The following article appeared in the Sept. 4, 1936 issue of the Daily
Local News (West Chester, PA).
"Colored Cemetery located on North side of King's Highway [Rte. 340] East
of Compass [town in Northwest corner of West Caln Twp., near border with
Salisbury Twp., Lancaster County]. Buried are: William G. Collins
1851-1921; John W. Dickerson, member of Co. H, 54th Reg. Mass. Vol., d. August
3, 1889 'I have anchored above to meet those I love on that beautiful shore';
Thomas Mandigo, aged 70 years, U.S. Warship Landonna. Not far away is a
log cabin occupied by Pauls, colored, his mother and aunt. The graveyard
marks the location of a colored church which was burned several years ago.
Four of the graves have carved head stones, and the rest have field
stones. Three have Grand Army of the Republic flags." [In 1997
no log cabin can be found in this area and there is no trace of the church.]
There is evidence of a black cemetery on the North side of Lilly Road, West Caln
Twp., Chester Co., PA. Approximate size of lot measured by pace is 200 ft.
x 200 ft. Approximate size of church is 23 ft. x 30 ft., with a center
wall approximately centered in the 23 ft. width, running in the 30 ft.
direction. A stone wall, some stones fallen, outlines the lot and also a
stone wall outlines the cemetery area which is to the South of the church and on
the East side of the lot. We could not identify that the entire church was
of stone, although it did appear that it was from the quantity of stones lying
around the walls. The door seems to have been at the Northwest corner due
to the presence of a large flat stone that could have been the door sill. Fallen
stones at the Northeast corner could have formed the fireplace chimney.
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. The following article appeared in the Mar. 3, 1993 issue of the Village
News (Chester County, PA).
Derry Cemetery is Long Forgotten, by Lisa Anderson
"In 1982, the president of the Fallowfield Historical Society [Chester Co.,
PA], Peg Young, was doing a historical survey of the township [East Fallowfield
Twp.]. She was photographing all of the structures in East Fallowfield
that were 50 years old or older.
Acting on a clue from the 1883 Breou Farm Atlas, Young climbed through overgrown
brambles, briar, poison ivy and undergrowth into an abandoned field off of
Caln-Mortonville Road to photograph the ruins of a 19th century building that
once housed the Derry African Methodist Episcopal Church.
But ruins of the old church were not the only treasures that Young found when
she began to walk around the field. This historical "detective"
discovered a lost cemetery.
"The graves were sunken, tombstones tilted and lying on the gorund,"
Young said.
Common markers - stones that mark the presence of graves, but unlike tombstones
do not give any information about the people in the graves - littered the
cemetery lot.
"It was common practice years ago, just to put a common stone over a grave.
Tombstones have not always been put over graves," Young explained.
But the most remarkable features of the graveyard are the many graves of
soldiers who served during the Civil War in the "U.S. Colored Troops."
Some of the soldiers are vets of the 5th Massachusetts Colored Infantry
and the 127th Infantry.
The dates on the stones range from 1890, 1895, 1898, 1901 and 1908. The
most recent date is 1911.
In 1822, a half acre of land owned by a man named London Derry was sold to
Thomas Williams, John Beckett and Abraham Jackson, trustees of the Union Society
of Colored People. The land was intended for the building of a meeting
house for the members of the local A.M.E. church, and for a place to bury their
dead.
Once the church moved on, the Derry cemetery was forgotten - until Young
discovered it."
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from CHESTER AND ITS VICINITY DELAWARE COUNTY IN PA, by Martin
In the 1760 will of David Lloyd, of Chester, this
appeared this ...."I do hereby order and direct that the peice of burying
ground, being forty feet, fronting Edgmont Road, in said Borough, thence seventy
feet back, and forty feet in breadth, shall at all times hereafter, forever, be
used for and as a burying place for negroes, ...." this was to be
executed by and also those buried there consented to by the Overseers of Friends
Meeting in Chester.
This site on "Edgmont Great Road, just above
or to the northward of the intersection with "Providence Street Road".
Apparently the cemetery was not used as a burial ground for a long time and its
existence was entirely forgotten by the present *(1877) inhabitants
"The Overseers of Friends' Meeting at Chester did not keep possession of
the property, even though it was placed in their charge by the terms of the
will", and buildings were erected on the site. At the
time they were built , "coffins and human bone were uncovered in digging
the cellars, but none could account for their presence as the fact of it having
been a graveyard was not generally known."