Where The Bodies Were Buried In Milton

Quick Notes:

• "Upper Cemetery" refers to the Milton Cemetery on Golf Course Road
• In the 1890s they referred to the Harmony Cemetery, &  Harmony Burial Grounds as two different cemeteries.  As far as I can piece together, Cemetery referred to the old Reformed Burial Ground, and the "Harmony burial grounds" was the new cemetery - but I'm still not sure. (see more below)
• No, there do not appear to be any "mass graves" from epidemics in Milton.  (Milton did not have that many cases of the Spanish Flu..  Definitely not enough to require mass burials.)  The Mass grave rumor appears to stem from one of the many cemetery re-locations.  One of the old  cemeteries was relocated to the grassy area right inside the arch shown above.  The graves are not marked. 

The History Of Milton's Cemeteries
(incomplete, but this is what I could find so far)

In the early years of Milton, Bell's History of Northumberland County Lists four  areas used as burial grounds:

• South Of Ferry Lane
• Reformed (or Straub's) Burial Ground
• The Episcopal Graveyard
• The Presbyterian Cemetery

According to that history, "All of those have been abandoned and the graves removed."

1853, The Milton Cemetery Association was formed.  They controlled the  "upper cemetery", which was a tract of land "east of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad line".  (The Milton Cemetery on Golf Course Road)   The Harmony Cemetery Association was incorporated in 1860.  They controlled the burial grounds that were formerly attached to the old Harmony Church. It was not until 1948 that those two associations would merge.

In 1874, we can view 5 different burial grounds in Milton,  on the map of Northumberland County:

 The German Ref. Burial Grounds are shown located just to the east of where Huffs is today

The Presbyterian Burial Grounds are on the other side of Mahoning Street

And Harmony Cemetery is where it is today.

Heading to the north end of town, there is the Milton Cemetery to the right 
Today we take Golf Course Road to access that cemetery
And on the left is the Episcopal Burial Grounds.  
This 1874 map has different roads, and road names, than we see on today's map, but it appears that the "public school" here would be the School building that is now the office for ACF, and the cemetery would have been right behind the school. 

In 1890, It gets even more confusing, when the Miltonian lists the Revolutionary War Soldiers buried in three different cemeteries:  Harmony Cemetery, Harmony Graveyard, and the Presbyterian burying ground.  

 "The bones of George Kohler, veteran of the Mexican War, and the War of 1812, have recently been removed from the Old Harmony Cemetery  to make way for the new creamery" - the Miltonian, 1921

If you look at the list above, George Kohler is listed with a C - Harmony Cemetery, in 1890.   He was moved from that cemetery in 1921.  So, at least in the article above, I think we can assume that Harmony Cemetery was the old Reformed Burial Grounds to the east, and Harmony Burial Grounds referred to today's Harmony cemetery on the hill.

In 1909 Seven bodies were removed from the Old Presbyterian Cemetery
I'm unsure when the others were moved.

In June of 1921, the remains from the burial ground of St. John's Reformed Church

were to be moved up to Harmony Cemetery

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The Harmony cemetery records are held by the borough office, and once we are out of quarantine, more answers may be found in those records.


On June 5 1885, the Milton Cemetery Association erected a "substantial stone wall" in front of their property at the Upper Cemetery.


THE CEMETERIES OF MILTON

The first place where interments were made by the inhabitants of Milton was A ground situated south of Ferry lane, and about midway between Front street and the river. Its use dates back beyond 1790. The name of the first interment is not known. The bodies have all been removed years ago, and no trace of its ancient character is now visible.

The German Reformed Burying Ground directly north of the Presbyterian, was donated by Andrew Straub, on March 11th, 1793. In that year, his son John Straub was buried there, and that was the first interment. His remains have recently been removed to Harmony Cemetery by his nephew, C. C. Straub Esq., president of this association. Very few interments are made there now, and it is going into disuse.

Episcopal Burying Ground - On August 18th, 1794, Joseph Marr gave a lot of ground in Church Lane, adjoining Upper Milton, to Matthias Webb, Samuel Stadden, and John Covert, trustees of the Episcopal congregation, for burial and church purposes. This ground was principally used by members of the congregation, but it has been abandoned for many years, and most of the dead removed to the cemeteries.

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In 1907, The editor of the Columbia Independent stopped in Milton to chat with the Milton newspaper editors, and then he criticized the condition of the Milton Cemetery.  While doing so, reference is made to how Harmony Cemetery got it's name, or as stated here, the "motto", which is incorrect, or at least not fully correct.  The Harmony name came from the Harmony church.  The mention of editor Frick wanting to make the motto "We are here to stay" was likely in jest.  

In response, the Miltonian editor wrote  "The cemetery bordering the railroad is not Harmony Cemetery, as he supposes, but an old graveyard older than anybody's grandfather that has fallen into disuse these many years - and but for the generosity of one man would long ago have given way to the needs of this commercial age" - 1907

Miltonian, August 1907

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Find More Stories & History Of Milton

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/milton-pa.html

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Reference

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In 1948 a special meeting was held in October to consider the merger of the Harmony Cemetery Association with the Milton Cemetery Association. "Six Blocks separated the two cemeteries, and both are located near the railroad in the eastern portion of town.  Harmony cemetery ground available for use has reached a dangerous low, while that available at the other cemetery is still very extensive."

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From History of Northumberland County, PA - 1876

Methodist Graveyard - A year or two later, ground for a burial place and church was given to the Methodist congregation by Andrew Straub. It was situated on the north side of Lower Market street, just north of the present school-house. It has been many years since any interments were made there and all the remains have been transferred to other grounds. It is now in disuse, and a lumber yard occupies its site.

The Old Presbyterian Graveyard was donated to that society by Daniel Scudder, Esq., about 1820. Very few burials are now made there, and many of those buried in earlier times, have been removed.

The Milton Cemetery Association was incorporated in1853. Their grounds contain ten acres, beautifully located on a high swell of land, just outside the eastern limits of the borough, and beyond the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. They are enclosed by a handsome paling fence, and are tastefully laid out with avenues and walks. Much pains has been taken to beautify this last resting-place, by the planting of trees, shrubbery, and flowers, and many handsome and expensive monuments have been reared by sorrowing friends. The cemetery is a beautiful one, and most creditable the the citizens of Milton.

The Harmony Cemetery Association was incorporated in 1860, Abraham Straub was the first president, and was succeeded, in 1864, by C. C. Straub, who still holds the office.

The first interment was that of a child of William Derrickson, which was buried there even before the laying out was completed.

The cemetery is a tract of ten acres, lying on a beautiful southerly slope, bounded by the borough limits on the west, and by a public road on the east.

The grounds are laid off in sections, fronting south-westerly, and thence running to the rear line upon the crest of the acclivity. Avenues run entirely around the enclosure, and divide the sections from each other. Footwalks are laid between the avenues, and give access to all the burial lots.

The plan and the embellishments are in the true spirit of the modern idea - that the home of the departed should be made attractive to the eye, and freed from the gloom with which our forefathers were too apt to invest it. No “naked rows of graves, and melancholy ranks of monuments” are here, but flowers are springing upon the green sod, and the willow trails its long pendants over the pure white marble. The larch, the ash, and the maple, wave their graceful branches above the mounds; the walks are bordered with shrubbery, and a living hedge of honey-locust encloses the whole .

“Peace to the dust, that in silence reposes
Beneath the deep shade of the cypress and yew;
May Spring deck the spot with her earliest news,
And Heaven wash their leaves with its holiest dew.”

The Catholic Cemetery is about two miles east of the town. Its area is about five acres, enclosed by a substantial brick-wall. Within the enclosure is an old brick building, which was formerly their church. It is now in decay. The interments are very numerous.

These are the cemeteries of Milton, but her dead are not all here.

There is another, and a wider burial-place - stretching from the locust-fringed Potomac to the sand beaches of the Gulf - and all over that broad ground, aII along the slopes of Virginia, and on the ridges of Georgia and Tennessee, her soldier sons are sleeping in unmarked graves; and there they will slumber on till the reveille of the archangel awakens them.