St. Mary's Evangelical Lutheran Church


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st. Mary's cemetery association



Contact Person: Don Dutterer 443-340-5515.

Association Members from St. Mary's Lutheran: Junior Miller and Craig Fleischer



St. Mary's Cemetery



St. Mary's has two burial grounds, and old and a new, and both are Union. The following is a quote from Yoder's history of 1912:

"It is a matter of regret that we can not tell of the beginning of the old cemetery. The oldest headstone that can be read is that of Nicklas Deal, who was one of the first officers of the old log church in the hollow. Not a few stones are there that cannot be read. There are stones without inscription. And doubtless there are early graves that were never marked. In those days the people knew nothing about cemetery plots. A modern cemetery then would have been considered as a shameful, extravagant, waste of land. All were buried in consecutive order without regard of family ties. The old cemetery consist of more than an acre of ground. In course of time it was filled up with the mortal remains of friends and loved ones. The church authorities were obliged to secure a new burial ground.

A special joint meeting of the two congregations was called for April 26, 1879, to take into consideration the enlargement of the burial ground. It was decided by a unanimous rising vote at a joint congregational meeting to use as burial place or cemetery, the land than belonging to the joint congregations on the north-west side of the church adjoining the lands of Wm. J. Feeser and J. Henry Knipple. The following committee was appointed to determine upon the best location: Edward Z. Matthias, Cyrus Feeser, James E. Dodrer, Josiah Lawyer, J. Wm. Earhart. In August said committee reported that the best location for a new cemetery was three and a half acres, more or less, lying on the north-west side of the church building and joining the land of J. Henry Knipple and Wm. J. Feeser, with an entrance opposite the church near the lower side of the sexton house. It was then decided that said committee should continue and be authorized to survey, locate and divide the aforesaid piece of land into lots and passage ways, as would, in their judgement, best adapt it for use as a burial gound to remove all obstructions and build a suitable fence for enclosing said ground.

On March 24, 1880, the following resolutions were passed:
Resolved: That the price of cemetery lots be hereafter fixed at five dollars, per lot of 10x16 feet.
Resolved: That the lots in the north-west corner of the cemetery bounded by the main avenues on the East and South, be kept for the purpose of a free burial ground, with the right reserved to sell any of said lots to persons who may hereafter wish to purchase.

June 8, 1895, it was decided to dispose of the old union sexton and school house buildings at pubic sale as said building stood on the cemetery ground.

In 1907 it was decided by the joint officers to have removed the old picket fences of both the old and new cemeteries and have it replaced by a thornless hedge also to have the old cemetery completely renovated, to have the tomb stones lined up, and the thorns, shrubberies and all obstructions removed, and have the cemetery sodded with lawn grass."


Cemetery inscriptions



"In 1996 and 1997 members of the Carroll County Genealogical Society did a very thorough job of copying inscriptions in the cemetery. Don Dutterer, custodian of the cemetery, donated copies of his records to supplement the Society's work. Mimi Ashcraft checked the 4 rows of old tombstones against earlier information provided by Thomas Hollowak, Wendy Bish and Larry Bolin. Anyone interested in researching burials in this cemetery should consult all the lists available. No matter how carefully the inscriptions are copied, mistakes are made and words/letters interpreted differently.


Thomas Hollowak reported some tombstones in the old portion of St. Mary's which were never seen by either Bish/Bolin (1987) or Ashcraft (1997). He omitted birth dates in his work published in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin. This is unfortunate because the dates act as a cross-check on the age at death. A significant number of errors were detected in 1997. The work of Bish/Bolin was more accurate and thorough. Ashcraft used Hollowak's list as the basis for her work. She checked all stones found in 1997, corrected mistakes, added birthdate information and supplied more details when available. She then compared her readings to those of Bish/Bolin. Tombstones that Hollowak reported (but which weren't seen by anyone else) have been identified with an asterick in Ashcraft's 1997 version. The information can't be verified.


The Carroll County Genealogical Society thanks Don Dutterer for his help and for granting (Carroll County Geneological Society) permission to copy inscriptions. We (Carroll County Geneological Society) hope researchers will find the information useful."



st. mary's cemetery information





Basic Information



Plot Diagrams



Old Section Names



New Section Names



Veterans



Burials Unknown



Links To Other Resources
(Not maintained by St. Mary's)



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ST. mARY'S eVANGELICAL lUTHERAN cHURCH



3978 lITTLESTOWN pIKE, WESTMINSTER, mD 21158
(Silver Run)