Two years ago, the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council (PAC) teamed up with Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds (PAHG) to record Midland Cemtery in Swatara, PA .  The goal of this pilot project was to document a cemetery using PAC’s membership and archaeological methods that could then be applied to other cemeteries with similar needs.

Through discussions with PAHG they revealed that that Midland’s most significant need was baseline documentation of the cemetery, and PAC offered a systematic Global Positioning System (GPS) survey of the cemetery to record all above ground features.  These data were imported into a Geographic Information System (GIS) database and serves as the base map for ongoing and future projects including ground penetrating radar or other remote sensing surveys.

Two community-based participants of the Midland Cemetery survey were Tina Chales and Jenny DeJesus-Marshall from the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery (FoLC) in North York, PA.  Lebanon Cemetery was established in 1872 and was one of the first privately-owned African American cemeteries in York.

Sign in front of flagpole on small grassy area with paved paths on either side.

Lebanon Cemetery Entrance.

The cemetery is now home to many of the region’s most prominent citizens including the remains of over 300 Veterans from the Civil War Spanish-American, World, and Korean War veterans as well as Tuskegee airmen, abolitionists, and Underground Railroad guides as well as numerous religious, social, and civic leaders of the African American community.  Although the community has always recognized Lebanon Cemetery as an important space in York, the cemetery had fallen into neglect by 2019 (Lorcuto 2021).  As a result, a small group of descendants, researchers, and concerned citizens came together to form the FoLC to help reclaim, preserve, and celebrate this significant site (FoLC 2024).

The FoLC has worked with various organizations, agencies, and community members to work to preserve and promote Lebanon Cemetery.  Through their research and hands-on work, the FoLC has uncovered dozens of headstones and accounted for numerous individuals at the cemetery that are likely associated with the many unmarked graves.  Their research has also rediscovered countless stories, anecdotes, and family histories.  FoLC pursues various avenues to celebrate and promote these stories and are currently working on an augmented reality app with a grant from Explore York that tells individuals’ stories when a smart phone is pointed at their headstone.

The FoLC is no stranger to the PA SHPO.  They contacted me in 2021 in association with a development project that they identified as a potential threat to the cemetery.  While that threat was not realized (thankfully), we recognized that the cemetery was not recorded in our resource database, PA-SHARE, and the cemetery was also a good candidate for the then recently developed National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) Multiple Documentation Form (MPDF), African American Cemeteries and Churches in Pennsylvania, c. 1644-1970 (Splain 2021). FoLC worked with PA SHPO staff to record the site in our database and create the documentation for the Determination of Eligibility (DOE).  Through this work, the site was determined eligible for the NRHP in 2022, and work is currently underway to get the site listed on the NRHP.

Through their relationships with our office and PAHG, Tina Charles and Jenny DeJesus-Marshall found themselves volunteering at Midland Cemetery in the fall of 2022.  It was here that they established another important relationship with the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council (PAC).  I was a PAC member at the time, and I am currently finishing my term as a PAC board member, and as Tina and I spent the day recording Midland, we began to discuss the possibility of doing the same at Lebanon.  The idea became a reality when I proposed the cemetery survey for the fall of 2024 at the PAC 2024 Spring meeting, which was met with unanimous support from PAC membership.

After months of planning, the GPS survey of Lebanon Cemetery took place on Saturday October 26.  Dr. Ben Ford, associate professor at University of Indiana of Pennsylvania (and PA SHPO Preservation Board Chair, and PAC member, etc.) led the survey with a cadre of his students in conjunction with FoLC board members Jenny DeJesus-Marshall (President), Damita Wilson (Vice President), and Tina Charles (Secretary).

Two people address crowd of people standing on grass next to a road.

Jenny DeJesus-Marshall and Tina Charles address the volunteers before the survey.

Lebanon Cemetery is roughly five acres in size and although there are no available lots for sale, it is an active cemetery with a handful of new interments a year.  Because of its size and complexity, it was determined that the survey would concentrate on the original and older portions of the cemetery. The roughly 1.75-acre survey area was then divided into six areas and each area was assigned to groups of three or four.

Black lines and numbers placed over photo of cemetery from the air.

Aerial view of Lebanon Cemetery depicting the GPS survey areas.

Volunteers from the Lebanon Cemetery Operations Board, the community, PA SHPO, York College, and the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology (SPA) helped to record over 500 markers that composed the original portion of the cemetery.

Group of people stand in front of grave marker in grassy area.

Volunteers recording GPS data.

The survey was intensive and included systematically recording the exact locations of all above ground-features in the cemetery using GPS units with sub-meter accuracy as well as photographing and recording all text-based data associated with each headstone, footstone, and other features.

Three people standing in grassy area with tress in background.

Volunteers recording GPS data.

The data collected during the survey will be used as a foundation for a geospatial database that can host a variety of other data including everything from archival research assembled by FoLC to the results of a ground penetrating radar survey used to locate unmarked graves.  This baseline data is significant for long term cemetery preservation but is also another way that FoLC can promote the cemetery’s history and tell the stories of those who are there.

There are preliminary plans for PAC to return to Lebanon Cemetery to finish the remainder of cemetery, but there are also discussions of PAC investing in expanding the program to work at other cemeteries in the future.

Citations

Friends of Lebanon Cemetery. 2024 Who is FoLC? https://friendsoflebanoncemetery.com/about-us. Accessed 11/1/2024.

Lorcuto, Tina. 2021 “’A New Era’: New Board for Caring for York’s County’s first Black Cemetery.”  York Dispatch, May 27, 2021.

Splain, Shelby.  African American Cemeteries and Churches in Pennsylvania, c. 1644-1970.  National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form.  Accessed via PA-SHARE, PA-SHARE Report #2021RP00051. Accessed 11/1/2024.