Manchester Cemetery
Also known as: Trinity United Church of Christ Cemetery; Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery; 'God's Acre'; 'Joint' or 'Union' Cemetery; Reformed Cemetery
This cemetery is located at York Street and Locust Street in Manchester. It is my understanding that the cemetery is actually multiple cemeteries.
A church was built in Manchester near an Oak Tree. This was in 1758. The church was known as ‘The German Church’ and served both the Lutheran Congregation and the German Reformed Congregation. The log church was replaced in 1798 by Zion Church, which was a brick structure.
This church served both Congregations until 1862 when it was razed and separate churches were built for the two congregations. The cemetery existed at the time.
One of the churches, Trinity Church of Christ was built during the Civil War by the Reformed congregation. Renovations were done in 1976 after a fire destroyed parts of the building. The Immanuel Lutheran Church, which was built in 1862 was replaced by the current church in 1915.
The old oak tree still stands.
The cemetery is huge with more than 3000 souls. It was difficult to determine where one cemetery ended and one began so our walk through treated it as though it was one cemetery.
Another interesting note is that the current caretakers/owners have taken the oldest stones and placed them in neat rows....it is an effective way to preserve some of the older stones of which there are many in this cemetery. We saw this at a few other locations and if it is a way to protect and maintain, it is a good idea.
It would be impossible to photograph all of the stones. The trip is well worth it with family names such as Brinkman, Reugle, Kroh, Wentz, Kopp, Wentz, Schumacer, Schaurer, Koutz, Mohr, Beltzz, Hochschielt, Rohrbach, Yingling, Kneller, Ritter, Kerlinger, Eberhart, Warner, Warehime, Pfifer, Shultz, Schwartzenbach, Shaffer, Frankforter, Masenhimer, Herbst, Schneider, Berngen, Bixler, , Steffee, Gummel, Loats, Myers, Schmidt, Foltz, Finfrock, Krantz, Hoover, Hoffacker, Snider, Wareham, Belschner, Lippy, Hines, Cugel, Zimmerman, Gettier, Warner, Fair, Houck, Miller, Leese, Hersch, Albaugh and so many more. Many of the stones are in German. I attempted to photograph all of the German stones. There are about 300 photos from the cemetery.
The oldest part and that with the German Stones is known as ‘God’s Acre’.
For a full transcription of the Cemetery, see http://usgwarchives.net/md/carroll/cemet.htm