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Bethel Burying Ground Project

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Twenty-eight-year-old Robert Swails died on this date, March 31st in 1849, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on March 29, 2023
Posted in: On This date. 3 Comments

Twenty-eight-year-old Robert Swails died on the 31st of March in 1849 of Tuberculosis (consumption) and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. He is not recorded in any local or federal census and is in only one city directory listing in 1848 as a self-employed barber. His profession in 1849 was very different than it is today.

In addition to cutting hair, the 19th-century barber was also a dentist and surgeon. They were the neighborhood emergency room where broken bones were set, wounds were stitched and bandaged, boils lanced, and painful teeth pulled. The skill it took to be a barber was something that a Black man could have learned while enslaved. The young enslaved Black man would have been apprenticed to a white barber and, after a while, would return to the plantation to service the master and fellow bondsmen. It is unknown if Mr. Swails fell into this category.

The red arrow on the map above shows the approximate location of Mr. Swails’s home and business on Market Street above 13th Street in center city Philadelphia. It was a busy business neighborhood, located just across from the large Pennsylvania Freight Depot with hundreds of Black men working day and night as porters and mechanics. South Penn Square, half a block away, was the crossroads to the city and the future home of Philadelphia City Hall. Mr. Swails’s success may have been his demise. His work required very close contact with his clients and that may have been the source of the Tuberculosis that killed him.

Mr. Swails died on a warm day in March where the temperature reached a balmy seventy-three degrees. According to Philadelphia Board of Health records, he was one of twenty-five Philadelphians to succumb to tuberculosis that week. He was buried at Bethel Burying Ground, with dignity, likely by family and friends.

It is said that a person dies twice. Once when the body dies and the second time when the person’s name is said for the last time. Please say his name.

Forty-year-old Jacob “Jesse” Howard died on this date, January 29th, in 1840, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on January 29, 2023
Posted in: On This date. Leave a comment

Forty-year-old Jacob “Jesse” Howard died on January 29, 1840, of Tuberculosis (Consumption) and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. As you can see in the above documents the attending physician was told by the family the deceased’s name was “Jesse.” While the manager of the cemetery was informed that his Christian name was “Jacob.”

Mr. Howard and his unnamed spouse lived in a dead-end alley full of collapsing rotting buildings, often visited by the city’s medical coroner who witnessed the effects of body and soul-crushing poverty. Shirker’s Alley was frequently mentioned in the local newspapers as a hellhole of alcoholism, violence, and the deadly airborne diseases of overcrowding and no sanitation. For the privilege of living in a room, not much more than a closet, they paid $1 a week. They owned only a paltry $20 in personal property, according to the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census, while the average Black family-owned $138 in cash and property such as a stove or furniture.

In the map above, the black circle indicates the location of Shirker’s Alley, just west of the intersection of 5th and Shippen Streets in the Moyamensing District of the County of Philadelphia. Only a short distance away is Bethel A.M.E. Church, illustrated by the orange arrow.

Like many Black Philadelphians, the Howards were not born in Pennsylvania. The city had become a haven for the formerly enslaved from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Those following the North Star, geographically and symbolically, found a home in Philadelphia. However, oppression and racism did not cease at the border. Black men and women were relegated to work in an apartheid system with lower wages than their white neighbors. Mr. Howard was employed as a laborer while Ms. Howard was employed at “various jobs,” according to the 1838 Census.

There are no mentions of Mr. Howard in the city directories or censuses. Given their financial situation and where they were forced to live, it is likely that they were not in Philadelphia very long before his death. It appears that the burial costs may have been paid by one of the eighty Black beneficial (charity) societies in the city. One or more of the societies may also have provided assistance to the new widow. There is a complete list of the organizations in the endnotes. The entire summary of the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census can be viewed at – https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t6ww7g80h&view=1up&seq=7.

Mr. Howard died in late January 1840. It was a cold day but the first day above freezing in a long time. Both the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers were frozen ice. (The National Gazette, 30 Jan 1840, p. 2.)

Mr. Howard was buried, with dignity, by his spouse and friends at Bethel Burying Ground.

Fourteen-year-old Mary Louisa Custis died this date, December 19th, in 1841, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on December 18, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

Fourteen-year-old Mary Louisa Custis died on December 19th, 1841 of Tuberculosis (Phthisis) and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. She was born in Virginia and brought to Philadelphia when she was three years old in 1830. We don’t have any more information on her and, depending on when she became ill, she may have worked as a domestic or in the home. Tragically, Mary Louisa was not the first child or the last child her parents would lose to illnesses. From existing records, at least four other children of Sarah and Lewis Custis passed away. (1)

Sarah Custis was forty years old when her daughter Mary Louisa died. Mr. Custis was forty-two years old. Both were born in Virginia, according to the 1850 U.S. Census. The family did not participate in either the 1838 or the 1847 Philadelphia African American Censuses. The males in the family never reported their names, addresses, or occupations to the numerous city directories over the decades. This may indicate that the Custis family was formerly enslaved and had been passengers on the liberating Underground Railroad.

The 1850 Census also reported two other family members. George Custis was thirty years old, born in Virginia, and employed as a coachman and William Custis was twenty years old, born in Virginia, and also employed as a coachman. The family patriarch, Lewis Custis, was employed as a shoemaker. There were no children recorded.

According to several physicians that authored the children’s death certificates, the family lived in the area of 11th and Washington Avenue in the Moyamensing District. It is farther south than most Black residents living below South Street. The location is a mile from Bethel AME Church, a half mile from the Bethel Burying Ground, and very near what is now known as the famous Italian Market.

Mary Louisa died on a “piercing cold” day in late December that saw a winter storm of “rain, sleet, hail, snow, and high winds.” She was buried, with dignity, at Bethel Burying Ground with her sibling. Sadly, there would be more to come.

(1) Below are the other Custis children:

Lewis Custis: died August 19,1839 at 3 weeks old of Hydrocephalus. He is also buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

John Custis: died December 14, 1842, at 8 months old of Small Pox. burial unknown. He died at the Alms House but was not buried on their grounds. He likely was buried at Bethel Burying Ground and the paperwork no longer exists.

John Custis: died July 16, 1843, at 9 months old of Convulsions. He is also buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Unnamed male: stillborn January 19,1849; buried at Union (Colored) Cemetery. “Son of Sarah Custis.”

The two-month-old son of Robert Veazy died on this date, November 22nd, in 1828, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on November 22, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

The two-month-old son of Robert Veazy died this date, November 22nd, in 1828 of an unknown cause and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. The signature in the lower left corner is that of Isacc Cork, the sexton of Bethel AME Church and the manager of the cemetery. Dr. H. Bond of 114 Mulberry Street signed the death certificate. (1)

According to Philadelphia Board of Health records, there were one hundred eighty-two individuals between 1828 and 1829 whose cause of death was labeled “unknown.”

Robert Veazy was approximately twenty-seven years old when his son died. The child’s mother’s name and age are unavailable. Ten years after the child’s death, the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census reports the couple was childless and living at #94 Gaskill Street. Ms. Veazy was self-employed as a laundress while Mr. Veazy worked as a porter. The Census reports both were born free and attended Bethel A.M.E. Church.

When Baby Veazy died the family lived in Clever Alley which was located from 5th to 6th Streets between Spruce and Pine Streets. This narrow thoroughfare was home to Black laborers and white craftsmen.

In the first half of the 19th century, Philadelphia porters were all Black men. It was a back-breaking job, hauling hundreds of pounds on the dirt and cobblestone streets of the city in the heat and humidity of summer and the bitter cold of winter. Business slowed down in the winter when the rivers froze, and ships couldn’t dock to unload their goods. During this time, according to African American journalist William Carl Bolivar, these men would collect “twine and burlap” and turn the material into door mats that “were always in demand.” Dressed in “high hats and leather aprons,” the men would loudly hawk their wares near heavily trafficked areas such as the State House, now known as Independence Hall. There were city laws that prohibited these men from being stationary and blocking the already crowded sidewalks. However, when it snowed these sidewalks and roads became impassable the vendors had little choice. From the newspaper articles below, it appears Mr. Vesey (sic) was, on occasion, in violation of those ordinances. (2)

(The first article is from the February 26,1844 edition of the SUN and the second article is from the March 19, 1845 edition of the Daily Chronicle.

Mr. and Mrs. Veazy buried their two-month-old son on a cold day in late November, with dignity, at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) The name “Veazy” has many variations including Vesey, Vasey, Vesy, Veasey, Veazy, Very, and Vizy. Ten individuals with some form of these variations have been identified interred at Bethel Burying Ground.

(2) “Pencil Pusher Point,” Philadelphia Tribune, 10 May 1913, p. 4.

Fifty-year-old Joseph Thompson died this date, October 3rd, in 1847, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on October 3, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

Fifty-year-old Joseph Thompson died this date, October 3rd, in 1847 of “Debility” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Dr. Thomas T. Smiley did not take the time to take a medical history from the family and, subsequently, just wrote a cause of death that is meaningless. The illness that Mr. Thompson suffered from rendered him weak. Mr. Thompson may have suffered from heart disease. According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, he was employed as a laborer who worked “irregularly,” presumably due to his illness.

The red arrow indicates the location of Buckley Street where the Thompson family resided. The red pin shows the location and proximity of Bethel A.M.E. Church.

Buckley Street was more of an alley than a broad thoroughfare. The Thompson family lived in a 13″x 13″ room at #34 Buckley Street for which they paid $.50 a week. According to the 1847 Census, the family consisted of Mr. and Ms. Thompson and a female child under the age of fifteen. I have not been able to locate a likely match for Ms. Thompson and the child in the 1850 U.S. Census. She was employed as a rug maker and the child attended St. Mary’s Street School. Two members were native to Pennsylvania while the third was not. They had no personal property. The family was desperately poor.

Buckley St, now Cypress Alley, minus the wooden tenements. The photo was taken in 1968 and is located in the City of Philadelphia Archives.

According to the 1847 Census, there were eight Black families who lived on Buckley, including the Thompsons, who totaled thirty-two men, women, and children. The women were employed doing laundry and working as day workers. The men worked on the Delaware River docks as porters and day laborers. The children went to either the Raspberry Street School, St. Mary’s Street School, or the 6th and Lombard Infant School. The Raspberry Street School also offered evening classes in math and reading to African American residents.

When the Irish gangs weren’t hunting African Americans to kill, they were busy trying to kill each other. Mr. Thompson died on the day that two murderous gangs, the Skinners and the Buffers, chased each other through the neighborhood shooting and killing each other through the night. Tragically, they gave no peace to the dying Mr. Thompson and his terrified family. His family buried their patriarch, with dignity, at Bethel Burying Ground.

Sixty-five-year-old Mark Grubb died this date, September 18th, in 1849, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on September 18, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

Sixty-five-year-old Mark Grubb died this date, September 18th, 1849, of an undiagnosed illness that caused diarrhea to the extent that the dehydration was fatal. Mr. Grubb had not been employed since before at least 1847, according to the Philadelphia African American Census of that year. His death certificate above states that he was employed as a porter at the time of his death which was unlikely given his illness. City directories and the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census have Mr. Grubb employed as a coachman and laborer at different times. (1)

Poverty is as deadly as any disease. In 1849 Philadelphia, the majority of African American men and women had no resources other than their own labor. If illness prevented you from working, you did not get paid. There were no sick days and indeed no vacation time. If the breadwinner is sick then hard times just got harder and I believe that is what happened to the eight other members of the Grubb household. According to the 1847 Census, the family consisted of two males and seven females. Three were under fifteen years old; four were under fifty years old, and two were over fifty years old. One was employed as a cook and two made mats from rags collected from trash piles. Two of the girls were “in service” domestics.

The black circle illustrates the location of St. Mary’s Alley and the red circle indicates the location and proximity of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

St. Mary’s Alley was a narrow dead-end path that ended in a small courtyard surrounded by rotting tenements. Two years before Mr. Grubbs’ death the family lived on St. Mary’s Street (aka Mary St. – see map above). St. Mary’s Street was a two-block-long stretch of brothels, bars (legal and illegal), gaming houses, and hotels that allowed whites and Blacks to comingle. The street was home to constant violence, arson, and disease, and without clean water or sanitation. Black families lived in one room without heat in the winter or fresh air in the summer.

California House Riot on October 9, 1849

After the death of Mr. Grubb, the family is not listed in any census or city directory. They likely moved out of the city. This may have been a direct result of what occurred on the night of October 9th, three weeks after Mr. Grubb passed away. In addition to what we have mentioned about what St. Mary’s Street had to offer its Black citizens, they were being hunted by the “Monamensing Killers.” These young Irish thugs’ sole mission was to kill and assault African Americans and the whites who associated with them. Their target on that Fall night was the California Hotel at the corner of 6th and St. Mary’s Street. It was said that the reason for the attack was that the owner, a Black man, had a white wife. Others thought that it might be that the owner was not buying liquor from the people who were represented by the Killers.

Twenty-four-year-old James Williams was on St. Mary’s Street the night of October 9th. When he was thirteen years old, he stole his enslaver’s horse on a plantation in Elkton, Maryland, and rode to freedom. In his autobiography, he remembers that night as an epic battle between whites and Blacks. Mr. Williams joined a group of African Americans called the “Stringers” that were engaging the white mob. The mob outnumbered the Blacks who also had fewer guns. Mr. Williams received a gunshot wound to his right thigh and a hard knock on his head. Several Black men were killed and dozens were seriously injured. The California Hotel was burnt to the ground before military troops intervened. The remaining members of the Grubb family had every reason to seek a safer and healthier residence. (2)

According to the 1847 Census, one member of the Grubb family belonged to a beneficial society, likely at Bethel Church, that allowed Mark Grubb to be buried, with dignity, at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Dr. Smith forgot to add a date to his note. Other Philadelphia Board of Health documents were used to determine the date.

(2) Life and adventures of James Williams, a fugitive slave, with a full description of the Underground Railroad, P. 14-15. Available at hathitrust.org.

Thirty-five-year-old Elizabeth Birmingham died on this date August 18th, in 1843, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on August 18, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

Thirty-five-year-old Elizabeth Birmingham died this date, August 18th, in 1843 of Tuberculosis and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. It appears that her four-month-old son, James died the previous day of Cholera.

The documented family history of Ms. Birmingham and her family is thin. Samuel Birmingham is the only Black man with that last name listed in the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census and the 1839 and 1840 city directories. In addition, a seven-year-old boy, Samuel Birmingham, tragically, died a few months after his mother and brother, in October of 1838, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. His cause of death was a ruptured blood vessel. He was likely Elizabeth and Samuel, Sr.’s son.

After 1840 Samuel Birmingham disappears from the censuses and city directories. Previously, it was reported that he was employed as a shoemaker and resided in Raspberry Alley. In 1840 he had a workshop in the cellar of 301 N. 2nd Street.

Ms. Birmingham was one of 1,517 Philadelphians to die of Tuberculosis (Consumption) between 1842 and 1843, according to Philadelphia Board of Health records. Baby James and his mother both died on days that were “partly clear and warm and pleasant.”(1) It would have been the custom to open Samuel. Jr.’s grave and inter mother and sons together at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) North American, 2 Sept 1843, p. 2.

Forty-three-year-old Festus Frame died this date, August 12th, in 1847, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on August 12, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Leave a comment

Forty-three-year-old Festus Frame died of Tuberculosis on August 12th, 1847, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. He is first listed in the 1837 Philadelphia City Directory as ‘Festus France.’ Over the next ten years, he and his family used ‘France’ and ‘Frame’ fairly interchangeably. The problem may have been with the transcribers or that the family was hoping to throw fugitive slave catchers off their trail. According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, where he appears listed as ‘Mr. Frame,’ he and his spouse were previously enslaved. They did not report to the census taker how they were liberated.

Two mysteries cloud the telling of the family’s story. In the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census, it is reported that Mr. Frame and his spouse owned $700 in personal property or approximately $22,845 in modern currency. They owned their home so that may account for the personal property amount. Mr. Frame worked as a laborer and his spouse was self-employed as a washwoman.

After Mr. Frame’s death, the family address, #10 Acorn Alley, is listed under the name of ‘Sarah Frame’ in the 1850 City Directory. Sarah is listed as the head of the family. Her age is reported to be fifty-five years old and she was born in Delaware, according to the 1850 U.S. Census. This would have been an age difference of eight or nine years between Sarah and Festus.

The yellow arrow indicates the location of the Frames’ home at #10 Acorn Alley. It was situated just north of Pennsylvania Hospital and west of Washington Square in the area that we now know as Independence Square.

Acorn Alley was a narrow thoroughfare, just west of 8th Street. In 1847 it held at least twenty-one Black families with a total of eighty-seven children, women, and men. The women were employed as laundresses and domestics, while their children attended the 6th and Lombard Infant School or the private schools of Diana Smith or Roger Georges. The men were employed as coachmen, seamen, carpenters, waiters, and oyster house-workers. There was one minister, Rev. John Boggs, who was the Frames’ next-door neighbor at #9 Acorn Alley. (1) He was a key member of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and an important figure in the Philadelphia African-American community. No doubt he was close to the Frame family as they were Bethel congregants, according to the 1838 Census.

The above is a 1931 photo of Acorn Alley then and now known as Schell Street. (City Archives)

Mr. Frame was one of 1,841 to die of Tuberculosis between 1847 and 1848, according to the Philadelphia Board of Health records. He died on a clear warm day in August that saw the temperature rise to eighty-five degrees by late afternoon. He was buried, with dignity, by his family and friends at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Until 1854 the street numbers were consecutive. After 1854 odd number houses were on the north side of the street and even numbered houses were on the south side.

Sixty-four-year-old Amy Purnell died this date, August 2nd, in 1848, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on August 2, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Tagged: African American burial grounds, African American cemeteries, African American History, African Methodist Episcopal Church, archaeology, Bethel Burying Ground, Mother Bethel, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. Leave a comment

Sixty-four-year-old Amy Purnell died this date, August 2nd, in 1848 from Cholera and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, Ms. Purnell lived with a man whom I presume to be her spouse, a “daughter who is completely blind” and under fifteen years of age, and a female child “under five years old.” They lived in a 12’x12′ room in a squalid building on St. Mary’s Street for which they paid $.50 a week. The street was chaos twenty-four hours a day with the usual brawl between residents every Sunday night that ended with one or more participants going to the hospital. (1)

By 1847, the city and districts of Philadelphia had become a filthy, disease-ridden pit. Its streets, courts, and alleys were filled with human and animal waste, garbage, and overflowing cesspools. Its yards and cellars were quagmires. Unfortunately, St. Mary’s Street, Ms. Purnell’s home, was one of the worst. These conditions set the stage for the disease that took Ms. Purnell’s life. Cholera is a bacteria that is spread by ingesting water or food contaminated by the excrement of an infected person. Death occurs after days or weeks of uncontrollable diarrhea that leads to organ failure. The water system for the poor was often contaminated by human waste. Food would be handled with dirty hands and washed in filthy water. The poor did not have a choice or a chance.

The black arrow indicates the approximate location of Ms. Purnell’s home at #26 St. Mary’s Street. The red circle indicates the location and proximity of Bethel A.M.E. Church.
The lack of sanitation plans by city governments led to the situation in the above sketch. (2)

Philadelphia Board of Health records between 1848 and 1849 show that 1,681 Philadelphians died from Cholera. During that same time period, 847 died from “Diarrhea” as the cause of death.

Death brought an ending to her suffering (2)

Ms. Purnell died on a clear day in early August when the temperature rose to a high of eighty degrees by mid-day. She was buried, with dignity, by family and friends at Bethel Burying Ground.

(1) Sun, 9 June 1846, p.2.

(2) Both images are from the United Kingdom Science website

Fifty-three-year-old Frances Paul was buried on this date, May 27th, in 1853, at Bethel Burying Ground.

Posted by Terry Buckalew on May 27, 2022
Posted in: On This date. Leave a comment

Fifty-three-year-old Frances Paul died on May 27th, 1853 of Typhoid Fever, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Ms. Paul was born in New Jersey according to the 1850 United States Census and was the mother of two children according to the 1838 Philadelphia African American Census. According to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census, she was employed as a cook.

Thomas Paul was seventy-three years old when his spouse died. He was employed as a “laborer” according to the 1847 Census. The 1838 Philadelphia African American Census reports his occupation then as “cabinetmaker.” Mr. Paul was born enslaved in Maryland. He would outlive his spouse by fifteen years dying in 1868 at eighty-five years old of heart disease. He was buried at Lebanon Cemetery.

1850 United States Census

It appears from the 1847 Census and the 1850 U.S. Census that the Paul family in 1850 was Thomas, Lydia, and maybe a daughter named Lydia. The rest we likely boarders. The Pauls rented the first floor (and maybe the basement) of 245 South 7th Street for the hefty sum of $15 a month. That is the equivalent of approximately $530 in modern currency.

The red circle illustrates Bethel Church A.M.E. and the red arrow indicates the location of the Paul family’s home a block away on S. 7th Street

Sixth and Lombard Streets was ground zero for racial attacks by white Irish gangs. Black churches and businesses were prominent in the area and were regularly targeted. It was not uncommon to see groups of Black men and boys defending their neighborhood, especially on Sunday evenings. After late services at Bethel, the congregants would gather outside the church to share news and each other’s company. White gangs, fueled by alcohol courage, would prey on the parishioners. However, they were often met by Black defenders and driven away.

Ms. Francis Paul died on a clear day in late May when the temperature rose to seventy-two degrees. She was buried, with dignity, at bethel Burying Ground.

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  • Recent Posts

    • Twenty-eight-year-old Robert Swails died on this date, March 31st in 1849, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.
    • Forty-year-old Jacob “Jesse” Howard died on this date, January 29th, in 1840, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.
    • Fourteen-year-old Mary Louisa Custis died this date, December 19th, in 1841, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.
    • The two-month-old son of Robert Veazy died on this date, November 22nd, in 1828, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.
    • Fifty-year-old Joseph Thompson died this date, October 3rd, in 1847, and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.
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