Columbia County PA Archives Cemeteries.....Old Lutheran and Reformed Cemetery Moved, Bloomsburg ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Valerie Perry gwyllian53@gmail.com Excerpts From the Bloomsburg Morning Press March 19, 1925, page 1 ÒCROWD OF CURIOUS WATCHES REMOVAL OF OLD CEMETERY A curious crowd that at times numbered more than 100 yesterday watched the work of removing the bodies from the old Lutheran and Reformed cemetery at the corner of First and Center street. During the day more than 40 bodies were taken out. Most were taken to the New Rosemont cemetery on the Espy road where they will be buried by the Rosemont Cemetery Company, but a few were claimed by relatives and friends and were taken away by them. Dr. S. B. Arment, the state health representative here, who was employed to supervise the work, issued the permits yesterday for the work and acted as overseer during the day. Six men were employed in digging out the bodies, the work being done without removing the brush from the property. As work is started on a grave, the name on the tombstone is placed on the box and where more than one grave belonging to a family is together, the bodies are numbered so the remains can be re-interred in the same relative positions. The skeletons are placed in the boxes and each box then is nailed up and conveyed with the tombstone to the New Rosemont cemetery. Nothing but bones was found yesterday in the work, although several of the caskets apparently had been of much better wood, as they were much less decayed than others. No trace was found of some of the caskets. Some of the bodies were found near the top of the ground, the ground having worn away during the many years since burial was made. Others were quite deeply interred, but none found yesterday was more than four feet deep. Buttons from the uniforms of soldiers were found in several of the graves, one of them apparently coming from an officers uniform, while a comb was taken from another grave. One glass-covered casket was found during the work and though the walnut coffin was little decayed, the body had entirely disappeared and the bones were crumbling. One of the skulls unearthed yesterday was a mass of hair, but from the others the hair had entirely disappeared. The crowd that observed the work throughout the day was composed of young and old alike and representatives of the Lutheran and Reformed churches were among the observers. Several of those in the crowd were relatives of persons who had been buried in the cemetery. They were awaiting the digging up of the bodies of their relatives and planned then to take the remains and re-inter them in another cemetery. In cases where the relatives claim the bodies as they are dug up, the permit is altered to provide for burial in any cemetery they desire. Not only are excavations made at every tombstone in the cemetery, but also at every mound of earth where there is the least likelihood of a body being found. Bodies found in unmarked graves are kept separately, but re marked 'unknown' and buried in graves similarly designated in the New Rosemont cemetery. Superintendent DeWire of the Moore Construction Company, who has charge of the work, expected the job would take about two weeks. He does not expect that the pace set yesterday when the work was started will be maintained during the remainder of the work, but believes at least thirty bodies a day can be taken out.Ó March 25, 1925, page 1 ÒCEMETERY MOVING TO BE COMPLETED WITHIN FEW DAYS Work of removing the bodies from the old cemetery at the corner of First and Center streets almost has been completed by the Moore Construction Company, superintendent DeWire declaring yesterday that about 260 graves had been opened up to last evening. There remain only a few more to be opened. The bodies which have been taken out, have all been buried in the New Rosemont cemetery except those that were removed yesterday and they will be buried today. A number of holes were dug yesterday in the upper end of the plot, where small mounds have been seen, but no bones were found there. The work will be finished, in all probability, within the next day or two. While the work is being done on the cemetery, the building committee of the school board is going over plans for the new high school building and probably will make recommendations to the board within a few days.Ó March 26, 1925, ÒLAST BODIES TAKEN OUT OF CEMETERY; ONE BURIED IN 1808 The work of removing the bodies from the old Reformed-Lutheran cemetery was completed yesterday afternoon after 219 bodies had been removed under their contract by the Moore Construction Company. Previously, said Dr. S. B. Arment yesterday afternoon, individuals had since 1906 removed 150 bodies of relatives, making a total of 369 bodies in the cemetery of which there is definite knowledge. He is confident, however, that more bodies had been buried there but no trace of them could be found. If any are found when the ground is excavated for the high school they will then be interred, he said. So far as could be found the oldest inscription on any tombstone was one carved in the German language. To distinguish the letters it was necessary to run a pencil around the carving of the stone and then the words could be deciphered. Dr. Arment had the inscription translated into English and it was then learned the body was that of Anna Margaret Dietriche, who was born in 1741 and who died in 1808. The inscription read: 'Here lies my wife Anna Margaret Dietriche. She was born 21 of September in the year 1741, and died the 26 of January in the evening about 10 o'clock, in the year 1808. So was her who age 66 years, 6 months and 5 days.' There was talk that the tombstone of Ludwig Oyer, founder of Bloomsburg, had been found there but Dr. Arment said that his record showed no such tombstone had been found.Ó