11-BinghamSt-ME-Cem
Thanks for visiting . . .
This webpage is the property of
Norman J. Meinert
O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, PA
and is presented here freely as a courtesy to family
historians and genealogists.
If
you were illegally charged a FEE to obtain this information,
please notify me immediately
with
the
details at the E-Mail address listed on my Home Page, which is
linked below.
There is NO affiliation or association between this
website and the cemetery listed below.
The following listing is from contributed family files,
and/or Tombstone Recordings.
This is NOT
official cemetery information, NOR
is it complete.
PLEASE CONTACT THIS CEMETERY FOR OFFICIAL RECORDS.
None of the following
copyrighted information, partial or in total, may be used or
stored, by any person, persons,
or organization (electronically or otherwise), for the purpose
of profiteering. Copying of, or referencing (linking) to
this webpage is allowable, as long as this source and owner is
indicated in all cases.
Collected
Notations Concerning Defunct
Bingham Street Methodist
Episcopal Cemetery
a/k/a Old Methodist Burying
Ground
Southern Avenue (Brownsville
Road) & Carbon Street
Mt. Oliver, PA
(Left: Extract
from Historic Pittsburgh website, "G M Hopkins Maps
1872-1940")
(Right: Google Earth birdseye view of location today, February
2011)
Posted: June 29,
2011 / Last Update: July 6, 2014
Please Note:
This webpage has been created to salvage any relative
historical data currently (2011) available regarding this
defunct cemetery, soas to freely pass this information along
to future researchers who may be seeking the same. It is
only through the co-operation and efforts of a few concerned
individuals that this webpage is now available.
They are Allegheny County researchers:
(NCL) = Nancy C. Long;
(JW) = Jeanne Will;
(HO) =Helen Owens;
(LT) = Larry Thompson
(RB) = Rich Boyer
(BL) = Ben Lighthall
(RC) = Rich Cummings, and
(NM) = Norm Meinert, Webmaster.
This plot of ground was donated as a burying ground by the
Bausman and Beltzhoover heirs in 1867. (Source: Hill Top
Record, December 2, 1908)
Road names changed over time. Brownsville Road is a road
in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It has had several names
over its history, and was also known as the Red Stone Road,
the Brownsville Plank Road, and Southern Avenue.
Notes by Nancy C. Long:
A cemetery existed in Mount
Oliver around Ormsby and Brownsville Road. It could not be
ascertained but bodies were moved to various other cemeteries
and last ones to South Side Cemetery. In South Side at the
western end, there is a stone inscribed In memory of members
of Bingham St. M. E. Church, 1839-1927 It is not certain
whether the Mount Oliver Cemetery was Methodist Episcopal or
not. This information supplied by elderly man at
Farnsworth Funeral Home, Brownsville Road. (date unknown)
Note from A. Iacone, 23 June 1993:
Bingham Street Methodist Church Cemetery
It appears as if the bodies from this cemetery which was
located on Brownsville Road and Ormsby in Mt. Oliver were
moved to the South Side Cemetery to the section called OLD
SINGLES (see map)
The Bingham Street Methodist Church was located on the South
Side (Birmingham)
The South Side Cemetery is located in Carrick along
Brownsville Road.
The South Side Cemetery has no listing for the burials in the OLD
SINGLES section.
-----
Notes made by Nancy Long
from phone conversation with Henry Hively (WPGS) in February
1993:
Henry had information from a Brentwood Historical Society
booklet. It states there are 9 cemeteries in the vicinity of
Brentwood: St. Michael (plotted in 1885), St. Joseph, St.
George, St. Adalbert, Zion, Concord Presbyterian, Concordia
Lutheran. Also a Methodist graveyard was on old Center
Street. Henry said 15th Street was formerly Center Street (on
the South Side). This church (or cemetery) was chartered in
1838 and was called the Birmingham Street Methodist Cemetery.
A fire at the Duncan Glass works in the 1880s destroyed the
records.
-----
From History of Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania, F157A46H67, 1977, v. 1
(at Historical Society of Western PA, copied by Nancy Long
in July 1993):
In 1831 a Sunday school was organized in Birmingham in
Saulsbury Hall where the market house stands. The first church
was built on a lot purchased from Hannah Duncan, situated on
Bingham Street adjoining on the south the present Bingham
Street Church. This was exchanged for an unfinished
Presbyterian Church on Center Street and then they bought a
lot and built the church at the corner of Bingham & 13th
Streets in 1857.
-----
From The History of
Allegheny County, PA by A. Warner, Volume 1, Part 1, page
360
(e-mail from Jeanne Will dated 12 January 2000):
German congregations
In 1840 a congregation was started on the South Side. Its
first church was built upon the hill. Ten years afterward the
little brick church was secured from the English church, on
Bingham Street above Thirteenth. In 1882 the third church was
built on Sixteenth Street near Carson.
-----
From article titled
Redstone Road in Olden Times, Ancient Taverns and Log Houses
Mutely Tell of Its Departed Usefulness Once an Artery of
Commerce, Article is dated September 23, 1900, The Pittsburg
Press and was written for the Sunday Press by Charles R.
MMurtrie:
The oldest and most interesting from
a reminiscent standpoint is the old Methodist graveyard which
fronts on the road a short distance beyond the second toll
gate. This cemetery, now known as the Bingham Street Methodist
cemetery, was owned by the trustees of the old Center Street
Methodist church now south Fifteenth street. The charter was
procured in 1838. At one time a special act had to be enacted
by the state legislature to put an end to hostilities between
the trustees and lot owners in the cemetery.
When the Duncan Glass Works on the South Side were destroyed
by fire in the 80s, all records of this cemetery were burned
as Mr. Duncan was acting secretary of the trustees.
Considerable confusion resulted and to this day the matter of
several records has not been settled satisfactorily to many
lot owners of the cemetery. Little space is now left for
graves. Many of the old stones bear quaint epitaphs.
..
(
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~susanb/brownsville_road.htm
)
( https://sites.rootsweb.com/~paallegh/ )
-----
Compiled
by Nancy C. Long , 17 January 2011
Bingham
Street Methodist Episcopal Church
Cor.
Bingham
and
Thirteenth
Sts., - October 1903
Sunday
school started 1831 at Squire John McKees house located at
the east side of Fourteenth St between Carson and Bingham Sts.
Small brick
church erected on piece of ground (40 x 95 ft) purchased from
Mrs. Hannah Duncan for $1300, building started in 1834,
occupied 1835.This building was at one time occupied by the
German M. E. Congregation and in 1903 the building adjoined
the newer church at the corner of Bingham and Thirteenth Sts.
An unfinished church building
on Center (now Fifteenth Street) and in 1903 the site of the
Birmingham School building, was purchased from the
Presbyterians and the little brick church given in part pay,
The Center Street building was finished and occupied in 1843.
It was used for sixteen years when it became necessary to
build a larger church. The church was also known as the Center
Street Methodist Church.
The church existed as a society
without a charter, bound by agreement annexed to the deed of
Mrs. Duncan for the first property purchased. In 1847 a
charter was obtained. In 1857 the property at the corner
of Bingham and Thirteenth Sts. was obtained and the building
was occupied in 1859.
From this church, two churches
were developed. One is Carson Street M. E. Church and the
other is Walton M. E. Church. The Carson St. church was
sold and in 1903 was occupied by a Greek Catholic
congregation.
There is a copy of the
Directory of the Bingham Street Methodist Episcopal Church,
Corner Bingham and Thirteenth Sts., Pittsburg, Pa., October
1903 in the collections at the John Heinz History
Center. A copy of this is in the files of Nancy Long.
Compiled
by Nancy C. Long, 17 January 2011
NOTES TAKEN DURING VISIT
TO SOUTH SIDE CEMETERY ON 11 JANUARY 2000 WITH JEANNE WILL:
Jeanne Will and I met with Leslie Morrow in the office at
South Side Cemetery. We were hoping to find the list of
names of reinterrments of burials from the Bingham Street
Methodist Episcopal Cemetery which had been located in Mt.
Oliver.
First entry in the ledger showing from ME graveyard:
Dated 1 Aug 1873 - #63 Isabelle Smith, b. PA, d. 27 March
1873, age 39, disease-consumption
(There were 15 removals listed on this page and 3 on the next
page.)
Next entry is dated 27 March 1887 #3521 25 March
Sophia Warner, b. Pgh, d. Pgh, 11 mo. 3 da., croup
#3522 - Jno P. Davis, 28 Dec 26 Dec, b. Wales d. Pgh,
age 34, Lot 27-D17, from ME Church Mar 24, 1887
#3998 Jun 9 Jun 8 1888 P. H. Lauderbach, removed from
ME graveyard
#4774 Kinsby, 5 wks, spasms 20 D11
#4843 Thos. Jones 18 B21
#427 Apr 13, 1870 Peter Dingledein, b. Germany, age 61,
old age Lot 19-B21
#428 Apr 13, 1873 Mrs. Dingledein, b. Germany, age 56, old
age, Lot 19-B21
#5037 1891 May child of W. P. Perry, 5 ½ of ae Ό, 27A
(plus 2 more children of W.P. Perry)
#5470 May 13, 1871 May 12, 1871 Otto Max Mervis (or
Mewes), b. Mt. Oliver, d. city, 3 mo. 3 da., spasms 12-B12
#5669 Wm. Davis, Lot 8-B9 to #5673 Wm. Davis
#6235 Mar 1, 1894 Jacob Hoffman, b. Ger, d. Belzhoover, 9
yr, 9 mo., diphtheria, SE Ό 28-A
#6278 1894
#6624 d. Aug 1862
#6625
#6626
#6668 1895
#6694 Russell
#6789 1890
#6896 Reiff
#6959 June 1872
#7052 Col. Patterson 1896
#7220 to #7225 Barr/Albright
#7631 1869 William P. Roberts, killed by fall of building
#7632 1868 May E. Roberts
#8572 October 1878 Dyer
#8851 Mar 1898 Ida May Thomas
There were some in 1902 church lot means from ME Church (my
note/ncl)
During March and April 1927 there were 596 unidentified bodies
brought from the Bingham ME Cemetery and placed in large boxes
in Lots 305, 323, and 324, Section L.
July 24, 1839 burial ground deeded (my note/ncl)
Aug 14, 1873 Sgt. James M. Hamlin or William N. M.J.D.
Battery N., LA Vol., age 85, Lot 322L
#21915 Jane Hamlin, 323L South Box
Also found in the South Side Cemetery records: Reinterments from Carrs
Burying Ground:
#1349 Feb 22, 1827 Samuel
Chambers
July 7, 1831 Agnes
Chambers
Apr
3, 1835 James Chambers
July 29, 1839 Saml Chambers
Nov
14, 1840 Jane Chambers
Nov
4, 1842 Alice Chambers
Mar
14, 1847 John Chambers
-----
Compiled
by Nancy C. Long
Another possible burial here:
Sophia Wedekind, buried in Methodist Cemetery Mt. Oliver, b.
1807, d. 10 June 1882, (Larry
Thompson/PAALLEGH mailing list) 2-6-2011
Another
ancestor I had buried there; Ellen (Biles) Honeywell, b. abt
1809, d. 26 Feb. 1879. (Larry/6-30-2011)
Death certificate found by Rich
Cummings, July, 2014:
HIXENBAUGH, Thompson Church, Nov. 24, 1824 / Nov.
7, 1906, (cert.),
(RC)
The cemetery began early in 1800's It ceased interring
people around 1900. In 1920 Mt Oliver Boro published
announcements that it would be closed and ask anyone who
wished to reinter their loved ones else where. On
April 27, 1927 the remain bodies (abt 150) that had not been
moved were lifted and reinterred in a common grave in
Southside Cemetery. . . . it was a place over the
years for the gathering of Civil War Soldiers to remember
their fallen brothers.
(Helen Owens,
1-13-2011)
(Update: July 6, 2014) --
According to the saleslady on duty at the cemetery
office the number of bodies moved was not 150 as I was
told originally, but approx. 500. The names dates
etc. information is recorded in the an old cemetery
register on April 27, 1927 the date of the
internment. I saw approx. 4 pages of that
information. So an inquiry can be made and that
date should be mentioned . -- (HO)
Hilltop
Journal date March 1905: I found the following
information that might help some one.
In the cemetery:
There was a McCord lot but no names/dates mentioned.
Fred K Weiss who was a member of Company E Knapp's Battery
Pa who served through the War. no dates listed
Think Civil War
George Hoegson buried 12/25/1856
Evan A Jones buried 1859
Charles G Walters buried 1848
-----
(Some issues of The Hill Top Record Newspaper are reportedly
available at Carnegie Library's Pennsylvania Room.)
Helen in PGH, 2-19-2011
Property Note:
In November, 1856, a
continuous line of railway was opened to Chicago; three
lines were united and took the name Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne
and Chicago Railroad. So enormous was the freight
business over the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1856 the
company was obliged to enlarge its facilities, and
accordingly bought a tract, 259x386 feet, near the old
Methodist burying-ground, to be used as a temporary
storage or warehouse.
(Commercial
Journal, 1858.) (
http://pghbridges.com/articles/railroads/RRhistory_pgh_wilson4.htm
)
Note from
Benjamin Lighthall, Dec. 23, 2012, (BL):
The South Side Cemetery at one time (Apr 1999) had detailed
records about the transfers. In their books I found that my
grandaunt Mariah Sharlotte Allison (17 Jul 1849 31 Dec
1903) was buried in the Bingham Street Methodist Episcopal
Cemetery and was re-interred in the South Side Cemetery with
the move of 1927.
The entry, as we were able to read =
Maria C. Allison - burial # 10XXX - Maria C. Allison -
Pittsburgh, PA - Pneumonia - 31 Dec 1903 - 53 years 5 months
14 days - 105- L - Church Lot.
I might further mention that the South Side Cemetery
entertained an unpleasant caretaker in 1940 and all of the
deceased members of my Allison family were moved to the
Allegheny Cemetery. All but Mariah, who could not be
found...
On April 27, 1927 the remaining bodies (about 150) that had
not been moved, were lifted and reinterred in a common grave
in Southside Cemetery.
Links to Memorial Markers in South Side Cemetery:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/tsphotos/binghamstreet-pittsburgh/bingham-me-church1.jpg
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/tsphotos/binghamstreet-pittsburgh/bingham-me-church2.jpg
Some older newspaper
articles referencing this cemetery:
April 16, 1905 -- Pittsburgh Press -- Headline: MAY
REMOVE A GRAVEYARD
April 16, 1905 -- Pittsburgh Press -- Article
March, 1906 -- Hill Top Record -- Old Graveyard Going
To Ruin
March, 1906 -- Hill Top Record -- (continuation) Old
Graveyard Going To Ruin
April 29, 1908 -- Pittsburgh Press -- Find
Petrified Body
September 4, 1908 -- Hill Top Record -- A View in the Old
Methodist Cemetery
September 4, 1908 -- Hill Top Record -- (article)
Cemetery Is Still A Nuisance
December 2, 1908 -- Hill Top Record -- Old Methodist
Cemetery To Be Condemned
September 17, 1926 --
Pittsburgh Press --
Cemetery Ordered Vacated
Some additional articles:
From the History
of Allegheny County, Bingham
Historic Pittsburgh: William
Sankey
Family, Part I
Historic Pittsburgh: William
Sankey
Family, Part II
To contribute information, send Email to
the address on Home Page (link below).
In your "Subject" line please indicate the full name of
this cemetery. Thank you!
Back to Home Page
Back to Tombstone Inscriptions
Disclaimer