Most were neat and well-kept. A few family cemeteries, and one or two whose churches had been moved to a new location or had been destroyed, had apparently been abandoned. They were rundown, choked with weeds, and full of treacherous holes. In one forsaken family cemetery, woodchucks had brought coffin handles to the surface and left them lying on the graves. Broken stones, their pieces scattered, were found in some cemeteries, while in others, markers were stacked in piles, or used as foundations for newer ones. Painstaking care, however, had been taken in a few yards to fit together and reset fragmented stones. Notable is the restoration work at Poplar Church Cemetery on the West Shore. In Spring Hill and Newville Cemeteries, the oldest markers have been moved and set in neat rows in a section of their own. In Camp Hill Cemetery, in a small area along 21st Street, are a few stones which were moved from their original location in a now nonexistent cemetery at 32nd and Trindle Road.
Having noticed that in many yards all of the stones faced east, one assumed that this was done in order to protect the inscriptions from more rapid weathering. But investigation brought the knowledge that they face east so that on Resurrection Day, when the dead rise, they will be facing Jerusalem and the Holy Land where, according to Christian tradition, Christ will return, and they will be gathered up and ascend with Him into Heaven.
The survey yielded the names of eighteen stonecutters, the majority of whom worked in the area where their stones were found. Exceptions were John Smith, of Harrisburg, and H. J. Kelly, of Carlisle, who were represented by stones throughout the county, and John McFadden, also of Harrisburg, whose stones were found in at least four cemeteries in the eastern part of the county. These three men, all of whom worked in the 1840s and beyond, had easily recognizable, non-traditional styles. The fact that some of Kelly's and McFadden's stones have dates earlier than the 1840s merely means that they were not erected until some time after the date of death.
The Western one-third of Cumberland County contains a multitude of historic structures; approximately two thousand of these were surveyed from September 1984 to September 1985 as part of a project sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society and the Pennsylvania Bureau for Historic Preservation.