Fayette County Genealogy Project

CONNELL GRAVEYARD-CONNELLSVILLE
Compiled by Ken O’Neal
Transcribed by Beverly Sellers-Niel
Edited by E M Whetsel

Connell Cemetery was originally located on the site of what is now the Carnegie Library. In 1900, the graves were moved to the Chestnut Hill Cemetery to make way for the construction of the library. The list of burials, below, is comprised of two readings of the cemetery. One is made available from the Connellsville Historical Society (date unknown) and the other is by Ken O’Neal, who compiled his information in May 2006. Also, the following article appeared in the Connellsville Courier.

Connellsville Courier, Friday Morning, April 20, 1900

REMOVING THE DEAD From the Old Fourth Ward Graveyard Draws Morbid Crowds.

Morbid curiosity and the sympathy of friends and relatives for their dead is drawing many persons to the old grave yard in the Fourth Ward where Contractor Bernard O'Conner is removing the bodies from the site of the proposed free Carnegie library. Each headstone is numbered as it is removed and a small box is placed alongside of this headstone marked with the same number as the headstone. When the remains, what little of them is left, are uncovered they are carefully placed in the boxes and removed to the lot in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, where they are laid in their final resting places. Some of the friends of the long deceased complain of the removal of their dead, but in many instances they have given the graves so little attention that they cannot even locate them. In none of the graves so far opened is there but little trace of the body interred. Yesterday the body of James Brierly, who was the first man killed on what is now the Pittsburg division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, was disinterred and there was considerable of the coffin intact. Brierly was killed at Shaner 41 years ago. The oldest gravestone standing in the cemetery bears the date of 1803, though there are said to be graves there dug well back in the seventies. In several instances two coffins have been found in the same grave one, being buried on top of the other. The headstone marked "1803" has a peculiar inscription on it resembling Indian signs and bears the initials "H. W."

The following were re-interred at Chestnut Hill Cemetery:

Joseph Long d. November 1829 age 63 years

Lydia Long d. November 3, 1840 age 76 years

Jacob B. Long d. April 13, 1867

Nancy Eicher Long, wife of Jacob, b. April 13, 1787, d. April 19, 1870

Hiram C. Long, son of Jacob and Nancy, b. March 1819, d. July 1865

Samuel Long d. October 4, 1843, 31 years, son of Jacob and Nancy

Thaddeus Long d. December 7, 1861, 39 years, son of Jacob and Nancy

Marie Long d. January 22, 1862, wife of Thaddeus

Buried in Laurel Hill Presbyterian Cemetery:

Gustavus Kell  10-12-1858  age 72 yrs. 5 mths. 25 ds. “Removed from Connell Cemetery, Connellsville Pa”

Abigail Kell  9-2-1856  age 69 yrs. 11 mths. 15 ds.

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