assemblage (2015): 41-56 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 assemblage (2015): 41-56 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 -42- assemblage 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