Spotlight on:
Mill Hall
THE BROWN CEMETERY by Lou Bernard
Years ago, in autumn, a genealogist asked me,” How do I get to the Brown Cemetery?” I said,” This time of year, they’ re all brown cemeteries.”
She was actually referring to the Brown Cemetery in the Mill Hall area. It’ s one of two known cemeteries in Bald Eagle Township, and it’ s in the south outskirts of Mill Hall. And, as the name suggests, nobody named Brown is buried there.
Photo courtesy of Fred Bucheit
The Brown Cemetery lies along Crystal Beach Road. Its origins are a little bit of a mystery; there doesn’ t appear to be any official record of its founding. George and John Brown settled in the area in 1818, and the earliest burials appear to be from 1820. It was a community cemetery, with anyone local able to be buried in it, provided they had already died.
According to records from the Clinton County Genealogical Society, many of the early settlers of Mill Hall are buried in the cemetery. Some of the graves appear to have been moved to Cedar Hill in Lamar Township when it opened in 1869, creating large empty spots in the original Brown Cemetery. For years, a schoolhouse stood in front of the cemetery. Because it stood on land once owned by the Browns, it was referred to as the Brown School. Deeds suggest that it was built about 1843, when the Brown family deeded land to the school district. The school closed and was torn down, though the cemetery is in close proximity to the Central Mountain High School today.
The cemetery is currently under the care of the administration of Sunnyside Cemetery, a couple miles away. It no longer receives burials, and hasn’ t since 1941. The final burial was Annie May Miller, who died in 1941 and was buried beside her husband Franklin, who had died in 1936.
The cemetery stands today as more of a monument than an active burial ground, a memorial to what once was. And as hundreds of people drive by it every day, they don’ t realize that it’ s an interesting part of our history.
- Lou Bernard is a local writer and can be reached at loulhpa @ gmail. com.
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