Lebanon Cemetery was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

established in 1849. It was one of only two private African-American cemeteries in Philadelphia at the time. Lebanon Cemetery was condemned in 1899. The bodies were reinterred in 1902 to Eden Cemetery in

Collingdale, Pennsylvania Collingdale is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 8,908, at the 2020 census. Local governance Donna Matteo-Spadea is the current mayor of Collingdale. Frank Kelly served twelve consecutive four-year terms as Mayor of ...

and the cemetery was closed in 1903. The former location of the cemetery is now the street corner of 19th Street and Snyder Avenue in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.nonsectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adelp ...

cemetery designated for African Americans since they were excluded from most of the new

rural cemeteries A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping pla ...

. The cemetery was a part of the

United States National Cemetery System The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 164 cemeteries in the United States and its territories. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. Congress ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

with a leased lot within the cemetery for soldiers that died in nearby hospitals. 339 African-American veterans of the

U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states t ...

were buried in a reserved section of Lebanon Cemetery and were reinterred to the Philadelphia National Cemetery in 1885. See p. 233. In the early 1870s, Henry Jones, an affluent African-American man who worked as a caterer, purchased a lot for burial in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. After his death in 1875, cemetery authorities refused to bury him based on his race. A lawsuit was filed against the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association and in 1876 the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

ruled that Jones had the right to be buried in the cemetery. During the court case, Jones' body was stored at a burial vault at Lebanon Cemetery. His family had planned to bury him at Lebanon Cemetery but he may have been buried at the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia instead. In 1882, a

Philadelphia Press ''The Philadelphia Press'' (or ''The Press'') is a defunct newspaper that was published from August 1, 1857, to October 1, 1920. The paper was founded by John Weiss Forney. Charles Emory Smith was editor and owned a stake in the paper from 1880 u ...

newspaper story sparked a sensational trial after a journalist caught

body snatchers Body snatching is the illicit removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is distinct from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not explicitly involve the removal of the corpse, but rather theft from ...

from the

Jefferson Medical College Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. To signify its heritage, the unive ...

stealing corpses for use as

cadavers A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...

by medical students. Four grave robbers, including the cemetery supervisor, were arrested and sentenced to

Moyamensing Prison Moyamensing Prison was a prison in Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter. Its cornerstone was laid April 2, 1832; it opened on October 19, 1835, was in use until 1963, and was demolished in 1968. ...

for stealing bodies and providing them to Jefferson Medical College at the rate of $15 a body. After the arrests, it was determined that the body snatching had been going on for nine years and several hundred corpses had been sold to Jefferson Medical College. The reports of bodysnatching caused an uproar in the African-American community in Philadelphia. The renowned surgeon and Jefferson Medical College anatomy professor, William S. Forbes, was arrested for his role in the grave robbery but was acquitted. Forbes helped write the 1867 Pennsylvania Law named the "Anatomy Act" which called for hospitals, prisons and mental health wards to provide the bodies of those that had no family or funds for burial to medical schools for anatomical research. Due in part to the Lebanon Cemetery grave robbery scandal, the

Pennsylvania Anatomy Act of 1883 The Pennsylvania Anatomy Act of 1883 is legislation of the State of Pennsylvania to facilitate medical education. This act allowed teachers and students to be able to dissect bodies without have to resort to buying from grave robbers or buying bo ...

was passed which provided for legal means by which medical colleges could obtain cadavers without having to buy them from grave robbers. By 1889, the cemetery was overcrowded and in disrepair. Expansion of the city began to erode the size of the cemetery. By 1900, Lebanon Cemetery had shrunk from the original 11 acres down to 6 with over 17,000 corpses. In 1899, the city condemned the cemetery and in 1902 relocated the bodies to Eden Cemetery in

. Lebanon Cemetery was closed in 1903.

Notable interments

* John C. Bowers (1811–1873), entrepreneur, organist and abolitionist * Emilie Davis (1839–1889), writer *

Octavius Valentine Catto Octavius Valentine Catto (February 22, 1839 – October 10, 1871) was an educator, intellectual, and civil rights activist in Philadelphia. He became principal of male students at the Institute for Colored Youth, where he had also been educated. ...

(1839–1871), civil rights leader and baseball pioneer *

Absalom Jones Absalom Jones (November 7, 1746February 13, 1818) was an African-American abolitionist and clergyman who became prominent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Disappointed at the racial discrimination he experienced in a local Methodist church, he found ...

(1746–1818), abolitionist and clergyman, buried at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Reinterred in 1887 to Lebanon Cemetery when the church was demolished. * Grace A. Mapps (c. 1835–1897), educator, administrator and poet

Footnotes

References

* {{cite book , last = Keels , first = Thomas H. , year = 2003 , title = Philadelphia Graveyards & Cemeteries , publisher = Arcadia Publishing , isbn = 0-7385-1229-X , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rzNvCR4_-2YC&q=pauline+oberdorfer+minor

External links

Lebanon Cemetery (Defunct)
at Find A Grave
The Library Company of Philadelphia - Chapel of the Lebanon Cemetery Lithograph by G. Dubois
1849 establishments in Pennsylvania African-American cemeteries in Pennsylvania African-American history in Philadelphia Body snatching Cemeteries in Philadelphia Former cemeteries United States national cemeteries