St. Gabriel's Church
Coles Creek, Sugarloaf Township, Columbia County, PA
October 18, 2013
Photo by Lynn Franklin

Transcribed and organized by Lynn Ann Franklin, and Bob Sweeney. Photographs were taken by Lynn Ann Franklin. The cemetery lies on PA Route 487 three miles north of Benton, PA behind and next to the church itself, which is on the right side of the road traveling north. You can learn more about St. Gabriel's and the area history at:

St. Gabriel's in Coles Creek
Early History of Columbia County
Columbia County Genealogical Web Page

Note: This Church and Cemetery is one of the oldest in the county. The original church was built of wood in 1812, but burned down in 1876. The reopened church initiated services in 1877. The church has old stained glass side windows donated by descendants of the pioneer families. Conspicuously, there is a bell tower located in front of the church. The bell (shown below) was cast in Troy, NY in May 1882, and was a gift from Blanche A. Berard. It originally was suspended in a pine tree in 1884, and was later repaired at the McShane Bell Foundry in Maryland. The bell was then repositioned in a Bell Tower built by Franklin Newhart in 2000. Information from sources other than the cemetery listing itself is recorded in red. There are several illegible or unmarked field stones in this cemetery; we have posted them with associated photographs and our best concept of which family plots they may be part of or proximate to. We have also compared our findings with the WPA Project transcription of this cemetery which was completed in 1936 and then contrubuted to the Columiba County Genealogy Project in 1999. Our listing is in most respects consistent with the WPA listing. However, our result is more comprehensive and benefits from repeated double checkings in person of names engraved on the stones themselves. We appreicate any suggested changes, updates or corrections based on substantiated evidence.