Eden CemeteryWorld War I Pennsylvania Colored Soldier Memorial in Eden Cemetery
Eden Cemetery is a historic African-American cemetery located in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. It was established June 20, 1902, and is the oldest existing black owned cemetery in the United States.[2] The cemetery covers about 53 acres[3] and contains approximately 93,000 burials.[4]
History
Jerome Bacon, an instructor at the Institute for Colored Youth (the precursor to Cheyney University), led efforts to create a cemetery for African-Americans who had been buried in cemeteries in Philadelphia that were being condemned by the city in the early 20th century.[5] The cemeteries included Lebanon Cemetery (condemned in 1899 – closed in 1903),[6] the Olive Graveyard (closed in 1923),[7] the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored Person's Burial Ground and the First African Baptist Church Burial Grounds.[4] The bodies buried in these cemeteries were disinterred and re-interred at Eden Cemetery.[8] The oldest reburial in the cemetery is from 1721.[9]
After litigation from Collingdale, Pennsylvania opposing the creation of an African-American cemetery in the township, a charter for the creation of Eden Cemetery was granted by Pennsylvania on June 20, 1902. Fifty-three acres of land previously part of Bartram Farms were selected for the creation of the cemetery.
The first meeting of the cemetery charter committee was held on August 9, 1902, and included prominent members of Philadelphia's black community in the following roles:
President – John C. Asbury, lawyer
Vice-president – Charles W. Jones
Vice-president – Daniel C. Parvis, upholsterer
Secretary – Jerome Bacon, instructor at the Institute for Colored Youth (the precursor to Cheyney University)
The first interment at the cemetery was delayed until nightfall due to local white protestors who blocked the cemetery entrance during the day.[10] The headline of the Chester County Times the next day read "Collingdale Has More Race Troubles, Town Council Has No Use for a Colored Cemetery, No African Need Apply."[5]
On May 30, 1919, a memorial was erected to commemorate the colored soldiers from Pennsylvania who fought and died in France during World War I from 1917 to 1918.
In 1986, five child victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing were interred in two unmarked graves at Eden Cemetery.[11]
In July 2008, vandals toppled over 200 headstones in the cemetery, including that of Octavius Valentine Catto, one of the most famous burials at Eden Cemetery.[10]
In 2015, a monument to Pauline Oberdorfer Minor was erected in Eden Cemetery by the Philadelphia Alumnae chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority[12] She was one of the 22 founders of the Sorority but was working as a housekeeper when she died and was interred in a pauper's grave alongside three other people.[13]
In January 2024, the skulls of 19 unidentified black Philadelphians were interred in two mausolea in Eden Cemetery. The skulls were part of the Penn Museum collection and were most likely from enslaved persons from the 1830s and 1840s. The skulls were collected by Samuel George Morton, a scientist who supported scientific racism.[14]
Stanislaus Kostka Govern (1854–1924), West Indian–American baseball player, first manager of the Cuban Giants, labor organizer, journalist, and Shakespearean actor[24]
Francis "Frank" Johnson (1792–1844) pioneering musician whose compositions foreshadowed jazz
Absalom Jones (1746–1818), African-American abolitionist and clergyman, reinterred to St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Caroline LeCount (1846–1923), civil rights activist and educator
