Rural cemetery in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA
Oaklands Cemetery is a rural cemetery founded in 1854 in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. It is located at 1042 Pottstown Pike[1] and is approximately 26 acres (0.11 km2) in size.
Description and history
The Oaklands Cemetery was founded in response to the West Chester borough council's closure of graveyards within the borders of West Chester and the discontinuation of future burials allowed within it. The ordinance passed on July 21, 1851, and had an effective date of August 20. It was enacted most likely in reaction to recent cholera epidemics in town.[2] The Pennsylvania General Assembly had passed, and Governor William F. Johnston had approved, an act to incorporate the cemetery on April 14, 1851.[3]
The corporators included some of West Chester's most prominent politicians and businessmen, including Robert Cornwell, William Darlington, William Everhart, Joseph J. Lewis, and Washington Townsend. The corporation raised money through contributions by prominent citizens and purchased 23 acres of land from Joseph L. Taylor located one and a half miles north of West Chester to become the cemetery.[4][5]
The Oaklands Cemetery was dedicated on December 10, 1853. Samuel Rush, a noted lawyer, delivered the principal address, and George W. Pearce wrote the dedication ode.[6] Bodies from the closed borough cemeteries were reburied at Oaklands the following year, along with the start of new burials. Burials grew so slowly that in July 1854 Darlington proposed that the remains of Isaac D. Barnard, a U.S. Senator and War of 1812 hero, be moved to Oaklands to bolster interest in burials there. Barnard's remains were duly exhumed, transported to Oaklands in a grand procession, and interred beneath a newly erected marble obelisk while Darlington gave a speech lauding Barnard's deeds and the "beautiful rural repository of the dead" where he now lay. Interest in the cemetery rose as a result, and by their 1855 annual meeting, the incorporators could boast of fifty-two burials, including thirty-six transfers from other graveyards.[7]
As burials increased, the incorporators laid roads, created a small lake, and built a receiving vault, sexton's cottage, and stone gateway for the new cemetery. By 1888, the cemetery featured an ornamental fountain as well as a chapel atop a slight rise called Chapel Hill. Towering trees and winding paths made this garden cemetery "one of the most attractive places in the vicinity," according to the state board of trade.[8]
A memorial at the cemetery commemorates the seven crewmembers and passengers who died when their B-25 bomber crashed in a forested area of the cemetery on May 7, 1944.[9]
Adjacent cemeteries
In 1862, additional land was purchased as an annex for the burial of African American decedents. The Chestnut Grove Cemetery Company was incorporated to manage this property on October 27, 1862.[8] It is now the Chestnut Grove Cemetery Annex and as of 1910 consisted of ten acres of land owned and managed by African American residents.[10] DeBaptiste Funeral Home managed the property as of 2013. Painter Horace Pippin, politician Harry W. Bass, and forester Ralph E. Brock are among the interments there.[11][12]
A portion of Oaklands Cemetery was allotted for Roman Catholic burials. This section became St. Agnes Cemetery, adjoining the Oaklands Cemetery on the north.[8]
An Orthodox Friends cemetery was established across the street from Oaklands in 1874.[5] Arctic explorer Isaac Israel Hayes and Chester County historian Gilbert Cope are among the interments there.[13]
