A few weeks ago my family, Mrs. Mac, Mac Jr. and I, visited the New Enterprise cemetery on a night when the moon was full. It was a special night, because there was going to be a lunar eclipse. This was the best place to go, because there were no other lights to interfere with our viewing of the stars and moon except for a few clouds here and there. While we were there, we checked out the stones marking the graves. Some were very old and worn down so bad they couldn't be read, and others had no markings at all to show who had been buried in that spot so very long ago. One of the oldest stones was to mark the grave of John Brumbaugh and his family. Nearby their stone are the stones of the Samuel Ullery family, who once owned the land where the cemetery is located. Jacob Brumbaugh, along with some other men, came to the Cove to look for land. They saw so many Indian fires that they went back to Maryland. After William Penn bought the land from the Indians, Jacob Brumbaugh came back to the Cove and bought 1,900 acres of land for 12 cents an acre. He gave some to his son-in-law, Samuel Ullery, and also to his son, John. These men owned the land that our first New Enterprise church was built on in the 1800s. Samuel built his house near a spring on the farm. When more Dunkards started to move into the area, he built a house with movable walls so that church could be held in his house. After this mini history lesson, Mac Jr. wanted to know why we bury people in the ground. I told him this was a very old practice dating back to Bible times and beyond. Jesus was wrapped in special burying cloths and anointed with special spices and oils. Then he was laid in a tomb or cave as was the tradition of that time. For thousands of years man has buried those who die in many different ways. Some in specially built tombs or pyramids and others in graves. It's a way of honoring the dead. The tombstones are like little history lessons. They give lots of information about the families in our area. We can tell from the stones how long people lived, when they married, and how many children they may have had over the years. The stones can also tell us of very sad times in a community when there may have been epidemics of scarlet fever, flu, and other sicknesses. It was during these times that many children and older people would die. Sometimes a whole family would get sick and die. The Dunkards started many small family gravesites when they first moved into the Cove. In time more churches were formed and each church had its own cemetery. It is sad to see how many of the small family cemeteries are now gone and the stones lost. To date there are only about 40 small family cemeteries left in our little end of the Cove. The oldest stones are hard to read but if you take a large piece of paper and a dark crayon, you can make rubbings of the old stones that help to show what the eye can't see. Plus it’s fun for the kids to check out some of their ancestors’ graves. Mrs. Mac reminded me to tell you about the flowers. Years ago the early people took flowers to the graves as a way to cover any smell from the burial and later as a way to help speed the spirit on its way to heaven. Today we take flowers as a way to remember and honor the person buried in the grave. Hopefully you will make a trip this spring to visit some of the burial spots of your ancestors. It’s important to teach the children to remember who those special people were once long ago. So take them along and explore the cemetery. You never know what you might find. (By the way the eclipse was beautiful!)
