Green Mount Cemetery was established by an Act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the 15th day of April 1853.1 Two years later in 1855, surveying was complete for the original property and lots were made available for purchase. Once established, Green Mount Cemetery fast became Waynesburg's primary burial ground. Two town cemeteries and several small family cemeteries that were in existence prior to Green Mount's creation were eventually removed to Green Mount as their properties were reclaimed for modern development, ultimately, making Green Mount the most common burial ground for our Waynesburg ancestors. Click Here To View An Original 1878 Deed For Section D, Lot 20 In Green Mount Cemetery.

The Green Mount Cemetery entrance on Morris Street. Notice the caretaker's house, stone columns at the entry, and the brick roads.2

COMMONS CEMETERY

The Commons Cemetery was located in what we now know as Monument Park. Burials here may have begun as early as the Commons themselves in 1796, and continued until roughly 1870 when the Waynesburg Borough Council prohibited any new graves. The grounds themselves were full by this time with new burials requiring graves to be dug above old ones, and for this reason, among others, most new burials were already being conducted in Green Mount Cemetery leaving the Commons Cemetery informally abandoned. Additionally, Hannah Hall, the first building on the Waynesburg College campus, built in 1850 and a new elementary school built in 1864 (Union School, later known as North Ward) were just yards from the cemetery, which meant students, along with the free-roaming cows who pastured in the Commons, were regularly coming through. The cemetery was suffering damages and becoming an unpopular eyesore in the developing downtown area. The Borough Council took the next steps to remove the cemetery altogether with orders for removals of bodies in 1879 and 1882.³

Green Mount Cemetery records report incoming bodies from the Commons Cemetery from as early as 1855⁴ (the first year of burials in Green Mount) to as late as 1886.⁵

Though the Commons Cemetery has long been abandoned and no tombstones remain visible at the site, there is little doubt that graves still exist there. Unmarked graves, especially from the cemetery's earliest years would have been difficult to locate and remove.

METHODIST CEMETERY

The Methodist Cemetery was located on Liberty Street in East Waynesburg. Burials in the Methodist Cemetery took place between 1806 and 1868, and perhaps later. Unlike the Commons Cemetery, this graveyard held its ground until 1961 when the Methodist Church was granted court permission to remove the tombstones and rebury remains that could be discovered in Green Mount Cemetery.⁶It should be noted that no records have been discovered to indicate that any bodies were actually moved as a result of the court ruling. In unofficial interviews with Church directors from that era it was pointed out that removals were to occur only if requested by families and no such requests were made.

Because the Methodist Cemetery was intact on location until a much later date, better lists of burials there are available to researchers. One such list is included as "Exhibit A" with the Greene County Quarter Sessions documents that authorized the cemetery's removal to Green Mount.⁷ Among those buried there were Thomas Slater and his wife Eleanor who had patented the land they called "Eden" and later sold it to the very first Greene County Commissioners. Today we know this land as Waynesburg.

GREEN MOUNT DEVELOPMENTS

1871 (March) - Fire set to corn stalks in an adjoining town lot spreads into Green Mount via wind. A quarter of the cemetery property burns before the fire is brought under control. Considerable damage.⁸

1873 - Washington Street is extended to reach Green Mount Cemetery.⁹

1877 (January) - New board appointed.¹⁰

1877 - Entry road off of Morris Street improved with the wall and columnar entry way also constructed.

More to come...still researching! See more by viewing GREEN MOUNT RECORDS & RESEARCH