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Oaklands Cemetery

Coordinates: 39°58′48″N 75°37′17″W / 39.9799°N 75.6213°W / 39.9799; -75.6213
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Oaklands Cemetery
Oaklands Cemetery Gates
Map
Details
Established1854
Location
1042 Pottstown Pike, West Chester, Pennsylvania
CountryUnited States
Coordinates39°58′48″N 75°37′17″W / 39.9799°N 75.6213°W / 39.9799; -75.6213
TypeHistoric
StyleRural cemetery
Size26 acres (11 ha)
Websiteoaklandscemetery.com
Find a GraveOaklands Cemetery

Oaklands Cemetery is a rural cemetery founded in 1854 in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. It is located at 1042 Pottstown Pike[1] and is approximately 26 acres (0.11 km2) in size.

Description and history

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The Oaklands Cemetery was founded in response to the West Chester borough council's closure of graveyards within the borders of West Chester and the discontinuation of future burials allowed within it. The ordinance passed on July 21, 1851, and had an effective date of August 20. It was enacted most likely in reaction to cholera epidemics in town.[2] The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed, and Governor William F. Johnston approved, an act to incorporate the cemetery on April 14, 1851.[3]

The corporators included some of West Chester's most prominent politicians and businessmen, including Robert Cornwell, William Darlington, William Everhart, Joseph J. Lewis, and Washington Townsend. The corporation raised money through contributions by prominent citizens and purchased 23 acres of land from Joseph L. Taylor located one and a half miles north of West Chester for the cemetery.[4][5]

The Oaklands Cemetery was dedicated on December 10, 1853. Samuel Rush, a noted lawyer, delivered the principal address, and George W. Pearce wrote the dedication ode.[6] Bodies from the closed borough cemeteries were reburied at Oaklands the following year, along with the start of new burials. Burials grew so slowly that in July 1854, Darlington proposed that the remains of Isaac D. Barnard, a U.S. Senator and War of 1812 hero, be moved to Oaklands to bolster interest in burials there. Barnard's remains were exhumed, transported to Oaklands in a grand procession, and interred beneath a newly erected marble obelisk while Darlington gave a speech lauding Barnard's deeds and the "beautiful rural repository of the dead" where he now lay. Interest in the cemetery rose as a result, and by their 1855 annual meeting, the incorporators could boast of fifty-two burials, including thirty-six transfers from other graveyards.[7]

As burials increased, the incorporators laid roads, created a small lake, and built a receiving vault, sexton's cottage, and stone gateway for the new cemetery. By 1888, the cemetery featured an ornamental fountain as well as a chapel atop a slight rise called Chapel Hill. Towering trees and winding paths made this garden cemetery "one of the most attractive places in the vicinity," according to the state board of trade.[8]

A memorial at the cemetery commemorates the seven crewmembers and passengers who died when their B-25 bomber crashed in a forested area of the cemetery on May 7, 1944.[9]

Adjacent cemeteries

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In 1862, additional land was purchased as an annex for the burial of African American decedents. The Chestnut Grove Cemetery Company was incorporated to manage this property on October 27, 1862.[8] It is now the Chestnut Grove Cemetery Annex and as of 1910 consisted of ten acres of land owned and managed by African American residents.[10] DeBaptiste Funeral Home managed the property as of 2013. Painter Horace Pippin, politician Harry W. Bass, and forester Ralph E. Brock are among the interments there.[11][12]

A portion of Oaklands Cemetery was allotted for Roman Catholic burials. This section became St. Agnes Cemetery, adjoining the Oaklands Cemetery on the north.[8]

An Orthodox Friends cemetery was established across the street from Oaklands in 1874.[5] Arctic explorer Isaac Israel Hayes and Chester County historian Gilbert Cope are among the interments there.[13]

Notable burials

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Isaac Dutton Barnard Memorial
John Hickman gravestone

References

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  1. ^ "The Oaklands Cemetery". oaklandscemetery.org. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  2. ^ Jones, James (2015). "Government and Law: 05 Life and Death Matters". History of West Chester, Pennsylvania. West Chester: West Chester University.
  3. ^ Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania passed at the Session of 1851. Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn & Co., Printers to the State. 1851. pp. 603–604. hdl:2027/iau.31858018800395.
  4. ^ Brophy, Alfred L. (2013-08-12). "'These Great and Beautiful Republics of the Dead': Public Constitutionalism and the Antebellum Cemetery". UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2304305. Rochester, NY. SSRN 2304305.
  5. ^ a b West Chester, Past and Present. West Chester, PA: Daily Local News. 1899. pp. 15–16.
  6. ^ Thomson, W. W. (1898). Chester County and Its People. Chicago: The Union History Company. p. 888. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t13n2f72s.
  7. ^ Dixon, Mark E. (2011). The Hidden History of Chester County: Lost Tales from the Delaware and Brandywine Valleys. Charleston, SC: History Press. pp. 46–47. ISBN 9781609490737. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  8. ^ a b c Pennsylvania Board of Trade. West Chester, Pennsylvania. The Most Important Suburb of Philadelphia. West Chester: F. S. Hickman's Printing House. pp. 41–42. hdl:2027/nyp.33433081818977.
  9. ^ Piccolomini, Marion M. (2016). World War II and Chester County, Pennsylvania. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-1-4671-1846-0.
  10. ^ Pennsylvania Negro Business Directory, 1910: Industrial and Material Growth of the Negroes of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: James H. W. Howard & Son. 1910. p. 60. hdl:2027/emu.010000158356.
  11. ^ Holmes, Kristin E. (2013-08-30). "Horace Pippin's last resting site hidden in plain view". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2021-02-26. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  12. ^ Williams, Rachel Jones (Fall 2007). "Reviving - and Revising - the Reputation of Ralph Elwood Brock". Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  13. ^ "Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes". American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  14. ^ Futhey, John Smith; Cope, Gilbert (1881). History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts. p. 480.
  15. ^ Futhey, John Smith; Cope, Gilbert (1881). History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts. p. 541.
  16. ^ "Funeral of State Senator Evans". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1872-02-14. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-11-07 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  17. ^ "Servants, Family and Friends Get Botanist's Wealth". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1904-09-25. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-11-27 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  18. ^ "Funeral of the Late Judge Futhey". Lancaster New Era. 1888-12-01. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  19. ^ Eicher, John H. and David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 271. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  20. ^ "In the Church of the Holy Trinity..." Daily Local News. 1920-06-05. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-03-19 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  21. ^ "Member Biography: Herman G. Hutt". Archives of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  22. ^ "Plummer E. Jefferis". Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  23. ^ "Walking Tour". Oaklands Cemetery. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  24. ^ "Death Registers 1893–1907". Chester County, Pennsylvania. 2009-02-21. p. 312. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  25. ^ "William T. Shafer". Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  26. ^ "Persifor Frazer Smith". Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives. Retrieved 2023-11-02.Open access icon
  27. ^ "Funeral of Judge Waddell". Evening Journal. 1897-06-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
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