The Upper Allen Freed Slave Cemetery

The following article is from the Summer 1986 edition of Keystone Seekers Genealogical Quarterly, pages 45-48. It concerns an African American cemetery in Upper Allen Township, Cumberland County, PA, which has recently received some attention in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. That cemetery has been adopted by the group Vietnam Veterans of the Mechanicsburg Area, who have cleared weeds and reset toppled tombstones in the neglected lot. According to the newspaper article, there are 14 African American Civil War veterans buried in this cemetery.¹

This article is reproduced by permission of the Capital Area Genealogical Society, from whose publication Keystone Seekers Genealogical Quarterly it was taken.  The term "freed slave cemetery" appears to be a misnomer from traditional lore.  Although the cemetery may have been started for freedom seekers who settled in the area after fleeing bondage in the south, as old stories state, it is more likely that the cemetery is a burial site for free African Americans regardless of their heritage.

The Upper Allen Freed Slave Cemetery

by Keith A. and Beth Holmes Nonemaker

The following is a transcription of an unnamed cemetery in Upper Allen township, Cumberland county, PA. Tradition holds that it was started expressly for use by slaves who escaped to the north via the underground railroad. The dates of burials and the fact that several soldier(s) from "colored" regiments are buried here tend to support this belief. Burials range in date from 1862 to 1955. The cemetery was restored in 1985 by the Upper Allen Historical Committee. The cemetery is located at 40 degrees 10 minutes and xx seconds north by 77 degrees xx minutes and xx seconds west, about 50 yards north of 424 Winding Hill Road, in a clump of trees, surrounded by corn fields. Numbers on the preceding map correspond to tombstone numbers.²

transcribed 17 November 1985
verified 18 November 1985

Map Accompanying the Article

Notes

1. Turner, Ford. "Area Vets Pay Homage At Forgotten Black Graves," The Patriot-News, Saturday, April 25, 1998, pp A1/10.
2. Map accompanying the article. A scan of the actual map is above.

Jane Allen of Camp Hill, who was kind enough to find the above article and mail a copy of it to me, had an additional note about the cemetery. She wrote "I've heard a rumor that at least some of these graves were moved from a cemetery that was originally located on West St. in Mechanicsburg. It was in the area where Simpson St and Main St come together."

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