HISTORY
The Lincoln Cemetery, located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was originally known as the Good Will Colored Graveyard. In 1866 a local group of African American citizens convened to form a society called the Sons of Good Will with the purpose of establishing a burial ground for the black community of Gettysburg, particularly veterans of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) who had been denied burial and the National Cemetery less than a quarter mile away due to segregation policies of the US military. Three members of the Sons of Good Will - Basil Biggs, Nelson Mathews, and Thomas Griegsby – formed a committee to search for suitable land for the new cemetery, which they located and purchased in April of 1867. The half-acre they purchased became the original Good Will Cemetery, which is the final resting place of 29 veterans of the USCT.
The previous cemetery that had served the African American community of Gettysburg, known as the York Street Cemetery, had been in use since 1828 under the care of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 1906, the congregation of St. Paul’s petitioned the Adams County Court to abandon the use of the property as a cemetery, disinter the bodies there and relocate them to the Good Will Cemetery and then sell the land. Though the petition does not explicitly say why St. Paul’s church desired to abandon their original cemetery, it is possible that the burial ground was full and that land to expand into was not available or that an appealing offer had been made for the purchase of the land. Either way, the relocation of cemeteries was not an uncommon practice and happened frequently into the mid-twentieth century until new state laws began to restrict the disruption of burials. After Adams County approved the appeal to relocate the York Street Cemetery, the A.M.E. Zion Church purchased an 85’ by 38’ lot that bordered the Good Will Cemetery and used the land to reinter the burials from York Street. The cemetery continued to expand and eventually became known as the Lincoln Cemetery after the surrounding land was sold to the Lincoln Lodge. The Lincoln Lodge was both the caretaker and the seller of plots from 1921 to 1934.
For many years the care of the cemetery fell to a citizens committee, some descendants, and local concerned citizens. In the absence of an organization committed to consistent maintenance, the Lincoln Cemetery fell into serious disrepair and many of the original graves were damaged from being vandalized or when people would attempt to park in the overgrown lot. The cemetery is now under the care of the Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, which has worked diligently to restore the cemetery through the installation of a protective fence, the resetting of headstones, and appealing to the Borough of Gettysburg for assistance with the upkeep of the grounds.
All information taken from: Betty Dorsey Myers, Segregation in Death (Gettysburg: The Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, 2001).
The previous cemetery that had served the African American community of Gettysburg, known as the York Street Cemetery, had been in use since 1828 under the care of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 1906, the congregation of St. Paul’s petitioned the Adams County Court to abandon the use of the property as a cemetery, disinter the bodies there and relocate them to the Good Will Cemetery and then sell the land. Though the petition does not explicitly say why St. Paul’s church desired to abandon their original cemetery, it is possible that the burial ground was full and that land to expand into was not available or that an appealing offer had been made for the purchase of the land. Either way, the relocation of cemeteries was not an uncommon practice and happened frequently into the mid-twentieth century until new state laws began to restrict the disruption of burials. After Adams County approved the appeal to relocate the York Street Cemetery, the A.M.E. Zion Church purchased an 85’ by 38’ lot that bordered the Good Will Cemetery and used the land to reinter the burials from York Street. The cemetery continued to expand and eventually became known as the Lincoln Cemetery after the surrounding land was sold to the Lincoln Lodge. The Lincoln Lodge was both the caretaker and the seller of plots from 1921 to 1934.
For many years the care of the cemetery fell to a citizens committee, some descendants, and local concerned citizens. In the absence of an organization committed to consistent maintenance, the Lincoln Cemetery fell into serious disrepair and many of the original graves were damaged from being vandalized or when people would attempt to park in the overgrown lot. The cemetery is now under the care of the Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, which has worked diligently to restore the cemetery through the installation of a protective fence, the resetting of headstones, and appealing to the Borough of Gettysburg for assistance with the upkeep of the grounds.
All information taken from: Betty Dorsey Myers, Segregation in Death (Gettysburg: The Lincoln Cemetery Project Association, 2001).