Burials at Boyertown Mennonite Cemetery, Boyertown

The Boyertown Mennonite Church Cemetery was the first cemetery to be established in what is nown the borough of Boyertown. It is adjacent to the Boyertown Union Church Cemetery. The Mennonite cemetery predates the Boyertown Union Church Cemetery by eight years according to headstone readings.

The first burial in the Mennonite cemetery was in 1802; the first burial in the Union Church Cemetery was in 1810. The last burial in the Mennonite cemetery was in 1954, with only 5 burials from 1929 to 1954. In the 1970s the Mennonite congregation outgrew their church building in the borough and built a new church in Colebrookdale Township near Engelsville. The brick building, that had replaced their first log building of 1780, was torn down and the lot became part of the bank property next door.

There were 217 burials at this small cemetery. Only 87 headstones were counted on site in 1998. The cemetery was reduced in size when, in 1914, the Boyertown National Bank was erected at the corner of the graveyard and five graves were removed to the Fairview Cemetery on West Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown. These burials are marked by a single asterisk (*). The balance of removals occurred after a 1970s bank purchase. There doesn't appear to be any record about which graves were removed. However, by using a math calculation and comparing a 1929 headstone reading with the stones on site in 1998 those graves that were removed are marked by a double asterisk (**)

For another version of this information, see the burial listing on the USGenWeb Archives FTP site.

Sources:

• "Boyertown Mennonite Burying Ground, Berks County, PA" in The Pennsylvania Traveler-Post by Richard T. and Mildred C. Williams, 1970, Danboro, PA revised and reprinted 1987 by Will-Britt Books Berks County Death Records.
• "Boyertown Mennonite Church Burying Ground" by Jesse F. Bechtel, published Perkiomen Region, Jan/Apr 1929.
• The History of the National Bank of Boyertown, A Century of Progress by Margaret K. and Carl J. Harner, July 1974, privately published.

Submitted by Betty.