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Death Of The Cemetery: An Integrity Assessment Of Historic Cemeteries In Erie County, Pennsylvania
by Rachel Sites
Cemeteries are a vital resource for historians and genealogists, not to mention archaeologists. The data gleaned from historic cemeteries are every bit as vital as the information from a prehistoric burial ground; we may have historic records providing accounts of funerary proceedings, but bias, whether conscious or not, is rife in written records. The physical fact of a cemetery provides a wealth of details not explicitly stated in historic accounts, detailing everything from economics to ideology. But what happens when this rich resource begins to fade away? Development, neglect, and an increasing cultural distance from death all threaten Western historic cemeteries. A short archaeological integrity assessment of historic cemeteries in Erie County, Pennsylvania in the United States provides a snapshot of the impact of these factors on cemetery condition.
Key Words: cemeteries, impact of development, historical cemeteries, Erie County Pennsylvania, American cemeteries
Introduction history, but on cemeteries as well, bastions of historical data that they are. It is all well and Death and the treatment thereof has always good when a particular aspect of ‘progress’ been a significant resource for archaeologists. uncovers an Iron Age massacre site where we An abundance of data pertaining to everything had no idea one existed, but a closer look needs from social stratification to family values, from to be taken at our treatment of the very extant, long-distance exchange networks to local craft very documented historical cemeteries workers, from cosmology to meaning within (Alberge 2013). the landscape can be gleaned from a study of how people have treated their dead. What Cemeteries can provide details on the happens when this lush resource begins to population of a community, including such disappear? factors as heritage or economic status, as well as connecting the community with significant Archaeology is in general a bit of a hit-or-miss historic events. Hannon (1992: 256) states discipline. We rely on what has been left “one can observe a preserved microcosmic behind, essentially someone else’s rubbish, and presentation of a region’s history and can only be thankful when the environmental characteristics in its cemeteries” which is conditions conspire to preserve it as our precisely the reason for studying cemeteries. treasure. Forming opinions on a long-gone Cemeteries reflect, through layout, marker society based off of a few bits and bobs can be choice, and other attributes, ideological and seen as hazardous; we live in peril of our historical trends throughout time, theories being overturned by a new find. Of encapsulating the broader social and economic course, that can be half the fun, but what about context to which cemeteries belong. Previous those not so deceased societies and the cemetery analysis studies, largely interested in resources they have left behind? changes of grave-marker art and styling over time, have looked into factors such as trends in The Western world has been in a notorious ideology, economics, and social conditions that mindset of progress equating to creation and influenced how people were buried and/or moving on from what came before since at commemorated. Dethlefsen and Deetz’s least the Industrial Revolution. Why stop to (1966) key study into colonial grave-marker consider what could be lost when we could be art, for example, demonstrated the relationship building more motorways, shopping malls, between the ideology of the time and the cookie cutter houses? The recent controversial symbology of grave-marker art. Alternatively, demolition of the Grade II-listed Edwardian a recent study into San Diego County wing of the Jessop’s Women Hospital by the cemeteries and individual gravestones traced University of Sheffield to make room for an the form of cemeteries and individual stones addition to the Engineering department is case over 150 years (Mallios and Caterino 2007). in point (Moore 2013). This forward-view has The study attempted to determine the ways of had a dramatic impact on not only structural and cultural reasons for change in grave-
Rachel Sites- [email protected] ©Sites 2015 The University of Sheffield © assemblage 2015
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marker style and art, bringing questions of necessary to understand the full context of the population movement and development, and history of cemeteries in America in general and the associated condition of cemeteries. Erie County, PA in particular. Such a discussion also reinforces the types of data able The issue of development, decline, and the to be gleaned from cemetery studies and why historic cemetery is admittedly more pressing threats to a significant resource must be taken in the United States, where historical burial seriously. grounds are less likely to be documented and thus more easily forgotten. A pioneer family Pioneer Period plot could have been swallowed by the wilderness after the passing on of the final The western part of America was largely descendent, or with even just the eventual frontier from the birth of the nation to circa migration of the family. Churchyards are 1820, with small communities or isolated markedly more difficult to misplace, however, farmsteads spread across the vast interior of modern development and neglect have an the country. Settlers began flooding into the impact on cemeteries everywhere. Figure 1, for desirable farmland that was rapidly being open example, clearly displays the neglect of the to development. Immigrants, mostly Scots- historic Walkley Cemetery in Sheffield, Irish, followed by Germans and English, pop- England, which still sees use; recent burials in ulated western Pennsylvania beginning in the family plots have already been practically latter part of the eighteenth century (Hannon consumed by the encroaching vegetation. As 1973). The region was attractive to settlers due for the threat from development, the English to its open farmland, but there was little sense HS2 rail project from London northward is of community in the early decades of the only one current example of purposely placing nineteenth century. Many isolated cemeteries, development along cemetery sites in order to along with private family plots, were therefore avoid “other disturbances” (Townsend 2012). established long before the later associated While no-one wants to lose their home or churches were constructed. Consequently, the livelihood to development and would most earliest formal burials were isolated graves likely rather the remains of long-dead close to where the deceased had died or family strangers were moved, at what cost to our knowledge of history and our understanding of the variances in cultural traditions that show themselves in burial rites? Just because we have written records of funerals from the advent of decipherable writing does not mean we can account for every variation. Individualism does exist.
Figure 2 Allen Family Plot, Erie County. Figure 1 Walkley Cemetery, also known as St. (Photo by R. Sites 2007) Mary’s Churchyard, Sheffield. (Photos by R. plots where the dead of one or more Sites 2013). neighbouring families were buried, often on To provide a brief introductory study into the land owned by the family (Hannon 1992). threat development poses cemeteries, the Such individual family burial grounds were a following are the results of a preliminary study completely American innovation generated by in Erie County, Pennsylvania, USA. In order to necessity; there is no European precedent for discuss threats to historic cemeteries in the isolated, non-communal burial grounds study area, it is necessary to distinguish (Sloane 1991). Allen Cemetery in Fairview cemeteries according to the established Township, PA is an excellent late example of a typology of American historical cemetery typical family plot, established on family- movements. Cemetery development and the owned land (Figure 2). The Allen family ideology behind said progression is directly settled in Fairview in 1823, after exchanging linked to the development of the United States the land they owned in New York for a larger as well; a discussion of the history of parcel of land in Pennsylvania. Their children settlement and industrial development is settled around them and nearly all were buried
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in the small family plot until 1875 (Fiesler pers 1920). When Erie County was created in 1800, comm. 2007). the recorded population was 1468 (Buck and Buck 1939). During the War of 1812, Erie’s Early official burial grounds in America were shipyards were busy building the country’s churchyards, which developed slightly later fleet, attracting workers and their families. As than family plots. The practice of formal and industry and shipping increased in the early proper burial was strongly correlated with the 19th century due to the newly constructed Erie contemporary idea of possible salvation. Early Canal, people flooded the area, looking for Americans, particularly Puritans, preserved work (Bates 1884). The population in 1820 many historic European practices. For was greater than 8000 (Buck and Buck 1939). example, the first New England cemeteries Churchyards in Erie County, such as Salem were grouped around the meetinghouse, Evangelical cemetery in Fairview Township foreshadowing later cemeteries around local dating to 1840, followed the typical layout for churches (Sloane 1991). American church- American churchyards (Figure 3). As yards also followed the traditional hierarchical churchyards began to be filled to or beyond arrangement relating importance in life to proximity of the grave to the church. The poor and dispossessed were relegated to the north wall of the cemetery, which was historically treated as susceptible to evil (Sloane 1991). Similar to private family plots, churchyards of the colonial period to the post-Revolutionary era were relatively unplanned with poor upkeep. Churchyards, with a distinct lack of formal boundaries, were often used as additional market or pasture space (Sloane 1991).
Figure 3 Salem Evangelical Churchyard, Erie
The Antebellum Period County. (Photo by R. Sites 2007).
The years prior to the Civil War saw a boom in capacity, regardless of innovations such as sub- both population and economy. The frontier terrestrial vaults, town committees began to was being tamed and traditional East Coast search for alternative means of dealing with style towns began to develop in previously the dead, often resulting in a combination of farm country. The nation was in a flux state, urban and rural values (Sloane 1991). trying to determine what it meant to be an independent America. The population of The Civil War Years roughly five million was densely clustered east of the Appalachians, with at least a third of the The years after 1850 beheld an America on a population located to the far western continuing population boom, accompanied by boundaries and engaged in carving out the the necessary westward expansion of territory wilderness (Wiltse 1961). The early 1800’s saw to accommodate the growth. Full-fledged the very stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, cities were also increasing across the western with mechanisms such as Whitney’s cotton gin territories, consolidating and urbanizing the and Slater’s textile mill stimulating production multiplicity of rural communities. Newly and increasing the demand for raw materials formed western cities often lacked the niceties from farmers (Turner 1935). The American and necessities of their eastern counterparts, spirit was a study in contrasts; a distinct and yet their inhabitants, especially relocated sincere desire for independence often easterners, struggled to attach a veneer of manifested itself in the isolationist tendencies sophistication similar to their old of the pioneer communities to the north of the neighbourhoods (Meyer 1987). Parks and Ohio River. Communities were tight-knit, but cemeteries formed beacons of peaceful, desirous of being left to fend for themselves cultivated land in the midst of the ever-busy that was reflected in the continuity of private and ever-growing urban life. family plots and churchyards. New cemeteries in America after 1850, such as The areas set aside for churchyards filled Erie Cemetery in Erie County, developed in quickly as the population grew, as demon- accordance with the Rural Cemetery strated in Erie County after 1799, when Erie movement. Such cemeteries were created to was made a national port of entry (Hulbert
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convey “a clean, natural, park-like atmo- sphere,” which created a direct contrast to the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city (Brown et al. 2001: 3). The first community cemetery designed on such a formalized plan was the New Burying Ground in New Haven, Connecticut, incorporated in 1796, but the ideal model for the rural cemetery was Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1831 (French 1974). Rural cemeteries were relegated to the fringe of the continuing urban development, yet remained a vital part of community life. The new design attracted people with an aim toward relaxation as well as attempting to promote the moral ideals of the era (Claridge 1995). The layout and ornamentation of Rural Cemeteries was inspired by the first European garden cemetery, Père Lachaise in France. Such landscaping was a marked change from earlier American approaches to dealing with nature. In the early 1800’s, Americans viewed nature as something to be subdued or removed (French 1974). New Haven’s strict symmetry and plotted rows demonstrate early responses to landscape. Also adding to the new impetus to create natural spaces was the 19th century interest in horticulture. Developers sought to create a controlled environment reminiscent of Figure 4 Erie Cemetery, Example of a Rural nature, but able to be used for recreational Cemetery, City of Erie, Erie County, PA. purposes. Plans included a varied landscape to (Photos by R. Sites 2008). capture and hold visitor’s interests, as well as winding roads that juxtaposed the grids of city Membership in the corporation was contingent plans (Sloane 1991). upon ownership of a plot. Plot holders were allowed a single vote per plot. Care funds Rural Cemeteries attracted large numbers of providing limited care of plots and the grounds visitors, and Erie Cemetery was the only park- were created, allowing for hired help to like area in the district. Erie Cemetery (Figure maintain the plots. This standardized the 4) began as a concept in October of 1846 “to amount of care each plot received, as well as secure a Rural Cemetery and prevent the evils creating a necessity for either outside contract inseparately [sic] connected with grounds help or permanent care-taking staff (Sloane within the limits of a city” (Clark et al. 1903: 1991). Erie Cemetery’s bylaws, for example, 16). The setting of the cemetery was chosen for included regulations about the monuments its soil type and ideal location on the outskirts and ornamentation patrons were allowed, with of the contemporary borough limits. The the managers of the cemetery retaining the planners conformed entirely to the ideal Rural right to plant ornamental foliage, provide for Cemetery, incorporating winding drives dotted the care of the grounds, and oversee with ornamental shrubbery among the contractors hired by patrons in the elaborate individual monuments. construction of personal monuments and mausoleums (Bates 1884). Rural Cemeteries were an early example of the newly developed ‘incorporated’ cemetery. The The Rural Cemetery sought to preserve and incorporated cemetery was a drastic change unite the fashionable Romantic ideal of from a non-profit churchyard or private family familial solidarity with the unsettling reality of plot in that the cemetery joined the death. Markers of marble and sandstone, commercial life of the community, reflecting thanks to improvements in transportation that the American drive for achieving an allowed for importation and access, steadily independent higher economic status and the rose in favour after 1840 (Hannon 1992). The rise and recognition of new social distinctions prevailing sentiments of the time struggled to based on economic standing (Turner 1935). overcome the elitism naturally inherent in the rural cemetery system, yet ultimately failed to do so (French 1974). Early governing of Rural
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Cemeteries allowed for egalitarian plot increasing urban centres now firmly located purchasing; anyone, regardless of “religious, across the country. The frontier had practically economic class, and ethnic group,” could vanished, giving way to a growing rural-urban purchase plots, however, given the Rural dichotomy that spread settlements across the Cemetery’s reliance on memorials to provide a majority of the American landscape. The cities stately atmosphere, the wealthy soon took were the focus of a strict class differentiation precedence at the heart of the cemetery between the very wealthy and the poor. The (Claridge 1995:18). industrial revolution that had been changing the course of American economics was in full A large percentage of earlier family plots and swing, churning out wealthy captains of rural churchyards had only a limited span of industry and widening the divide between the existence and often their occupants were haves and have-nots (Hirschman and Mogford reinterred in newly created Rural Cemeteries 2009). On top of the social changes required after developing urbanization claimed the by a shift to an urban lifestyle, the 1890’s landscape (Brown et al. 2001). Due to experienced a harsh depression that ravaged increasing development and the attraction of the lower classes and often resulted in the industrial jobs in the growing cities in the mid nation’s first major strikes, such as the and late nineteenth century, rural communities Pittsburgh Homestead strike of 1892 (Brands declined. The population of rural townships in 1995). Despite the hard times, industrial and Erie County declined in the latter years of the urban life continued to play a strong part in nineteenth century, while at the same time the American ideology, as well as providing a City of Erie grew by over 10,000 inhabitants in desire for previous, simpler times. the ten-year period between the 1860 and 1870 The shift in economic basis also resulted in yet another change in cemetery design and location. By the late 1800s, Erie was home to several foundries, paper mills, and various other industrial workshops. Transportation improved during this time period as well, allowing raw materials and emigrants to enter the region via ever-expanding rail systems and the improved Erie Canal (Wellejus 2003). With the advent of street trolleys, the public had a readily available form of transport, allowing residences to extend further from the city centre, pushing the boundaries of the city limits even further. Extant cemeteries Figure 5 Hamot Family Plot, Erie Cemetery, continued to be enveloped by the ever-growing Erie County, PA. (Photo by R. Sites 2008). urban population, while newer cemeteries were repeatedly situated on the furthest outskirts of Censuses (United States Bureau of the Census town. 1965). With the increase in city dwellers and the continued abandonment of family Along with increasing pressure from expanding farmsteads, the associated family cemeteries urbanization, the older Rural Cemeteries faced faced decline. Given the lack of dependable problems such as crowding with monuments transportation at the time, once the family and declining public utilization of the space for moved away from their land and the burial recreation. The minimal care funds were not place of their predecessors, there was little enough to provide decent upkeep for the opportunity to return and continue the upkeep entirety of the cemetery, causing disrepair of of the cemetery. Families buried their dead in plots and monuments. Artificiality in the form the newly formed public cemeteries, of iron gates and fences marking plot increasingly removed from their ancestors boundaries (Figure 5) destroyed the natural buried on the old family land. ambiance that was the original goal of the Rural Cemetery (French 1974). The Industrial Age The new cemetery design, the Lawn Park Beginning in 1880, once the nation had started model (Figure 6), focused on simplicity, to recover from virtual shut down during the incorporating large, open areas of grass and Civil War, America witnessed another shift in formalized memorial arrangements, mimicking population movement with the increasing contemporary developments in park lands attraction of industrial jobs in the ever- (Tobey 1975). Such simplicity was a marked
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change from the chaos of industrial era urban of all aspects of death, effectively separating life, and, as seen in the impetus for Rural the living mourners from the dead, furthering Cemeteries, provided an escape from the noisy, the retreat from death in society (Laderman dirty, and crowded city. New cemeteries took 2003). this form, and pre-existing county cemeteries also added space using the Lawn Park design The development of the Lawn Park cemetery (Brown el al. 2001). Wintergreen Gorge was accompanied by entrepreneurial ideas, Cemetery in Harborcreek Township, Erie springing from the industrial-dominated life of County, was among the earliest to be designed the era, giving rise to formal cemetery along the Lawn Park model. The designers superintendents. The creation of a formal incorporated lakes and waterfalls in an effort advisory position solved many of the upkeep to combine the natural world with the idea of and managerial issues of the Rural Cemetery eternal rest. The new design addressed the discussed above. They were also empowered to main problems facing the upkeep of Erie hire maintenance people and acquire the newly Cemetery with perpetual care plots, apparently developed mechanized lawn care equipment to the public’s satisfaction. The day of the that made cemetery upkeep cheaper and easier formal opening of Wintergreen Gorge, 3300 (Sloane 1991). By the late 1880s, cemetery people visited the new park (Claridge 1995). superintendents held regular conferences to establish standards and discuss innovations (Laderman 2003). Lawn Parks also saw the advent of annual care, perpetual care, and bequest funds that provided more coverage of cemetery upkeep than earlier limited care systems, as well as increasing the income of the cemetery incorporation (Tobey 1975). The Form for Perpetual Care produced by the Erie Cemetery managers served as a contract in which the plot holder paid a certain amount which the cemetery utilized for “repair and preservation of any tomb or monument, or of planting and cultivating trees and shrubs…and the surplus…to remain as a sinking fund, to be applied solely and exclusively to the repair and Figure 6 Lakeside Cemetery, Example of a keeping in order [of the cemetery]” (Clark et al. Lawn Park, Erie County. (Photo: R. Sites 1903: 137). Such measures ensured Lawn Park 2007). cemeteries were better maintained than earlier
Along with increased simplicity in layout came cemetery forms, which in turn allowed for grave marker simplification, such as the better preservation of both markers and heavily favoured block style tablets and bevel property, even after the cemetery became markers. Family mausoleums and large family inactive. monuments of granite arose as well, replacing the individual monuments responsible for The Progressive Era cluttering Rural Cemeteries. Clean and simple Classical designs and elements, such as The early years of the 20th century saw both incorporating Doric and Ionic columns in rapid population and urban expansion. The mausoleums, were prominent and encouraged urban centres were rapidly becoming the focus in Lawn Park cemeteries (Tobey 1975). Erie of economic and political forces and people Cemetery exemplified the simplification of were swarming into increasing cramped and cemetery design in its later Lawn Park undesirable living circumstances to gain access addition, “which obliterates distinctions and to factory jobs and the growing civil service. boundaries so far as they are apparent upon The class distinctions of the previous century the surface, covering all alike with a blanket of were being slowly overturned as a new middle living, velvety green” (Clark et al. 1903:33). class began to gain power (Buenker 1975). The simplification of markers and design These were the factory management, the reflected the ideological withdrawal from greengrocers, the bank management, and any Romanticism of the late 1800s. The shift in mildly successful and borderline white-collar ideology went along with a removal from death workers that the city attracted in droves. going hand in hand with the growth of a professional industry dealing with death. Such extensive growth as seen all over the Funeral homes appeared for the first time in country assured the decline of older cemeteries the 1880s, allowing professionals to take care enclosed within the city, as well as the need for
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more burial space, given the larger population. The flush markers and uniform columbaria for An innovative cemetery design trend was the cremations emphasized the increasing Memorial Park, also known as the egalitarian view promoted by society, however, Commemoral Park. Due to ever increasing the egalitarian ideology displayed by such urbanization and need for land for expansion, markers was not reflected in the increasingly Memorial Parks were developed on the stratified society, but rather showed society as outskirts of established urban settings as well it wished to be seen. Social variations, as serving as additions to pre-existing although not acknowledged as class cemeteries originally designed in other styles differences, were accentuated through place- (Brown et al. 2001). By 1935, 600 new ment in certain groupings within the cemetery, Memorial Parks were created in the west, rather than the markers themselves (Francis Midwest, and the south (Sloane 1991). 2003). The driving ideology is for the dead to be able to ‘identify’ with their neighbours; plots centred around a specific statue form a community of the dead in response to the shared aspect of life represented in marble.
Historic Cemeteries in a Modern Context
Recent urban development, acts of vandalism, and inadequate care have forced many of Erie County’s cemeteries into decline (Brensinger 2008). Claridge (1995) cites declines in lot a. sales of active cemeteries, as well as high maintenance costs, as economic contributors to the degradation of care in the mid-20th century. As stated, industrial expansion indirectly caused the decline of family plots by luring a large percent of the population to the developing cities and continues to pose a serious threat to even the largest of cemeteries, as manufacturers seek to spread into land that once formed the city margins, where many cemeteries were established (Figure 8).
b.
Figure 7 Examples of Memorial Park a. Calvary Cemetery, Erie County; b. Laurel Hill Cemetery, Erie County. (Photo: R. Sites 2007)
The Memorial Park design, begun in the 1920s and 1930s, placed an emphasis on peaceful surroundings similar to community parks in urban areas, while continuing the trend toward simplicity of layout and marker style. Memorial Parks were designed to unify the dead and form a community. Upright markers, common to preceding cemetery designs, were Figure 8 Development encroaching on replaced with plaques of bronze or granite Lakeside Cemetery, Erie County. (Photo: R. flush against the ground in the memorial park Sites 2007). (Sloane 1991). Calvary Cemetery, in Erie, has As urban industry expands, the population is many examples of the flat grave markers continually driven to increasingly distant (Figure 7a), and Laurel Hill Cemetery (Figure 7 suburbs, where developers covet the desirable b) demonstrates the problems of upkeep to land occupied by family plots and older rural such markers, namely that they need to be community burial grounds. With the devel- constantly attended to in order to ensure they opment of suburban areas, specifically the remain level in spite of softened ground or creation of non-cemetery related public parks, weathering forces. the public interest in cemeteries as recreation
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has waned, creating less reason for cemetery The public has also grown increasingly wary of associations to maintain the rigorous death and death-related topics over the past standards of upkeep of the past. century. Privatization of modern life has led to a decrease in the elaboration and formality of burial rituals, despite the ever-increasing mortuary industry (Sloane 1991). Claridge (1995: 92) also postulates that the US “is a nation where youthfulness is everywhere celebrated. Today’s cemeteries are out of touch with an American culture that is relentlessly cheerful…The cemetery [is] an institution disconnected from the people it is intended to serve”. Cemeteries no longer serve as a positive organizing factor in the community. They are observed as places for mourning, with a. no great day-to-day interest in their functioning, leading to decline. Older sections of cemeteries and entire graveyards are in- creasingly abandoned as funds for care run out or the family begins to neglect the plot (Sloane 1991). Neglect and vandalism are causing older cemeteries to slowly degrade and even disappear, or development prompts the removal of remains to other cemeteries (Figure 9).
Study Results b. Of forty-seven cemeteries on record for the eight western Erie County townships and the City of Erie, only forty-one were successfully located and surveyed (Sites 2008). This should not, however reflect negatively on the results, as part of the initial research question was to determine the status of historic cemeteries; the absence of a cemetery in its historically documented location is precisely the type of information this study was interested in obtaining. The sample size was small, yet representative of a large percent of c. the extant cemeteries in Erie County, so can be considered representative of the condition of cemeteries in Erie County, especially those in the western townships.
The condition of each cemetery was a subjective measurement. Other observers may classify the condition of each cemetery differently. No set scale can be determined for the basis of judgment of condition. For this study, certain factors, such as upkeep, stone condition, and inscription condition as d. determined by the Mercyhurst Archaeological Figure 9 Impact of time on grave markers: a. Institute’s (MAI) Funerary Archaeology Vandalised Marker; b. Neglected Plot; c. Laboratory were used to form a judgment of Remaining markers after the relocation of condition for the cemetery as a whole Daggett Cemetery; d. Plaque marking (Brensinger 2008). The initial comprehensive original location of St. Francis Xavier list of development zoning districts was Cemetery, Post-Relocation (Photos: R. Sites condensed into a more manageable and less 2007). repetitious list by collapsing categories of similar definition/land use from multiple
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townships into single units. The final list of the placement of cemeteries. The business, composite categories used in this study is commercial, conservation, highway comm- comprised of seven districts: rural, suburban, ercial districts contained the least number of residential, highway commercial, borough- cemeteries, as many of the smaller, older residential, commercial, and conservation cemeteries were relocated and burials were (Sites 2008). reinterred elsewhere as development spread. Cemeteries were not created in industrial The cemeteries of Erie County tend to follow zones; the industrial zones enveloped the the historic patterns of both county and previously residential or rural zones, including cemetery development and the distribution of the cemeteries already present. Family plots cemeteries in the townships of the study area and family/community cemeteries maintained follows population movements (Figure 10). As their status as rural phenomena, primarily expected for a historically rural community, because expansion of the cities has yet to reach the western townships of Erie County contain a the deeply rural regions where the majority of majority of family/community cemeteries. such cemeteries are located. Nonetheless, not Memorial Parks are the least represented type all types of cemeteries fall into such a neat of cemetery, which is hardly surprising, given progression; there are exceptions to the that the style was the most recent development distribution of every type of cemetery as a and only spread to the region within the latter result of the independent needs and growth of half of the twentieth century. The number and each community. type of cemetery is directly reflected in the age and population of the townships within the As expected, family/community and family study; the more historically populated plots demonstrate the whole range of condition townships contain a range of types, while the from excellent to poor (Figure 12); care small, rural townships only contain the oldest depends on location and the attention paid to cemetery types. the cemeteries by the community or family. The Allen Family Plot, for example, The analysis of cemetery distribution in Erie demonstrated poor condition, yet according to County in regard to the composite zoning neighbours, the people living in the nearby districts clearly shows the progression of houses have begun to clean up and repair the placement of each new cemetery type on its cemetery in lieu of the unknown owners contemporary fringe of urban centres (Figure (Fiesler pers comm. 2007). Lawn Park 11). The earliest cemeteries were family plots cemeteries were expected to demonstrate or family/community cemeteries located on better condition, as higher quality care is isolated farmland that grew increasingly urban provided to such cemeteries, given their with the expansion of larger cities and towns incorporation of perpetual care plots. The over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries Lawn Park cemeteries of this study and continuing today. As urban development demonstrated mostly excellent condition, with spread, the older cemeteries were enveloped in only a single incidence of good condition. districts typically located to the outskirts. The Memorial Parks are the most recent type of bulk of Rural Cemeteries were in suburban cemetery, so it follows that that type would be districts, while the majority of Lawn Park representative of the best condition. Memorial cemeteries were located within residential Parks in Erie County are new enough that they districts, following the pattern of historical remain fresh in the community’s awareness, urban expansion and development. Growing which prompts more attention through care. urbanization influenced cemetery trends and
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Figure 1. Distribution of Cemetery Types within Erie County
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Figure 2. Distribution of Cemetery Types within Development Zones
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Figure 3. Condition of Cemeteries: Condition contrasted with type, above; Condition contrasted with development zone, below.
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When contrasting condition with placement of The conservation district contained two cemeteries within development zone districts, cemeteries: one relocated and the other in fair expected trends appear (Figure 12). As condition. Such results make sense, as the expected, rural, residential, suburban districts cemeteries are outside the area of care and contain a range of conditions. Those districts separate from people. The cemeteries in these contain the oldest cemeteries in Erie County, districts are smaller cemeteries, which have the types with the least amount of regular care, slowly been surrounded by industrial build up, as well as more recent cemeteries with prompting neglect as warehouses and factories standardized care. Rural districts contain the discourage visitors. Unsurprisingly, cem- most cemeteries in fair or poor condition, eteries in borough-residential districts were in which is expected due to neglect and pop- better condition. Despite being located in ulation movement away from agricultural or busy, urban boroughs, these cemeteries receive outlying areas. better quality care than those in strictly industrial districts. Such cemeteries in Analysis of the distribution and condition of borough-residential districts are not forgotten, cemeteries within township development as residents have to live with the condition of zoning districts (Figure 13) provided the cemetery, ensuring that they are information on the relation of centres of presentable. Similar conditions exist in the population and cemetery location. The cem- business districts, as cemeteries located there etery in the highway commercial district had are in good condition and are not entirely been largely relocated, while the cemetery in neglected. the commercial district was in poor condition. 7
6
5
4
3
Count of of Cemeteries Count Poor 2 Fair Good
1 Excellent
0 Rural Rural Rural Rural Family Family Family Lawn Park Lawn Park Lawn Park Churchyard Churchyard Churchyard Churchyard Churchyard Memorial Park Memorial Park Memorial Park Family/ Community Family/ Community Family/ Community Family/ Community Family/ Community Family/ Community
Bus. Com. Con. Hi- Residential Rural Suburban Borough- way Residential Com. Development District and Type
Figure 13 Conditions of Cemetery Contrasted with Type and Development District
General Conclusions results of contrasting condition with type as well as condition versus placement in a The goal of this study was to determine if a particular development district, the condition particular type of cemetery, or cemeteries of the cemetery is affected by the type of located in a specific ordinance zone, are more cemetery as well as by distribution within a at risk from development or abandonment particular district. Given the results of the than other types or zones. As indicated by the analysis described above, it is clear that the
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condition of cemeteries in the western than being physically present, defines and townships of Erie County correlates with the informs our values. Losing sight of that, in development of Erie County, as the oldest favour of fleeting experiences for the living, cemeteries are in the worst condition, as well will create further reaching consequences in as having their condition acerbated by the fabric of society. Which is not to say that increasingly urban and industrial settings as change is a terrible thing; certainly future towns grow and industrialized zoning districts archaeologists will find it fascinating. are created in areas where such cemeteries are However, the continued loss of data with the located. The results suggest a similar pattern disappearance of historical cemeteries, might be found beyond Erie County in other through development or neglect, is an issue areas of historic and modern development; that must be regarded with some severity. further study and documentation is required.
The type of cemetery influences the age and size of the cemetery, which plays a direct role Bibliography in the extant condition. As stated above, family/ community cemeteries, churchyards, Alberge, Dalya. 2013. ‘Exclusive: Slaughtered and family plots, as the oldest and smallest bodies stripped of their flesh- a gruesome type of cemeteries, were predictably the glimpse of Iron-Age massacre at UK’s largest cemeteries in the worst condition and hillfort’. The Independent, 4 September 2013, consequentially the type of cemetery with the
Location of cemeteries within a specific Association for Gravestone Studies. 2003. AGS development district also influences condition, Field Guide No. 17: Recording Cemetery Data. often exaggerating the circumstances Greenfield, MA: Association for Gravestone surrounding cemetery care due to type. Studies. Cemeteries in industrial type zoning districts, including commercial and highway commercial Buck, S. J. and Buck, E. H. 1939. The Planting districts, as noted above, are more likely to be of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania. in fair or poor condition than cemeteries in Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. other districts. Such cemeteries are not in the daily purview of the community and as such, Bates, S.P. 1884. History of Erie County, are unlikely to be attended to with regular care. Pennsylvania. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. The cemeteries located in these districts are family/community cemeteries or family plots, Brands, H. W. 1995. The Reckless Decade: which have already demonstrated a America in the 1890’s. New York: St. Martin’s disturbingly poor condition due to their age, Press. small size, and lack of regular care thereof. Brensinger, Amanda. 2008. The Decline of What does this suggest for the future of such Family Cemeteries in Erie County, an essential historical and archaeological Pennsylvania. Unpublished Undergraduate resource, not to mention the deeply emotional Thesis, Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, and communal significance of local Mercyhurst College. communities of the dead? With the ever- growing world population meaning more Brown, C., Thomas, J.E., Pedler, C., Pedler, D., houses, more shopping space, there is a and Owoc, M.A. 2001. Archaeological growing concern with relocation of cemeteries, Investigation of the Freeport Burial Ground not to mention the inevitable increase of the North East Township, Erie County, deceased population. Death is a part of life, Pennsylvania. Submitted to the Coastal Zone but how we treat it, especially given that our Management Program, Pennsylvania burial ceremonies and traditions really are for Department of Environmental Protection. the living as the dead cannot participate more
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