Funkstown Cemetery

Sources: History of Western Maryland, J. Thomas Scharf, AM, Vol. II 1882; Funkstown website at www.funkstown.com/history ;

First, a little bit about Funkstown…

Originally 88 acres were sold to Henry Funk by Frederick Calvert in 1754 and settled as Jerusalem. It is in Washington county and lies just south of Hagerstown.

Many of the early residents of Funkstown were Germans. Many direct immigrants, bringing with them the customs and traditions of the ‘Old Country’. They loved flowers and planting and it wasn’t uncommon to see wonderful gardens, often in competition with the neighbors. Some families in this ‘blossom feud’ were the Shafers, Knodes, Shroeders, Becleys, Stonebrakers, all of which have souls buried in Funkstown.

Sticklers for the observances of old established customs, they always colored eggs at Easter and hid them in the gardens. The gardens were embellished for Christmas with the Christmas trees holding almost every conceivable sweet that could entertain and gratify all the young members of the families. They told the stories of ‘Bellsnichol’ and ‘Kriskringle’ and the children listened, never roaming the streets after a certain hour during the Christmas season.

The Germans also introduced wine to the area. In 1809 Frederick Kehler manufactured two barrels of wine, made from the first cultivated grapes in the county.

In 1797, Adam Iseminger was a spinning wheel maker in Funkstown. The public cemetery contains several members of the Iseminger family.

In 1810, Jacob Knode, George Stonebraker, John Shafer, Henry Shafer, Henry Bentz, Abraham Schwartz, and Frederick Grosh were managers of a lottery for repairing a church in Funkstown.

In the early days, many of the businesses were owned and/or managed by Germans. The Antietam Woolen Manufacturing Firm (Henry Shafer), Boerstler & Son’s powder mill, the Conradt woolen factory, Martin Funk’s wool carding machine, and much more. A fire destroyed the Antietam woolen factor in 1828. It was replaced by a fertilizer factory operator by Stonebraker and Keller. The first post master was Henry Ohr.

The Union Reformed and Lutheran Church was located on Cemetery Street in 1771. The Lutheran Congregation built a new church on Baltimore Street in 1850. The German Reformed Church was forced to relocate when their building was destroyed by fire on August 3, 1859. They also relocated on Baltimore Street. The Civil War delayed completion of their structure until 1864.

As for the cemetery, some of the stones date back to the late 1700s. Many of those stones are in the German language. This leads me to believe that the cemetery was established not long after the town itself.

The population of Funkstown in 1820 consisted of 261 white males; 245 white females; 13 male slaves; 9 female slaves; 4 Free black males; 6 free black females, making the total population of this small town 538. This number hasn’t changed dramatically. The 2010 census totals the population at 904.

The Funkstown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. You can see more of the Funkstown history at their website, http://www.funkstown.com/history/.

During our visit to the cemetery in Spring 2016, we found it to be an exceptionally well cared for cemetery.

The address of the cemetery is:

2-22 W Green St

Funkstown, Washington, Maryland

CEMETERY

The transcriptions from our trip in 2016

Please click here to view the photographs of the memorials for those transcribed below

There are several memorials that were written in Scharf's History of Western Maryland. We eliminated those that we found stones and photographed. The list below is from the book and there are no photos in our album of the memorials below. You may try www.findagrave.com for photographs of the memorials.

Source: History of Western Maryland, J.Thomas Scharf, AM, Vol. II, 1882