Schuylkill County, PA - Saint John's United Church of Christ, Cemetery Records - Introduction
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania
Cemetery Records

INTRODUCTION

	While searching for my own family roots at Saint John's Church in January 1995, I 
discovered that there was no written record of the church cemetery.  Although the church 
had listings of member deaths, there was no record of exactly what persons were buried in 
the cemetery, and where the graves were located.   My own personal frustration at having 
to walk through the entire graveyard made me vow that one day I would compile such a listing 
for not only the church, but also for people like me searching for their family roots.

	In June and July 1997, I finally was able to begin the laborious task of going through 
the cemetery, section by section, row by row.  With the use of a microcassette recorder, I 
could simply state what I found, and then later transcribe those observations into my computer.
Another part of the job was to diagram the graves in the cemetery.  In September 1997, the 
printout of the record and the drawing of St. John's Cemetery were finally ready for presenta-
tion to the church.

	St. John's Cemetery consists of two areas: 1) the main cemetery (and the one that most 
people refer to as "St. John's Cemetery"), which lies to the east of Washington Street, and 2) 
the small, older graveyard which is west of Washington Street and north of the main cemetery.  
This second, small cemetery contains only approximately twenty of the original stones, and 
these grave markers have been "rearranged" into three neat rows.  On old maps of the town, 
this small graveyard is referred to as the "Old Lutheran Cemetery", but the majority of the 
townspeople call this the "Old Reformed Cemetery", because it stood north of the old Reformed 
"White" church that was destroyed by fire in 1911.

	To organize the work, I divided the main cemetery into three sections, lettered "A", 
"B", and "C", with "A" being the farthest north.  The sections are divided by the paved 
driveway (separating sections "A" and "B") and the grass driveway (dividing sections "B" 
and "C").  Within each section, the rows of tombstones are numbered, starting with "Row 1" 
as the row farthest west (and hence closest to North Washington Street).  

	The graves in the "Old Lutheran" cemetery have the letters "OL" for their section 
designation, and I tried as much as possible to keep the stones ordered into three groups.  
"Row 1" is the row farthest west (i.e., farthest from North Washington Street.

	The information provided in this record includes name, birth and death dates, age, 
parents, and spouse(s) if any.  These facts about a particular individual were compiled 
not only from tombstone inscriptions, but also from a search of St. John's U.C.C. baptismal, 
marriage, and death records.  In this manner, all the data available from church records for 
any particular individual is contained in this cemetery record.  I attempted to note in the 
"Miscellaneous" comments column the data that I obtained from church records rather than the 
tombstone inscription.   It is my sincere hope that this will aid future researchers by saving 
valuable time.

	I have used the following abbreviations in the cemetery record to save space:

		c.r., ch recs, rec(s)		church records
		y				year(s)
		m				month(s)
		d				day(s)
		marr.				marriage
		nee				maiden name

	In the "Miscellaneous" column, I have noted where there was a tombstone and it was 
illegible (perhaps someone could in the future double-check these stones and gain more 
information!).  For any tombstone that had fallen over and was lying face down, I attempted 
to lift it to gain access to the information.  However, some stones were beyond my capabili-
ties; these are noted as "could be lifted" or "could not be lifted" (once again, perhaps 
someone stronger could in the future lift these tombstones and obtain the information!).  
Also in this column I noted with quotation marks whenever a tombstone was engraved with a 
familial relationship, such as "Mother" or "Sister".

	The research time I spent in the cemetery was enlightening and saddening at the same 
time.   Some tombstones (particularly the older ones) have broken off over the years and 
have been "re-buried", only to have most of their vital inscriptions now below ground level.  
The oldest tombstones are engraved in German; I gave my best effort to at least translate 
the vital data where possible.  Also, sadly there are MANY graves in the "A" section (the 
oldest part) of the cemetery that belonged to people too poor to afford a marker of any kind.  
In addition, I know that in my youth there were rows of older "metal" tombstones in the oldest 
part of the cemetery that were rusting away, and now these are gone. For example, a comparison 
of my cemetery diagram to the drawing of Harold C. Mantz from 1938 (located in the church 
basement) shows three rows in section "A" that have now entirely "disappeared"!  

	On the brighter side, I was able to take apparently illegible, weathered tombstones 
and make them "come to life" with flour and shaving cream.  Particularly vulnerable to the 
weathering process were children's tombstones; it seems that they are made out of an inferior 
grade of granite or marble and do not last nearly as well as adult tombstones.  And for some 
children, the stone is the only record of their life on earth; they are not even noted in the 
baptismal or death records of the church!  Uncovering the names and dates for these children 
were my true "joys", because without the flour, no one could ever possibly know of their 
existence! 

	It was also interesting to me to notice that in the older part of section "A", people 
were buried "as they died" with respect to time.  This left husband and wife sometimes many 
rows apart from each other.  I was particularly happy whenever I found a married couple and 
was able to "connect" them through this record.

	With deep gratitude I acknowledge the fine work of Mr. Claude W. Unger and Mr. William 
Dietrich from April, 1941.  I was able to view their record of  our cemetery's inscriptions 
on microfilm at the Family History Center of the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Reading, 
PA.  By combining their efforts with my own, I was able to find complete information for 
tombstones that had fallen or were broken since 1941.  Also, in several instances I was able 
to obtain data for stones that were formerly present in the cemetery but now are gone.  Mr. 
Unger's work on the "Old Lutheran" cemetery was truly invaluable, since the remaining tomb-
stones are now weathered beyond legibility.  I truly appreciate the hard work that these two 
gentlemen did throughout all the cemeteries and churches in Schuylkill County, for without 
their efforts, priceless data would be lost to the ages.

	Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to my mother and father, LeRoy and Laura 
(Gerhard) Kimmel, without whose help this record would not have been possible to compile.  
Their parenting enabled me to have a wonderful childhood and gave me good, strong roots from 
which to branch.  A special thanks for the countless hours of babysitting and patience while 
I rambled on and on in excitement about my latest discoveries!  In addition, I would like to 
thank my husband, Craig Toth, for his patience and support of me and this project.  His love 
and companionship have made the last eleven years of my life a blessing.

	Another individual that I wish to recognize is my high school senior English teacher, 
Mr. Donald Jones.  He, along with my parents, taught me so much about diligence and hard work.  
Mr. Jones had the courage to "be different" from most other teachers; he expected nothing less 
than 100% of my efforts, and to this day his influence is still with me.  Thank you, Mr. Jones, 
for caring enough to make a difference.

	I have tried to make this cemetery record is as accurate as possible.  I pray that it 
will help future genealogists, both amateur and professional, in their quests for family con-
nections.

								God Bless,
								Leanne Kimmel Toth
								September 26, 1997