Where do we bury our dead? Lincoln Cemetery
The first half-acre of this cemetery was purchased in 1867 by a society of Black men calling themselves the “Sons of Goodwill,” and for many years this place was called the “Goodwill Cemetery.” The minutes of the Sons of Goodwill record that the only ground available for use as a cemetery was that of Eden Devan, a Black resident who owned about 3½ acres here in an area of town where many Colored citizens lived. The land at that time bordered a Catholic Cemetery along South Washington Street to the east.
Another cemetery established in 1824 for the “Colored Citizens” of the Borough was located at the east end of town. As the town expanded, pressure to sell that property promoted the Trustees of St. Paul’s AME Zion Church to purchase a small section of land adjacent to the Sons of Goodwill cemetery in 1906. The bodies of those buried on York Street were exhumed and moved here. In the 1920's the “Lincoln Lodge” of Gettysburg’s Black Elks purchased land bordering Long Lane, giving the name “Lincoln Cemetery” to this place.
Lincoln Cemetery is the final resting place for many families and citizens dating back to the first settlement of Gettysburg and Adams County. This Cemetery also serves as the final resting place for more than 30 Civil War veterans of the United States Colored Troops, who served without reservation in a segregated army, and after death were buried in a segregated cemetery even though their fight was for freedom and full citizenship.
It remains a tradition of Gettysburg’s Black citizens to hold a memorial service here each May to honor those buried here.
Funding for this wayside provided by the Hoffman Charitable Trust
Marker is at the intersection of Long Lane and Kuhn Alley, on the right when traveling north on Long Lane.
Courtesy hmdb.org
