"Names of Deceased in East End Cemetery Recorded for History

WAYNESBURG - Just 121 years ago - probably to the day - the first man to own land in what is now Waynesburg was being buried. Rites were held in the East End Cemetery, then located well on the outskirts of town.

The man being interred was Thomas Slater, who died January 24, 1841, at the age of 82. Mr. Slater was a Revolutionary War veteran who settled in that part of Pennsylvania that is now Greene County and was the first owner of land on which the oldest part of Waynesburg is located.

His life is fairly well documented, as are the lives of a number of other early Waynesburg area residents who were buried in the old cemetery in the first six decades of the 19th century.

The names of 60 of these early residents have been recorded for posterity on a new memorial cemetery marker which the First Methodist Church has erected in Greene Mount Cemetery. The granite marker also memorializes the untold number of persons who were buried in unmarked graves in the old cemetery, or whose markers have crumbled into unreadable pieces of shale.

The marker was erected after the Methodist Church obtained court permission to abandon the all but forgotten burial plot as a means of cleaning up what had become a community eyesore. The church-owned plot, covering nearly an acre of ground, was located just north of High street, between Liberty and Porter streets.

Over a period of years it had become surrounded by residences and business properties and had grown up in weeds, with most of the grave markers having toppled or fallen into decay.

Just 60 of the headstones were still legible. Some of them contained well-known Greene County names, such as Hook, Hughes, and Kent. Thomas Kent, who died in 1827 at the age of 81, was the only other Revolutionary War veteran buried there.

The buriel ground was used by the Methodist Episcopal Church of Waynesburg from 1806 until about 1870.

The oldest headstone found was that recording the death of a woman named Ann Hair, who died March 23, 1812, at the age of 49. The newest marker discovered was that of Henry Copenhaver who died December 27, 1868, at the age of 60.

The court, in granting the church permission to abandon the cemetery, stipulated that any remains which were found be transferred to Greene Mount Cemetery and a suitable marker be erected there to their memory. The old burial ground can be seen from the site of the new marker, which is on a high section of the Green Mount Cemetery, near the Waynesburg College Library.

The old headstones were preserved and made available to the descendants of persons buried in the cemetery.

The names of the 60 persons recorded on the new memorial marker, and the dates of their deaths:

Charles Adamson, 1867; Enos T. Adamson, 1848; Hustan Adamson, 1834; Lettic Adamson, 1838; Chather Bradford, 1844; Charlotte Clark, 1835; Mary Ann Clark, 1834; Sarah Condit, 1844; Henry Copenhaver, 1868; Jacob Devall, 1844; Margaret Devall, 1822; William Devall, 1824; David A, Donahoo, 1844; David Dunston, 1851; Julia Ann Dunston, 1846; Daniel Flick, 1855; Sarah Flick, 1837; Susanna Flick, 1846; Abraham Fry, 1827; Samuel Garner, 1851; Nancy Graham, 1829; Sarah Gregg, 1828; Ann Hair, 1812; Sarah Elizabeth Hays, 1855; Bowen Hickman, 1838; Catherine Hook, 1866; Charlotte Hook, 1827; John S. Hook, 1857; Nancy Hughes, 1843; Nathaniel Hughes, 1854; Margaret Jewell, 1868; Ann Kent, 1835; John Kent, 1822; Mary Kent, 1843; Solomon Kent, 1852; Thomas Kent, 1827; Reuben Muckle, 1844; Frank1in Odenbough, 1853; Pheby Ann Parker, 1840; Eleanor Pipes, 1831; John Pipes, 1847; Elizabeth Pope, 1857; Barnet Rinehart, 1843; Sarah Rinehart, 1826; John Seals, 1853; Levi Shaw, Jr., 1820; Isaac Slater, 1831; Mary Slater, 1869; Thomas Slater, 1841; Elinor Slater, 1813; Elizabeth Smaller, 1842; Mary Stanley, 1829; Isaiah Tuttle, 1859; James L. Watson, 1843; Wareman Watson, 1838; John S. Woods, 1830; Maria L. Woods, 1842."