The Erie Cemetery Association manages three separate cemeteries in Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania:
- Erie Cemetery, 2116 Chestnut Street, Erie
- Wintergreen Gorge Cemetery, 2601 Norcross Road, Erie
- Laurel Hill Cemetery, 4523 Love Road, Erie
The plan for a private, non-denominational cemetery in Erie was hatched in 1846, when a handful of residents offered to, at their own expense, purchase an appropriately sized piece of land; however, it did not officially get underway until December 1849, when a larger group of local citizens agreed to purchase seventy–five acres for $7,500. [1]
Those acquainted with Erie’s early history will no doubt recognize the names of some of the area’s earliest and best known pioneer families among the list of thirty–one subscribers who contributed financially to the project:
$100 each
C.M. REED
George A. ELIOT
William HIMROD
H.CALDWELL
George A. LYON
Elisha BABBITT
A.W. BREWSTER
J.A. TRACY
J.C. SPENCER
Joseph M. STERRETT
J.H.WILLIAMS
M. COURTRIGHT
Irvin CAMP
C.M. TIBBALS
William NICHOLSON
William A. BROWN
J.C. MARSHALL
B.B. VINCENT
T. G. COLT
P. ARBUCKLE
James SKINNER
S. JACKSON
P. METCALF
John HUGHES
$50 each
John GALBRAITH
P.E. BARTON
William KELLEY
F. SCHNEIDER
William W. REED
M.W. CAUGHEY
Walter CHESTER
Some additional contributors:
Mrs. R.S. REED, $50
John EVANS, $50
M.B. LOWRY, $50
J.C. BEEBE, $25
Thomas H. SILL, $25
John P. VINCENT, $25
John MOORE, $25
Andrew SCOTT, $10
On 29 January 1850, the cemetery was incorporated, and shortly thereafter the incorporators elected a board of seven managers: Charles M. REED, George A. ELIOT, William KELLEY, John GALBRAITH, Elisha BABBITT, William HIMROD, and A.W. BREWSTER. That seven in turn elected officers: George A. ELIOT, President, William A. BROWN, Secretary, and J.C. SPENCER, Treasurer. The group was granted deed on the land with a down payment of $1,500 and the understanding that the remaining $6,000 balance owed would be raised through the sale of burial lots.
H. Daniels was hired to design the grounds and the cemetery opened for business 20 May 1851.
Map of the Erie Cemetery Lots
Reprinted with the kind permission of Erie Cemetery Association
The association’s website has some interesting information about the history of the cemetery, and biographies of some of its more famous residents. There is a searchable index of interments, although the burial records themselves are not accessible online.
To illustrate the detail available on the cemetery association’s website, I searched the interment index for records related to the Nicholson family, one of the earliest to settle in West Millcreek and Fairview. A sampling of information the search produced:
| Name |
Lot
|
Additional Details
|
Birth
|
Death
|
| Nicholson Dr. John |
17
|
H
|
|
09/02/1830
|
08/01/1862
|
| Nicholson Eliza Jane |
17
|
H
|
4.5′ W of NE cor Hd N
|
|
03/23/1894
|
| Nicholson George |
1
|
H
|
Reint fr Presbyterian Grounds 3/25/1852
|
|
01/24/1834
|
| Nicholson George Sheldon |
1
|
H
|
|
03/29/1854
|
10/26/1856
|
| Nicholson Henry C. |
1
|
H
|
Inner circle, E line, Hd E
|
|
11/25/1903
|
| Nicholson Jane |
1
|
H
|
Reint fr Presbyterian Grounds 3/27/1852
|
|
12/07/1847
|
| Nicholson Jane |
1
|
H
|
Reint fr Assoc Reform Grounds 6/22/1854
|
|
|
| Nicholson Jane |
1
|
H
|
Inner crcl abt 4.5′ W of Alex’s stone, Hd SW
|
|
01/13/1899
|
| Nicholson Jane Ball |
1
|
H
|
|
12/10/1850
|
08/16/1853
|
| Nicholson John |
1
|
H
|
Reint fr Presbyterian Grounds
|
|
04/26/1845
|
| Nicholson John E. |
17
|
H
|
|
12/23/1797
|
01/01/1864
|
Note: Some of the NICHOLSONs listed above died before the cemetery was established. The family, quite affluent in their community, purchased a large lot and had the remains exhumed from their original resting places and re-interred in the family lot. I suspect they were not the only family to do so.
[1] Samuel P. Bates, History of Erie County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc.. (Chicago: Warner & Beers, 1884), 605-6.
