Park Day 2015 at Mount Moriah Cemetery

On March 28, 2015, The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. celebrated our nation’s “Park Day” with a special restoration event at the cemetery (half of which is in Philadelphia, half in Yeadon, PA.). Tours and cleanup activities abounded! About a hundred people showed up to help restore some of the sections that had become overgrown.

America’s  “Park Day” is sponsored by the Civil War Trust. For the fourth year in a row, the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. participated and honored the memory of those who died in both wars. I was there to photograph and document some of the activities.

From the Civil War Trust website:

"Since 1996, the Civil War Trust has sponsored Park Day, an annual hands-on preservation event to help Civil War — and now Revolutionary War — battlefields and historic sites take on maintenance projects large and small. Activities are chosen by each participating site to meet their own particular needs and can range from raking leaves and hauling trash to painting signs and trail buildings."
 

Easily a hundred people attended, most with tools in hand to help clear graves. After I posted the image above on Facebook (click for link), one reader responded: "That is one of our old sledding hills in the back ground. The silver car is parked at the bottom. I don't know how long it's been since I saw it. Congratulations to the Friends of Mt. Moriah for your labor of love. If I didn't live in Arizona I'd be out helping you."

Section 27 (photo above) was an area of work concentration for the day. Flags were placed on Veterans' graves after the weeds were cleared.

Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Board Vice President Bill Warwick and his trusty chainsaw! That wonderful yellow shirt he's modeling with the Mount Moriah Gatehouse logo is available for purchase, by the way: $20 from the Friends. Please inquire at info@fommci.org. Help us fund future restoration work!

Volunteering to clear a heavily wooded area near the Masonic Circle of St. John are workers from Circle Landscape Services of Philadelphia. The company is affiliated with Philadelphia's Masonic Jerusalem Lodge 506.

One of the most photographed examples of overgrowth at Mount Moriah Cemetery is evident in the photo above. The orange paint marks the trees to be cut and chipped from around this crypt in Section 31.

Happy restorationists Joe (Sr.) and Joey (Jr.) Reilly (of Harleysville, PA) cleared overgrowth and weeds from the area around Civil War Nurse Mary Brady's grave. (Read more about their experience at this link.)

Volunteers tackling the high weeds in Section 27!

Temple University (Philadelphia) student volunteers Anastasia Longoria and Ryan Greed take a break from their work of clearing graves. Temple sent forty students to help at Mount Moriah for Park Day!!!!!

Circle Landscape Services (Philadelphia) workers start up chainsaws to fell trees around the Masonic Circle of Saint John. Note the tall marble column in the background, the monument to the Pennsylvania Masonic Grand Tyler. The column can be seen in the photo below, through the weeds at right. This is what the Circle of Saint John looked like before the massive restoration project of 2013!

Circle of Saint John, c. 2012

Joe Becton of the 3rd Regiment USCT (United States Colored Troops) was on hand to place flags on Civil War veterans' graves. He is greeted by The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc., Board President Paulette Rhone at the check-in area.

Reverend Marlon Smith (photo above, far right in foreground) leads tour of “African American Sailors of the Civil War” in Mount Moriah's Naval Asylum Plot (Yeadon, PA side of cemetery). Rev. Smith's son, Joshua, read short bios of each veteran on the tour's stop. A wonderful presentation! The fellow at left is reenactor Dan Cashin (Fort Delware). This gentleman is a specialist on the war ships used in the Civil War, and explained the vessels on which each of the veterans served.

"Unknown" 
Reenactors stood guard at each grave on the tour of “African American Sailors of the Civil War” in Mount Moriah's Naval Asylum Plot.

Readers interested in helping out at a future restoration event, or sponsoring one, please contact the (The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. at info@fommci.org.) The schedule is posted at this link.

Civil War Nurse Mary Brady's Headstone Found!

Joey Reilly plants flowers before the grave stones he helped discover (Photo FOMMCI)

On March 28, 2015, “Park Day,” the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. (FOMMCI) sponsored a cleanup and restoration event in this sprawling, formerly abandoned cemetery (you can read about the history of Mount Moriah at the website link at the end). America’s national “Park Day,” is sponsored by the Civil War Trust, and while it is mainly about saving historic Civil War battlefields, it also encompasses related historic sites. Mount Moriah Cemetery is sacred in that hundreds of Civil War soldiers and sailors are interred here.

Volunteers clearing Section 27 of Mount Moriah Cemetery

On March 28, 2015, “Park Day,” the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. sponsored a cleanup and restoration event in this sprawling, formerly abandoned cemetery (you can read about the history of Mount Moriah at the link at the end).  America’s  national “Park Day,” is sponsored by the Civil War Trust, and while it is mainly about saving historic Civil War battlefields, it also encompasses related historic sites. Mount Moriah Cemetery is sacred in that hundreds of Civil War soldiers and sailors are interred here. 

Joe and Joe Reilly Jr. beginning their day at Mount Moriah

I planned to photograph some of the events and projects going on that day, which included tours, searching for visitors’ ancestors’ graves, and various brush-cutting and raking endeavors. Section 27 on the Philadelphia side of the cemetery was the designated area for the latter, and scores of volunteers showed up to help clear weeds and other dead vegetation. This was one of the last opportunities to tackle these plants, as everything would be greening up soon. The live plants are more difficult to cut back, the leaves and vines hide headstones, and springtime ushers back the deer ticks and poison ivy.

Volunteers felling and chipping trees near the Circle of St. John

Section 27 is just below the Masonic Circle of Saint John (click link to map, which indicates the density of overgrowth in all sections of Mount Moriah Cemetery). Early in the day, as I was hiking up to the Circle to see what all the chain saw noise was about (volunteers felling trees), I noticed a young boy and his Dad pulling tools out of their car and setting up to cut weeds near the lower end of Section 27, near the road.  I interviewed them for a bit and took some photos. Joe Reilly, Sr., said he had brought his ten-year-old son to Mount Moriah a couple times and the youngster really enjoyed the landscaping work. As Joe Jr., Joey, went at the weeds with clippers, I could see he was really charged up.

Joey Reilly beginning to clear weeds from around the Brady headstone

 I knew that about thirty feet up the hill was the grave of volunteer Civil War nurse Mary Brady (1821 – 1864), which had been cleared last year but now had weeds growing all around it. I offered to show the Reillys her grave and suggested that, with this being Park Day - when we focus on Civil War-related historic sites - perhaps they would like to clear the area around her grave. They were both enthusiastic about this so we grabbed their tools and walked up the hill.

 From the Civil War Trust website: 

"Since 1996, the Civil War Trust has sponsored Park Day, an annual hands-on preservation event to help Civil War — and now Revolutionary War — battlefields and historic sites take on maintenance projects large and small. Activities are chosen by each participating site to meet their own particular needs and can range from raking leaves and hauling trash to painting signs and trail buildings." 

Joe and Joey Reilly, after having cleared the area around the Brady headstone

As I showed the Reillys the Brady head stone, Joey started poking in the dirt with a small shovel exposing pieces of marble. He asked me what this was. I explained to him that over the years, grave markers and parts of monuments fall and are buried by natural soil erosion. I told him that what he was poking at might very well be a headstone of someone in Mary Brady’s family. I left them to explore as I went off to photograph other events in different sections of the grounds.

Joey Reilly examines the headstone of the Brady children

About an hour later I stopped back to see their progress, and to do a “before and after” photo. To my surprise, Joey had unearthed a regulation-size marble headstone, lying on its back a few inches below the surface. I took a brush and swept some dirt off the top of the inscription, and saw the last name “Brady.” I congratulated them and told that they found the headstone of a member of Mary Brady’s family.  Joey was beaming! They had uncovered the headstone of Eward Brady, Mary's husband.

Civil War Nurse Mary Brady's original headstone; 1990s-era replacement stone at rear (photo FOMMCI)

At the time, I told them not to try and lift the stone themselves, but to go get one of the Friends of Mount Moriah volunteers to work with them. I had to leave then to go photograph the tour of the Naval Asylum plot and left the cemetery after that. You can imagine my surprise when I saw this photo (immediately above) on the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Facebook page the next day! The Reillys uncovered two headstones – one that marked the grave of Edward Brady and another that marked the graves of their children. At some point after the Reillys had gone, Ken Smith, Treasurer of the Friends, along with other volunteers raised and secured these, along with an even more fascinating stone.

Ken Smith uncovers Mary Brady's original headstone (photo FOMMCI)

In the words of Paulette Rhone, President of the volunteer Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc.:
 

"As if the day could not get any better, it did. After the headstones for the family of Mary Brady were unearthed, we knew that she must have one too. Well, you know Ken [Smith] was bound and determined to find it and he did. Civil War nurse Mary Brady's original headstone is now standing tall with the rest of her family. Mike Comfort did the honor of placing the flag. It just doesn't get much better than that for Civil War Park Day!"

Hat’s off to Joe Reilly Sr. for providing his son with the opportunity to rediscover American history in such a personal way! And for giving us all a prime example of one of the things that can happen to headstones in a cemetery. For whatever reason – ground subsidence, vandalism, etc. – a headstone may fall. Over the years, it may get buried with leaves, silt, mud from water runoff, etc. Eventually, it may only be a few inches below the surface, but to the naked eye, it has disappeared. Unless documentation exists that a stone was there, no one can be sure if there ever was one placed. One could also assume the grave marker was stolen, or even that the grave was relocated.

When the 28th Pennsylvania Historical Association of the Sons of Union Veterans decided to honor Mary Brady’s memory in the 1990s by having a new grave marker carved and installed, it probably did not occur to them that the original stone lay but a few inches underground. Today, the original stands proudly before the substitute, but oddly, bearing different dates! The original shows Brady's life dates as 1821-1864, while the original shows 1822-1864. Ah, the mysteries of cemeteries ….. !

Volunteer Mike Comfort places flag before Mary Brady's newly-raised headstone (Photo: FOMMCI)

References and Further Reading:

Read about Mary A. Brady, Volunteer Civil War Nurse

The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Website
The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Facebook Group Page

Civil War Trust Park Day link

Park Day 2015 at Mount Moriah Cemetery

Park Day 2015

March 28, 2015 is America’s  national “Park Day,” sponsored by the Civil War Trust. For the fourth year in a row, the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. is celebrating with a special event at Mount Moriah Cemetery (half of which is in Philadelphia, half in Yeadon, PA.). Tours and cleanup activities are planned from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., but feel free to join the crowd and just walk around and explore the cemetery’s hundreds of acres of beauty.

About Park Day 

"Since 1996, the Civil War Trust has sponsored Park Day, an annual hands-on preservation event to help Civil War — and now Revolutionary War — battlefields and historic sites take on maintenance projects large and small. Activities are chosen by each participating site to meet their own particular needs and can range from raking leaves and hauling trash to painting signs and trail buildings." (ref.)

If you have never been to Mount Moriah, this is a great opportunity to see the site (and the sights) in this massive sacred place that figures so prominently in local and national history. Entry will be via the front gate at 6201 Kingsessing Avenue.  

The recently cleared Circle of Saint John, Mount Moriah Cemetery

Clearing area around Betsy Ross' grave

If it has been a year or more since your last visit to Mount Moriah, you will be amazed at the newly cleared areas (of weeds and other forestation). Literally thousands of volunteers have helped clear such sections as the (Masonic) Circle of Saint John, the area behind the 1855 brownstone gatehouse, and many large plots on the Yeadon side of the cemetery. One of our tours, scheduled for 1 p.m., “Circle of Saint John Forgotten Heroes,” will focus on this dramatic area of the cemetery and its occupants (the grave of Betsy Ross is near the circle – you can’t miss the flagpole!)

While Park Day is mainly about saving historic Civil War battlefields, it also encompasses related historic sites. The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. is honoring the hundreds of Civil War soldiers and sailors interred in its ground. One of our Park Day tours, in fact, will be “African American Sailors of the Civil War” which will be held in the Naval Asylum plot on the Yeadon side of the cemetery (1 p.m.).

Volunteers transcribing headstone information in the Naval Asylum plot

So what do I mean by “Naval Asylum?” From The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. website:

"Philadelphia was an important hub for the transportation of supplies and troops from the East Coast to the front lines during the Civil War. In addition to arsenals, supply depots and navy yards, Philadelphia also had numerous military hospitals, as well as the U.S. Naval Home—a hospital and residential care facility for sick and disabled sailors.

During the war, the Federal Government acquired a 10 acre parcel of land on the Yeadon Borough side of the Mount Moriah Cemetery as a burial ground for navy and marine personnel. Originally known as the Naval Asylum, the burial plot was intended for soldiers who died in military hospitals or military rest homes. It also houses the remains of those veterans who were disinterred from the grounds of the U.S. Naval Home."

The 21 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients interred in the Naval Asylum, incidentally, may be the most in any cemetery in the country (excluding Arlington National Cemetery), according to one military expert (ref.). Even if you don’t attend the Naval Asylum tour, a peaceful, contemplative walk through this respectful area is quite sobering  – “In Memory of Our Dead Comrades” as the inscription states on one of Mount Moriah’s G.A.R. monuments.

Naval Asylum plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Yeadon, PA side

How to Pay Your Respects:

As stated in the 2015 Civil War Trust Park Day press release:

"You can give back to your country, get out of the house, and honor your heritage all at once by joining the Civil War Trust on Saturday, March 28, for Park Day 2015. Park Day is an annual hands-on preservation event to help maintain Civil War — and now Revolutionary War — battlefields and historic sites across the nation."

Our main work area on March 28 (rain date April 11), should you choose to help out with the cleanup, will be Section 27 on the Philadelphia side of Mount Moriah. Mary A. Brady, a celebrated volunteer Civil War nurse is interred here in her family plot.

Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC) determined Mount Moriah to be eligible for National Register

Invitation to all, from The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Facebook Group Page:

Join us for the Friends’ 4th annual Park Day event sponsored by the Civil War Trust and The History Channel. Bring your family and your favorite lawn tools with you to help preserve history.

Location: Philadelphia side

Weather: We’re expecting some cloudy, chilly spring weather; the ground is likely to be wet and marshy. Please wear rain boots or other waterproof boots!

Everyone is welcome to attend a restoration event and help us work to reclaim the cemetery one section at a time. No special skills are needed – just come prepared to work!

We generally have basic hand tools available, such as loppers and clippers, but you are welcome to bring your own tools. Gas powered weed whackers are always welcome, too.

We recommend long pants, sturdy shoes or boots, a hat for sunny days, sunscreen, and bug spray.

Volunteers during a Cleanup Day at Mount Moriah Cemetery

Mount Moriah Location: 6201 Kingsessing Avenue, Philadelphia, PA  19142
(Click here for map.)

Date: March 28, 2015

Rain Date: April 11, 2015
Watch the dramatic video, "Mount Moriah Documentary," by Jonathan Barmby and David Mielcarek of Elevate Cinema

The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. website

The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. Facebook Group Page

"Remembering Gettysburg" at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Park Day 2013

Last year (2012), I believe I blogged about Park Day at Mount Moriah Cemetery after the fact. This year, I’m giving you fair warning. Saturday April 6, 2013 will be the big day, so please plan to help out at the cemetery if you can! No pain, no gain! (And hopefully, no rain; if there is, the date will move to April 13.)

The Civil War Trust (a non-profit organization), The History Channel, and the National Park Service together sponsor this annual, nationwide event. Its purpose is to provide a hands-on volunteer opportunity to help preserve Civil War battlefields and related historic sites. Mount Moriah falls into the latter category in that many Civil War veterans are buried here, in the Civil War Soldiers’ Plot and the Naval Asylum Plot. (The term ‘asylum,’ by the way, is an old term for ‘hospital.’)

Purchase a "Gatehouse T-shirt" here!

Registration for the event begins at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, April 6, 2013, at the cemetery main gate, 6201 Kingsessing Avenue (Click link for map). This is just down the block from the old brownstone, incredibly photogenic gatehouse (shown above). (The gatehouse, by the way, was designed in 1855 by Stephen Decatur Button, the architect who designed the gatehouse of Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery. Evergreen’s gatehouse had direct involvement in the Civil War, having served as a Union Army headquarters during the battle.)

An additional registration area will be set up at the Cobbs Creek Parkway side of the cemetery. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. to registered volunteers, with the clean-up event wrapping up at 1 pm. Free Park Day T-shirts and patches will be provided. Please come prepared to do dirty work! No matter how nice the day might turn out to be, wear long pants, heavy shoes, and long sleeved shirts. Bring work gloves and any garden tools (such as weed clippers) you’d like to use (some rakes and long-handled clippers will be provided). Small and large maintenance projects will be taken on.

Volunteers raking cut weeds from Mount Moriah hillside

A pair of tours is planned as well, each being held twice during the day (10:30 a.m. and 1 pm). One tour will focus on Civil War medicine, and the types of medical problems seen among the soldiers and sailors. Various graves will be visited during the tours, including that of the first recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor (1863), John Williams, Captain of the Main Top, US Navy. Williams’ grave was missing (“lost to history”) for a century, having recently been rediscovered at Mount Moriah.

Mount Moriah Cemetery contains the graves of over 5,000 veterans dating from the French and Indian/Revolutionary Wars to the current conflicts. The cemetery’s Naval Asylum and Civil War Soldiers Plots, owned by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, are part of the National Park Service’s Civil War Era National Cemeteries Shared Heritage Trail. On Park Day, we will have mini-tours for our volunteers led by experienced tour guides through each of these historic plots.

Guided tour of Mount Moriah Cemetery

From the Civil War Trust website:

“Our Mission: The Civil War Trust is America's largest non-profit organization (501-C3) devoted to the preservation of our nation's endangered Civil War battlefields. The Trust also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war's history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it.

Park Day 2013 is scheduled for April 6. Since 1996, the Civil War Trust has sponsored Park Day, an annual hands-on preservation event to help Civil War battlefields and historic sites take on maintenance projects large and small. Activities are chosen by each participating site to meet their own particular needs and can range from raking leaves and hauling trash to painting signs and trail buildings.

This annual event sponsored by the Civil War Trust and History™ is an excellent opportunity to bring Civil War enthusiasts together in an effort to help keep our nation’s Civil War heritage not only preserved, but pristine."

The Civil War Trust website has a link for Park Day 2013, which shows, by state, all the areas which are scheduled as official volunteer clean-up destinations. Pennsylvania only has three: Gettysburg National Park, Mount Moriah Cemetery, and Highland Cemetery in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. My friend Dave Wallace is the President of the Highland Cemetery Board of Directors and would certainly welcome any volunteers, if you happen to favor the central Pennsylvania region. (He can be reached at 570-748-5080, or dwallace@kcnet.org.)

To pre-register for the Mount Moriah Cemetery “Remembering Gettysburg” Park Day event, please email the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery at info@fommc.org.

References and Further Information:
Surprising facts about the congressional Medal of Honor
The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery website
Mount Moriah Cemetery Section map