Bethel Burying Ground Project

Sixty-one-year-old Moses Macklin died this date, November 6th, in 1848 of Pleurisy* and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Mr. Macklin was married to forty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Macklin who was a native of Delaware, according to the 1847 African American Census and the 1850 U.S. Census. Mr. Macklin was employed as a wood sawyer, while Ms. Macklin labored taking in washing and ironing. It appears that the Macklins had at least two adult children, William who was twenty-six-years old at the time of his father’s death and Isaac who was twenty-four. Both were born in Pennsylvania. 

The yellow arrow illustrates the location of the Macklins’ home in the 300 block of Harmony Street. The Bethel Burying Ground is nearby, as illustrated by the yellow circle. The Macklin family owned their home, according to the 1847 Census. The value of the home in modern currency is approximately $22,250.

The 1847 Census shows the fifteen Black families on Harmony Street were industrious. The forty-nine residents were employed as:

• cooks
• sailmakers
• draymen
• oyster cellar worker
• dressmakers
• waiters
• porters
• clothes seller
• seamen
• laundresses 
• domestic workers
• a steward of a steamboat

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Tragically, Moses and Elizabeth Macklin lost a four-month-old daughter, Hannah, twenty years before Mr. Macklin passed away. She died of Cholera in 1828 and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground.

Moses Macklin died on a day where the sun rose to a temperature of 32°, a thirty-degree drop from the day before. The temperature rose to 56° by 2 pm. Mr. Macklin was buried at Bethel Burying Ground next to his daughter.

*Pleurisy is severe chest pains caused by a bacterial infection. It also can be caused by a virus, such as the flu or by a fungus.