Historic Eden Cemetery

The First Burial

On Sunday August 10, 1902 the following death notice was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

CROMWELL - On August 8, 1902, Celestine Moseley, wife of Willis H. Cromwell, aged 49 years.  Funeral from her late residence, 819 South Seventeenth street, on Tuesday morning, at 10 o’clock.  Internment at Eden Cemetery.

The Board of the Eden Cemetery Company, having recently received its charter on June 20, 1902 decided that Mrs. Cromwell would be Eden Cemetery’s first burial. Mrs Cromwell’s husband, Willis H. Cromwell was one of the twenty nine member Advisory Board of the Eden Cemetery Company.

In this video clip from the 2020 Eden Cemetery Company’s Founders Day Panel, entitled “ African American Cultural Landscapes: A Dialogue on Memorials, Monuments, and Cemeteries”, Lenwood Sloan, cultural specialist and executive director of the Commonwealth Memorial Project recounts the story of Eden’s opening and first burial. Click here.

Transcriptions of Newspaper Articles About the Opening of Eden Cemetery and the First Burial

Wednesday, August 13, 1902,  Delaware County Daily Times, Chester PA page 1

‘COLLINGDALE HAS MORE RACE TROUBLES’

Town Council Has No Use for a Colored Funeral.

NO AFRICAN NEED APPLY

Efforts to Use a Tract of Ground in the Borough as a Negro Cemetery Blocked by the Local Lawmakers, Who Pass an Ordinance and Hold Up a Funeral Procession

Collingdale borough and the colored people of that section are again at war, this time over a ghastly subject.  Not long ago the colored denizens of the place bought a section of the Thomas Bartram place and made preparations for a burial ground.  They made application for a charter incorporating the Eden cemetery and Judge Johnson granted the document on July 26.

In the meantime the Town Council, on July 23, passed an ordinance prohibiting any cemetery within the borough limits, much to the chagrin and disappointment of the other side. Little was said about the matter, however, but yesterday the test came.  A full fledged funeral arrived at the grounds, but it was met by a special watchman stationed by the borough officials, and he held up the procession by virtue of the statue which had been passed.

Finding that the officer was determined, efforts were made to locate someone of the authorities, while the mourners and hearse containing the body stood in one part of the cemetery.  It is understood that a lawyer has been engaged by the colored parties interested.  Another effort will be made today to bury the remains.

Thursday, August 14, 1902, Delaware County Times, Chester PA page 3

‘ASBURY WANTS TO GET INTO HIS EDEN’

Another Chapter in the Collingdale Cemetery Case

SUIT FOR ALLEGED TRESPASS

President of the Colored Burial Ground Begins Action Against J. W. Simpson Because Internment Was Refused to the Body of a Colored Man in a Cemetery Chartered by the Court.

John C. Asbury, colored, who claims the distinction of being president of the Eden Cemetery Company, of Collingdale, appeared in Media yesterday afternoon, and before Justice G. Leiper Green swore out a warrant for criminal trespass against J. W. Simpson, of Collingdale, for encroaching on the grounds of the Company and forbidding the burial of a Mrs. Cromwell on Tuesday.

      The plaintiff sets forth that he was elected president of the Eden Cemetery Company, which was chartered by the Court last month.  It appears, as stated by the Times yesterday, that Council passed an ordinance prohibiting a part of the borough to be used for burying purposes.  The case will likely reach the Court and will be interesting.  Mr. Simpson will be given a hearing, probably today.

Thursday, August 14, 1902   Delaware County Daily Times,  Chester PA page 4

‘THE COLLINGDALE CASE’

It looks very much as though the borough of Collingdale had won its fight against the colored camp meetings, as the head and front of the colored campers has been endeavoring to find another convenient grove where he could pitch tents and go on with the services.

But a new phase of the war has developed and that of a very peculiar  character. The borough Council, hearing that the land had been bought for uses as a colored cemetery hastily passed an ordinance prohibiting the internment of any bodies within the borough limits, as the Council had the right to do as a health measure; and though a colored funeral entered the grounds this week, sepulchre was denied in the plot of the ground and once more the authorities outwitted the colored man.

To people at a distance from the scene, all this seems to be an unnecessary proceeding, but the citizens of Collingdale are not fighting the colored people. They found objectionable features in the camp meeting held by the colored people of Chester and other parts of the county, and they had a right to rebel.  As a matter of fact some of the Chester preachers who were associated with the Collingdale movement in the start, withdrew because they could not countenance the methods used at the camp.

As to the refusal to permit the internment of bodies within the borough limits, that applies to cemetery corporations composed of both white and colored people and it is a wise thing to have the place of burial as far form the town as possible, a fact recognized by the lawmakers of the State.

Friday, August 15, 1902,  Delaware County Daily Times,  Chester PA page 1

‘LAWYERS DISPUTE OVER BURIAL RIGHTS’

Body of Colored Woman Finally Interred at Collingdale

UNBURIED FOR MANY HOURS

Remains Lie in a Shed for a Day and a Half While Attorneys Argue Over the Case Compromise is Reached Pending Decision of the Court and Lawyers Officiate as Pall Bearers:

For hours the lawyers fought over the internment of the body of Mrs. C. M. Cromwell in the proposed colored cemetery in Collingdale. Those participating in the forensic battle were Harry Schelser, solicitor for Collingdale; Morton Z. Paul, solicitor for Eden Cemetery, and Frank B. Rhodes.  Towards evening they compromised by allowing the body to be interred under protest.

In the meantime the body had been in the stable shed of Mt. Zion Cemetery for thirty-six hours.  The sun was fast sinking below the horizon and the birds were singing vespers when six stalwart men could be seen carrying a casket and proceeding towards the proposed Cemetery.  The pall bearers were Harry Schelser, Frank B. Rhodes and Morton Z. Paul, attorneys; James Kelley and John Pierce, constables, and ‘Squire William Simpson.

Arriving at the grave, which had been dug the day before, ‘Squire Simpson, who is an old hand in the cemetery business, superintended the work of lowering the body into the grace.  Then Lawyers Rhodes and Paul grasped long handle shovels and proceeded to fill in the grave.  The grim humor at Ophelia’s grave was nothing to what it was at this burial.  The lawyers will try their wits before Judge Johnson to test the legality of the question at issue.

Monday, August 18, 1902  page 1  Delaware County Daily Times,  Chester PA page 1

‘A LIBERAL OFFER’

Eden Cemetery Promoters Make a Proposition to Collingdale Officials

The promoters of Eden Cemetery have waited on the officials of Collingdale and proposed to them if all opposition was withdrawn to give $1000 toward fixing Springfield road.  They will also remove from Philadelphia a cemetery that has been condemned, four thousand bodies, paying the usual fee for internment, $1.00 for each body.  The proposition has not been accepted.

Friday, August 22, 1902  Delaware County Daily Times,  Chester PA page 1

‘A STARTLING QUERY’

President Asbury Wants to Know if Collingdale Wants Dead Niggers or Live Ones

“Which would you rather have-a dead nigger, or a live one?”

This was the final sentence of President Asbury in his peroration the other might in a speech before a town meeting of Collingdale citizens, relative to the location of the Eden Cemetery within the borough limits.  It is believed this will clinch the matter in the company’s favor.  The question was argued by Morton Z. Paul, the solicitor for the cemetery company.  President Asbury says if they cannot have the cemetery, they will sell the lots to colored people.  He then asked his startling question.

Litigation continued through December 1902. The next burial was held on December 12, 1902.