Contributed by Gary L Caldwell, Dec 16, 2009, last edited Dec 24,
2009 [caldwell.gary@gmail.com].
Total records = 2,930.
To reach this cemetery from Hickory drive west on Main Street/Hwy
50 for 1.13 miles. The cemetery will be on the south side of the
highway just east of the church.
The graveyard, attached to the property of the former Mount Prospect
Presbyterian Church (now the Hickory United Presbyterian Church)
in Mount Pleasant Twp, came into use soon after the organization
of this church on April 20, 1825. To provide a location for the
new church building, a tract of land of three acres, twelve perches
was secured from a corner of a farm then belonging to Robert Lyle
and now the property of Robert Tobey. This tract included one
acre of ground to be used as the graveyard for the church property.
In those early days, it was almost an invariable custom for families
to bury their departed loved ones in the graveyard at or near
the church to which the family belonged, or adhered. And so it
was at Mount Prospect: The names of persons interred in this old
yard are those whose families were among the early members of
this historic church.
When the Mount Prospect Church was organized, it was composed
largely of families who had been attending one of the following
Presbyterian churches: Cross Creek Church to the west, Upper Buffalo
to the south, Miller Run to the east, or Raccoon, at Candor to
the north. Each of these churches is located about six miles from
the spot where the Mount Prospect Church is located. At each of
these churches a graveyard is maintained and for some of the families
represented in the Mount Prospect Graveyard, earlier burials were
made at one of these older churches. Thus, the early McGugin burials
were believed to have been made at Upper Buffalo Graveyard, but
most of this family's burials, since the organization of Mount
Prospect Church, have been made here. Likewise, early Simpson
graves can be found in the Miller Run Graveyard, and many of the
earlier members of the Campbell families were buried at Cross
Creek village.
We do not know the earliest dates of the first burials in the
Mount Prospect Graveyard, since the very earliest may not have
been marked, but the earliest now legibly marked grave appears
to be that of Samuel J. Stewart who died on Oct 21, 1830. The
last burial in the old graveyard was that of Mrs. Jane Florence
(Jackson) Donaldson, who died on Nov 26, 1956. Her body was laid
beside that of her long-departed husband, Dr. W. Brady Donaldson,
who had died in 1899.
When the Mount Prospect Cemetery Association was organized, it
was given a sum of money by the trustees of Mount Prospect Church
and was charged with the maintenance of the graveyard with title
of the approximately one acre of ground remaining in the name
of the Mount Prospect congregation.
I have transcribed on Dec 12, 2009, using current sexton files
as well as old records found in a book by A.D. White and data
collected by the DAR found in the genealogy section of the Washington
PA library.
- Gary L. Caldwell
