Eden Cemetery (Collingdale, Pennsylvania) facts for kids
Eden Cemetery Entrance
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| Details | |
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| Established | 1902 |
| Location |
1434 Springfield Road, Collingdale, Pennsylvania
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| Country | United States |
| Type | private |
| Size | 53 acres |
| No. of graves | 93,000 |
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Eden Cemetery
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 Location in Pennsylvania
Location in the United States
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| NRHP reference No. | 10001031 |
| Added to NRHP | December 13, 2010 |
Eden Cemetery is a historic African-American cemetery located in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. It was established June 20, 1902 making it the oldest existing black owned cemetery in the United States. The cemetery covers about 53 acres and contains approximately 93,000 burials.
History
Jerome Bacon, an instructor at the Institute for Colored Youth (the precursor to Cheyney University), led efforts to create a cemetery for African-Americans who had been buried in cemeteries in Philadelphia that were being condemned by the city in the early 20th century. The cemeteries included Lebanon Cemetery (condemned in 1899 - closed in 1903), the Olive Graveyard (closed in 1923), the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored Person's Burial Ground and the First African Baptist Church Burial Grounds. The bodies buried in these cemeteries were disinterred and re-interred at Eden Cemetery. The oldest reburial in the cemetery is from 1721.
After litigation from Collingdale, Pennsylvania opposing the creation of an African-American cemetery in the township, a charter for the creation of Eden Cemetery was granted by Pennsylvania on June 20, 1902. Fifty-three acres of land previously part of Bartram Farms were selected for the creation of the cemetery.
The first meeting of the cemetery charter committee was held on August 9, 1902, and included prominent members of Philadelphia's black community in the following roles:
- President - John C. Asbury, lawyer
- Vice-president - Charles W. Jones
- Vice-president - Daniel C. Parvis, upholsterer
- Secretary - Jerome Bacon, instructor at the Institute for Colored Youth (the precursor to Cheyney University)
- Treasurer - Martin J. Lehmann, cigar maker
The first interment at the cemetery was delayed until nightfall due to local white protestors who blocked the cemetery entrance during the day. The headline of the Chester County Times the next day read "Collingdale Has More Race Troubles, Town Council Has No Use for a Colored Cemetery, No African Need Apply."
On May 30, 1919, a memorial was erected to commemorate the colored soldiers from Pennsylvania who fought and died in France during World War I from 1917 to 1918.
In July 2008, vandals toppled over 200 headstones in the cemetery, including that of Octavius Valentine Catto, one of the most famous burials at Eden Cemetery.
In 2010, Eden Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still in operation and maintained by a group of volunteers.
In 2015, a monument to Pauline Oberdorfer Minor was erected in Eden Cemetery by the Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She was one of the 22 founders of the Sorority but was working as a housekeeper when she died and was interred in a pauper's grave alongside three other people.
Notable interments
- Marian Anderson (1897–1993), opera singer
- Ruth L. Bennett (1866-1947), Social reformer and first president of the Chester branch of the NAACP
- John C. Bowers (1811–1873), entrepreneur, organist, abolitionist
- John Pierre Burr (c. 1792–1864), abolitionist and community leader in Philadelphia, a son of Aaron Burr
- Octavius Valentine Catto (1839–1871), civil rights leader, baseball pioneer (originally buried in Lebanon Cemetery, Philadelphia; transferred to Eden, May 14, 1903)
- Dr. Rebecca J Cole (1846–1922). Second African-American female to earn the Doctor of Medicine degree in the United States.
- Frank T. Coleman (1911–2008), educator and community volunteer
- Emilie Davis (1839-1889), diarist
- James DePreist (1936–2013), African-American orchestra conductor
- Henrietta Duterte (1817–1903), funeral home owner, philanthropist, and abolitionist
- Tyrone Everett (1953–1977), Philadelphia professional boxer
- Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–1961), editor, poet, essayist and novelist
- James Forten (1766–1842), African-American abolitionist and businessman
- Timothy Thomas Fortune (1856–1928), journalist, civil rights leader
- Stanislaus Kostka Govern (1854–1924), West Indian–American baseball player, first manager of the Cuban Giants, labor organizer, journalist, and Shakespearean actor
- Frances Harper (1825–1911), poet, abolitionist
- Absalom Jones (1746–1818), African-American abolitionist and clergyman, reinterred to St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Harry McGilberry (1950–2006), R&B and Soul singer
- Pauline Oberdorfer Minor (1885–1963) a Founder of Delta Sigma Theta sorority
- John Bunyan Reeve (1831–1916), Presbyterian minister and professor at Howard University
- Robert Penn (1872–1912), Spanish–American War Medal of Honor Recipient
- Stephen Smith (1796–1873), African-American businessman, philanthropist, clergyman and abolitionist
- William Still (1821–1902), abolitionist
- John Baxter Taylor, Jr. (1882–1908), track and field athlete, first African-American Olympic Gold Medalist
- Charles Albert Tindley (1851–1933), minister, composer
- George Henry White (1852–1918), US Congressman from North Carolina
- Hannah Archer Till (c. 1721-1826), personal cook of George Washington and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette during the American Revolutionary War.
