Flat Road Amish Mennonite Cemetery (The Old Union Hall Graveyard): Chester Co, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Robert Kauffman Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* Flat Road Amish Mennonite Cemetery (The Old Union Hall Graveyard ) The old cemetery sits on a quiet, little used, road in East Whiteland Township Malvern, Pennsylvania. Across the road is the location of the first Amish meetinghouse in America. The members of the local Amish community were unique in establishing a house of worship; a departure from the already century-old Amish tradition of worshiping in homes. The original structure was built around 1795 as a place of worship and a school for German speaking people of the area. It served in this capacity for nearly 100 years until raised by fire in 1895. The tombstones of its pioneer members lie scattered about the enclosed walls of the old graveyard. “It was patterned after the Quaker meetinghouses, three of which were in the area. The building resembled a Friends meetinghouse. Plainness prevailed. The structure was of stone, prevalent in the area. The floors were bare, and benches were used as seats. Like the Friends the ministers were not paid. They met at an early hour and preaching was begun before 9 o’clock. Services lasted until noon. Men and women sat on different sides. The men wore broad brimmed hats with round crowns which were left by the front door. They wore beards. Their coats were plain, hooks and eyes were used instead of buttons. The women wore plain, sunbonnets, loose fitting dresses, usually brown with green kerchief. Sometimes a gray shawl without fringe was worn. Services were in German. The minister read from a Bible in a chanting tone.” ( From: The Mennonite Historical Bulletin of July 1955). The Amish community was located on, and north, of the present Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30), largely between the towns of Exton and Malvern. The settlement is referred to in Mennonite literature as the “Chester Valley”. “Whiteland”, or “Malvern” community or congregation. Amish tradition has it that this community was established by Moritz Zug or (Zook) who with his brothers John and Christian and their families, and perhaps a few other Amish people, moved to Chester County in the early 1770’s. They came from the earlier “Northkill” Amish congregation in Berk’s County; which had been disrupted by a series of Indian raids during the French and Indian wars. The cemetery is referred to in nineteenth-century sources as the “Union Grave Yard,” or “Union Hall” indicating that it was later used by families of non-Amish affiliation (as was the meetinghouse). Accordingly there are burials of individuals with such non-Amish and non-German names as Davis, Hall, Harley, Meconkey, and Ruth. Among the Coffmans, for example, are the wife and two daughters of one “Isaac Z. Coffman M.D. who as a professional man could not have been Amish. Among the Amish buried here is Christian Zug/Zook Jr and his wife Magdalena; he became a minister and leader of the Valley community. There are other Amish family names, such as Coffman/Kauffman, Lapp, and Rickabaugh. Two of the Coffmans, Henry and Joseph are the sons of Elizabeth Zug and Jacob Kauffman, son-in-law of Christian Zug Sr. Both the Kauffmans and the Zugs owned large farms just below the cemetery bounded by Swedesford, Conestoga, and Morehall or old Moore Road. It is believed that Jacob Kauffman who died in 1818 is buried here in one of the unmarked graves. The early German names were recorded by Chester County clerks as Coffman and Zook, but they signed their names Kauffman and Zug, thus German names were soon anglicized. In the late 1790’s the “Great Valley” Amish of Chester County of the congregational- community declined and finally became extinct as the result of the deaths of its older members, and geographical removal of those remaining Amish to other regions such as Mifflin County. Some who stayed through out-marriage and acceptance of a non- Amish religion and way of life remained in the valley. The meetinghouse was sold in 1827 and was used as a school, a Baptist church and a place of public assembly for local residents. The Amish community thus died a natural death when the last members moved away in 1834. “In the1890’s the old meetinghouse was still in good condition. The doors being unlocked, gave the passer-by an ample opportunity to take a glimpse of the inside, where could be seen the Bible on the pulpit and the old German hymn books in the pews that remained in lonely silence without a worshipper for over sixty years. The Bible was removed by a Zug descendant a few years prior to the destruction of the old meetinghouse by fire”. (From: The Annals of Conestoga Valley by C.Z. Mast). The ruins stood as a shell for many years, the small site, overgrown with bushes and trees was surrounded on three sides by cultivated fields and the old graveyard directly across the road. Gradually it all disappeared as the stones were scattered or perhaps used to build some road or home. The stone wall foundation of the old building was still discernible in the mid 1930’s when Dorothy Lapp, the Librarian of the Chester County Historical Society and some of their staff, went there to decipher inscriptions in the graveyard. They recorded the names on 39 of the tombstones. Many more graves, however, are marked by small, irregularly shaped, flat field stones which carry no inscriptions. Undoubtedly there are numerous other unmarked graves. I recently visited here and found the cemetery wall in fairly good condition; the original stone walls have been repaired over the years and the grass is being mowed regularly. Some of the headstones are misplaced, the exact location of their graves not known. With all of the development in the surrounding area one can only hope that this historic site will be preserved for future generations. The above narrative is based on the writings of Maurice A. Mook-A Community That Failed in the Mennonite Historical Bulletin and An Early Amish Colony in Chester County, Pennsylvania-The Morning Call- March 1955. Union Hall by Dorothy Lapp-Chester County Collections-October 1939.