Column #213  - December 22, 2002
 
 

What Will Become Of Historic Bridgeport Cemetery?
by Glenn Tunney

         In today’s final article in our series about Bridgeport Cemetery, we will trace the beginnings of the Bridgeport Cemetery Company and speculate on the venerable cemetery’s uncertain future.
         On a spring evening in 1889, several leading citizens of Bridgeport met and formulated a plan to create a stock company that would establish a new cemetery in Bridgeport, one which might include within its boundaries the old 1847 graveyard that was owned by Bridgeport borough.  A year after that initial meeting, minutes recorded in the company’s now-fragile old ledger book indicate that these community leaders voted to create a stock company with a capital stock of $4,000, shares to be sold for $25 each.
         The following summer, the new Bridgeport Cemetery Company bought eight acres of ground adjoining old Bridgeport cemetery and sent a delegate to seek town council’s permission “to remove end and side fence and inside fences and to have the old cemetery to come under same jurisdiction as new cemetery.”
         In October 1891, Bridgeport borough council voted unanimously “that the Council relinquish any and all interest they may have in the Bridgeport Cemetery, to the Bridgeport Cemetery Co., chartered, with the understanding that Said Company fence the same, take it under their management, give it the same care and manage the same by and under the same rules and regulations by which the new cemetery is managed.”
         On February 1, 1892, Bridgeport Cemetery Company was officially chartered, and the company still operates Bridgeport Cemetery today.  The company’s original officers were George W. Springer, president; T. S. Wright, secretary; and William H. Ammon, treasurer.  Its original directors were Springer, R. C. Rogers, Albert Herrington, George S. Herbertson, Thomas Aubrey, Elgy Chamberlain and Levi C. Waggoner.
         Since the cemetery company’s charter stipulated that the association should at all times have at least twenty-five members, the following directors were added:  Seaborn Crawford, Dr. John W. Worrell, Samuel A. Lopp, Sr., H. B. Cock, the Bulger brothers, Thomas Axton, S. H. Dusenberry, W. H. Herbertson, Daniel Delaney, Joshua Sphar, R. L. Aubrey, Samuel H. Pearsall, Charles Herbertson and T. S. Wood.
         During the year that followed incorporation, the company adopted a constitution and by-laws modeled on those of the Dravosburg Cemetery and hired the cemetery’s first sexton, John H. Gue, at a salary of $250 per year.  After that initial flurry of activity, the company’s directors settled into a pattern of meeting once a year to handle routine business, unless unusual circumstances arose.
         In 1911, unusual circumstances did arise.  The company’s directors discovered that a coal company was mining under the cemetery without permission.  The directors took on the coal company without hesitation, ordering that “a committee of two be appointed to investigate the coal being removed from under the old cemetery and to start proceedings if they thought it was necessary to protect the Cemetery Co.”
         The culprit, Champion Connellsville Coal and Coke Company, was mining under the old section of the cemetery.  Negotiations between the cemetery’s directors and the coal company lasted for over a year before a settlement was reached.  The minutes of the cemetery board’s February 21, 1913 meeting detailed the agreement.
         “The Bridgeport Cemetery Co.,” the minutes stated, “agree[s] to take $1200.00 cash from the Champion Connellsville Coal & Coke Co. for what coal they had taken and damages caused.  The Champion Connellsville Coal and Coke Co. agree[s] to mine no more coal under the cemetery, only the part marked in red on the map . . .”  The part marked in red included half an acre of cemetery property south and east of the old section of the cemetery.
         That type of “unusual circumstance” has been rare during the 110 years the Bridgeport Cemetery Company has existed.  These days the cemetery is struggling to make ends meet, and the current president of the cemetery company, David E. Gratz of Brownsville, works hard to find the company new sources of income in order to pay for routine upkeep of the cemetery grounds.
         “Few people are purchasing lots in Bridgeport Cemetery in recent years,” I said to Dave Gratz recently.  “Is there any particular reason?”
         “When Lafayette Memorial Park on Route 40 came into existence in the mid-twentieth century,” Dave replied, “its easy accessibility attracted people to purchase burial plots there.  While Redstone and Bridgeport cemeteries still have occasional burials, most burials in the area nowadays are in church cemeteries or at Lafayette.”
         “Does Bridgeport Cemetery rely upon the purchase of burial plots for all of its income?” I asked.
         “Bridgeport Cemetery has averaged one burial per year in recent years,” Dave said.  “Last year was unusual; we had four.  But we are still cutting the grass and keeping the grounds maintained while we seek new sources of revenue.”
         “How are the costs of maintenance met?” I said.
         “The cemetery has a modest endowment fund,” he replied.  “Some of the families of those who are buried there purchased endowments over the years, and with the earnings from that money, we have been able to keep going.  But that amount is not great, our budget is very tight, and I am always trying to think of other possible sources of income.  You know, if each family whose ancestors are buried at Bridgeport would regularly contribute a modest sum toward the upkeep of their family plot, it would be a tremendous help.”
         “Whom would they contact if they were inclined to do so?”
         “They can call me at 724-785-9755.  I would be glad to talk with them.”
         “Is it still possible to purchase burial plots in Bridgeport Cemetery?”
         “Oh, yes,” he said, handing me photocopied literature about the cemetery.  “Here are the details.”
         The neatly typed single sheet was headed “Bridgeport Cemetery Company -- Established 1847, Chartered 1892.”  I studied the information on it.
         “I see you list your rates here,” I said, reading from the sheet.  “You charge $600 for a single grave lot, and $3500 for a fifteen-foot square family lot.  How do those prices compare with rates charged by other cemeteries around here?”
         “I think you’ll find they are much lower than the usual fees charged in this area,” Dave said
         “And the lots that are available for sale,” I said.  “In what part of the cemetery are they located?”
         “Most of them are in the eastern portion of the cemetery, which is the area below the lower drive.”
         “Dave,” I said, “there are quite a few folks whose ancestors are buried in Bridgeport Cemetery, and occasionally they come to town seeking information for their genealogical research.  What information is available to them, and where can they find it?”
         “With a great deal of help from other people, especially the late Margaret Johnson, I have spent the past three years mapping the cemetery and listing the individuals who are buried in each plot where there is a marker,” Dave explained.  “I have walked the cemetery and recorded the information that is inscribed on each of the tombstones.  That information is available from me.
         “There is also a typewritten roster of the original purchasers of the cemetery lots, and we have the original stub book listing those purchasers.  Both of those are available to researchers at the Brownsville Free Public Library.  Many veterans are buried at Bridgeport, including quite a few Civil War veterans, and I have acquired information on those veterans from the Veterans’ Affairs Office.”
         “What kind of information do you have on them?”
         “Their names, rank, unit, the war in which they fought, date of enlistment and discharge, date of burial, and usually the lot number where they are buried.”
         “I wish you luck,” I said to Dave as we concluded our conversation.  “Perhaps the families of the people buried at Bridgeport will feel an obligation to become conscientious custodians of their ancestors’ final resting place.”
         A walk through Bridgeport Cemetery, weaving among the monuments and reading the names on them, is a history lesson in itself.  Many of the names are familiar to anyone attuned to the area’s past.  In the 1847 section of the graveyard are stones bearing such surnames as Springer, Richey, Troth, Faull, Crawford, Acklin, Herbertson, Armstrong, Aubrey, Axton, Pearsall, and Rogers, all of them names from old Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville.  In the post-1892 sections of the cemetery are markers bearing such names as Bulger, Sharpnack, Pringle, Laughery, McIntosh, Theakston, Bakewell, Wilkins, Coldren, Wright, Bar, Delaney, Speer, Thornton, Porter, Shallenberger, Herrington, Waggoner, Taylor, and many more notables from Brownsville’s past.
         And the monuments!  Some of them are works of art.  In an 1892 booklet distributed by the cemetery company to owners of newly purchased lots, an essayist wrote about the importance of erecting an impressive monument at the center of the family plot.
         “Some persons are disinclined to erect a substantial central monument, from sheer modesty,” the essayist wrote.  “They fear they will be charged with ostentation and false pride.  We think they are mistaken. . .
         “The central monument is not intended or understood to be erected to commemorate the worth, the abilities, or the deeds of the proprietor.  It is a family cenotaph.  It is a rallying point for the family, to keep in remembrance the family name, and all that find room are deposited around it.  It is intended as a sort of family record on something more imperishable than books or paper. . .
         “The family is one of the most sacred of institutions, and whatever tends to promote its welfare and dignity should not be lightly regarded.  The family burial lot, the central monument, on which the names, it may be, of several generations are recorded, become to survivors the objects of intense interest and of a commendable pride; and whenever the head of a family has it in his power to confer such a boon on his posterity, he should not neglect it.”
         Here’s hoping that the descendants of the people buried in Bridgeport Cemetery will come to its aid in its time of need.  Bridgeport Cemetery is a part of their family history and our community’s history as well, and it must be preserved.