Cemetery Creepin’: Historical Cemeteries in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan

I’m an archaeologist. One of the many things that I do for a career is work in cultural resource management (CRM) – which means that I travel a lot in the Midwest. My favorite thing about working in the CRM industry is that I get to work with friends, in addition to making new ones. Also, I see a lot of cool things while traveling from project to project.

In November, a friend of mine from field school – Tim – and I managed to get hired on a project together, and we worked at a site in northern Ohio. We teamed up with Tom, our new friend, who we met during the same project – and scouted a number of historical cemeteries in the areas around where we were staying. These activities sparked an interest in historical cemeteries in general; ever since then, I’ve been visiting as many historical local/rural cemeteries as I can.

In this post, I’ll briefly talk about the historical cemeteries that we visited in Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as a couple of local Michigan ones. Pennsylvania cemeteries include the St. Lawrence Cemetery and the Mahoning Township Presbyterian Cemetery. The Canfield Historical Cemetery, and the Newton Falls local cemetery and mausoleums are located in Ohio. Then, I’ll talk about the following cemeteries in southeast Michigan: the Holy Ghost Lutheran and St. Patrick Catholic cemeteries.  Lastly, I’ll quickly go over a book that I recently picked up, titled “Cemeteries & Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture”, edited and compiled by Richard E. Meyer with forward by James Deetz.

We were working on a project in Ohio – why drive all the way to PA to see old cemeteries? Well, because PA is really, really haunted. I’ll mention that later. On our way to PA, though, we stopped in Newton Falls and Canfield, OH. The historical portion of the Newton Falls cemetery is situated upon a hill, overlooking the nearby river. The overall condition of the headstones is what you'd expect in a historical cemetery - come are in pristine condition, while some are broken and eroded. There is a crypt that is built into the hill itself, but the names have long been removed from the building. There is also a small chapel, which is boarded up and no longer in use.

Moss likes to grow in these old markers 

The landscape of the Newton Falls community cemetery

Tom and Tim investigate the crypt

A tilted gravemarker

The Canfield historical cemetery dates to the 1790s, when the town of Canfield was settled by Europeans. Like most historical cemeteries, some gravemarkers were covered in moss, sandblasted or eroded, and broken. It’s always an unfortunate site to see, but that’s what the weather does to headstones. Family plots and mausoleums and the graves of military members were seen here. 

The historical marker in the cemetery - I forgot to take a picture of the other side. Drat. 

Cemetery landscape

The finger pointing up to the sky is a common symbol found on historical Euro-American gravemarkers. Unlike the rest of the grave markers, this one is made out of metal. 

Then, we arrived in Mahoning County, Pennsylvania. According to local lore, the areas near Edinburg and Hillsville, PA, have an ominous past - filled with serial killers, angry “Bridge People”, and the Mafia, mainly. Therefore, the area has an unofficial name: Zombieland. I won’t get too much into the local legends, but if you want to read more, our friend Tom wrote it about it in his blog: http://www.technogypsie.com/reviews/?p=39779. Because we wanted to see these infamous places in person, we decided to take the trip during our three-day weekend. The first cemetery we stopped at is the St. Lawerance Cemetery, which is located on a hill behind an old Catholic cathedral (which was converted into an apartment complex). In front of the cemetery, across the street, is a statue of Mary. According to the local lore, if her hands outstretched, it's safe to enter Zombieland; if they're clasped together, it's unsafe. 

*"Hail Mary" by Makaveli plays softly in the background*

The historical section of the cemetery is tucked away behind the modern graves, and many of the headstones are hidden in the bushes and vines. The majority of the names and headstone inscriptions are in Italian; this makes sense, since the area contained the highest Italian immigrant population in PA during the early 20^th century. The dates on the headstones range from the late 1800s through the early 1930s. 

Landscape and vegetation in the cemetery

 The headstones that stuck me the most were the ones in which photographs were shown – especially that of Maria Rose Dalu. This portion of the cemetery contained headstones that were crudely inscribed, as well as simple metal crosses that had no name attached to them. Over all, the cemetery was in “okay condition”, despite the overgrown vegetation, exfoliated headstones, moss, and occasional broken gravemarker. There were also many young people buried here. 

 

Captivating image of the deceased. I couldn't take my eyes away from her grave. 

A child's grave. Note the sleeping child on top of the headstone - this was a common feature of children's graves during this time. 

The base of a gravemarker - the top portion could not be seen anywhere. 

Another headstone that features a photo of the deceased. 

Tom in St. Lawrence Cemetery 

Vines growing on a gravemarker. Can't stop Nature from doing her thing. 

The next cemetery we visited was the historical Mahoning Township Presbyterian Cemetery. According to the lore, the historical church nearby is haunted; and, in the cemetery at night, one can see mysterious green lights. Sightings of the area’s “Green Man” have also been reported in the cemetery. 

The supposedly haunted Presbyterian church in Mahoning

Luckily, we didn’t run into any green men, but the cemetery grounds are certainly eerie. First of all, the ground in which the graves are dug is uneven; the earth covering the graves is significantly lower than the rest, meaning that either the cemetery is poorly managed, or the earth is subjected to occasional shifting (which, from a geological perspective, is normal over time). Being able to physically see where the people were buried is unsettling, especially in a context in which gravemarkers are only meant to be seen. I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the ground’s condition. As I stated before, historical cemeteries in the Midwest are subjected to the region’s weather, which makes their condition worsen over time. Many of the gravemarkers were crooked or broken. Historical cemeteries, no matter the region, always display evidence of high infant mortality – and seeing the headstones of children will always be upsetting to me, especially if they are in poor condition. 

An infant's grave - his/her headstone upturned

A marker memorializing three infants. Are they buried here? 

Broken headstones, leaning against a family marker...which is also crooked at the base

The landscape of the Mahoning Presbyterian cemetery 

Tom and Tim in the Mahoning Presbyterian Cemetery

A couple of months after visiting those places in OH and PA, I conned my friend Tyler into investigating a couple of local historical cemeteries, in Monroe County, Michigan with me. Unfortunately, I know of no local legends of hauntings or supernatural phenomenon – but it was still fun. First, we paid a visit to the Holy Ghost Lutheran cemetery. The cemetery dates to the 1820s, which was when the original church was first built. Nowadays, the cemetery is tucked between the modern parochial school and a local farmer’s property. Apparently, I have German ancestors that are buried here – I recently procured some old church records from my cousin, and hopefully soon, I’ll be able to figure out exactly which ancestors are buried here. According to the headstones themselves, quite a few German immigrants are buried there (names, dates, and places of birth are inscribed on the gravemarkers – many are inscribed only in the German language). The iconography on the gravemarkers interest me; there are some symbols that I have never seen before, so I’ll have to do some more research on those. 

Ornate - Lutheran symbol on the left

Hands holding together - common Victorian headstone iconography

More hand symbols

Landscape of the Holy Ghost Lutheran Cemetery

Interesting iconography

Landscape of the Holy Ghost Lutheran Cemetery - note the cross carved like wood in the front 

 The modern cemetery associated with Holy Ghost is located across the street, but both cemeteries are supposedly managed by Gethsemane – I’m not sure if Gethsemane is a memorial service, or something else, but the church does not manage the cemeteries – and the historical section is in desperate need of preservation and restoration. Headstones are sunken into the ground, broken, or eroded enough that one can no longer read the inscriptions, and they have been that way for a long time.

Fallen headstone, which has sunken into the ground

Broken headstone

Fallen headstones - also sunken into the ground

Eroded gravemarker; note the slumped headstones in the background 

The last cemetery that Tyler and I visited is located within the outskirts of Carleton, which is a small village in Monroe County. Located directly across from Labo Road, the historical section of St. Patrick Cemetery is separated from two other cemeteries that are connected to the church, which contain more recent graves. Similar to the German gravemarkers at Holy Ghost, many of the markers in this cemetery memorialize Irish immigrants. The inscriptions on the markers include Irish surnames and the counties in Ireland from which these people came. The markers date from the 1820s through the early 1900s – most of which date to the 1850s. Unlike the Lutheran cemetery just a few miles away, the iconography of the headstones are fairly homogenous; most of the symbols include a cross inside of a heart, or hands that are clasped together – which is a common feature of Victorian headstones. 

Typical Victorian iconography

Since the act of visiting historical cemeteries has become a favorite past time for me, I've been reading this book lately. It's kind of amazing. The authors use anthropology and anthropological theory to study modern grave sites - as well as historical anthropology to study the historical ones. It's essentially a cross-cultural analysis of how folks from different religious, ethnic, and historical backgrounds treat(ed) their deceased in America. The book was published in 1987, but the content and theory holds up really well. 

Please excuse my poor lighting 

Chapters such as "Innocents in a Worldly World: Victorian Children's Gravemarkers" and "The Afro-American Section of Newport, Rhode Island's Common Burying Ground" were actually kind of hard to read, emotionally. But these chapters contain important research. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the anthropology of death - and the cultural and historical contexts thereof. I would love to find a book that covers the restoration and preservation of cemetery grounds and gravemarkers. Also, although this book covers the iconography and symbols found on headstones (as well as their historical contexts), I would like to find a “field guide”, if you will, to common symbols that are found within historical cemeteries.