Founding Document
Mount Moriah Cemetery Association Of Philadelphia
Chartered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, March 26th, 1855 .
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President
William H. Kemble
Managers
Francis Blackburne
William J. Pollock
Edward Wiler
Joel Thomas
John McCarthy
Abram H. Derrickson
James Smyth
Robert P. King, Jr.
Secretary
George Connell
Treasurer and Superintendent
Horatio P. Connell
Philadelphia: Cooperative Printing Co., 30 & 32 South Seventh St. 1871
Secure a Burial Place
It is the duty of every man to provide in time a suitable place of burial for himself and family. It is folly to defer this until death invades the family circle, when, overwhelmed with grief, he is in no frame of mind to undertake the business of making a proper selection and purchasing a lot; when indeed he feels an aversion to every thing like business, and is apt blindly to follow the suggestion of some one who induces him to bury his dead in some obscure place, perhaps in some of the little burial grounds in the built-up portion of the city, with which his well-considered judgement subsequently will not be at all satisfied. But should he be the first victim of "the insatiate archer," leaving a widow to do in the hour of her sorrow what he needlessly neglected until too late, the case will be still more unfortunate.
The attention of all persons who have hitherto omitted to attend to this duty, and also of the large number of families intending to remove their dead from grave-yards attached to churches and from the small cemeteries in the built-up portions of the city, now being generally abandoned as places of burial, is respectfully asked to the following pages in reference to the largest, most beautiful and popular of all our cemeteries.
Security and perpetuity
The first object to be considered in choosing a place of burial is, to locate in some cemetery which will not be liable to be disturbed, or cut through in the future by the opening of city streets; or its quiet disturbed by the erection of manufactories or other buildings in its immediate vicinity.
In this important respect mount moriah has great and decided superiority over any other cemetery in the vicinity of Philadelphia . Its advantages are apparent at the first glance at the map of the city. Every person knows that the tide of improvement runs northward of the city. It has already reached and enveloped monument cemetery, and is now hemming in the Odd-Fellows, Glenwood And The American Mechanics, and in a few years will reach Mount Peace, Mount Vernon, Laurel Hill and Old Oaks. In twenty or twenty-five years time at the farthest these last named will be as completely hedged in by dwellings, factories and other buildings as Monument cemetery, or La Fayette is to day.
Now while Mount Moriah is not so far from the centre of the city, say from broad and market streets, or the site of the masonic temple, as either Laurel Hill Or Old Oaks, yet its geographical position dispels all apprehension of its ever being disturbed by the dangers or annoyed by the nuisances which are certain to surround the northern cemeteries.
The larger part of the area of Mount Moriah, viz., Eighty acres, is in an angle or corner of Delaware county, and the remaining seventy-four acres, immediately adjoining, are completely shielded and protected by the Delaware county portion, which projects in between the part of the cemetery in Philadelphia, and the built-up parts of the city; thus presenting an effectual and impassable barrier, - viz., The line of Delaware county, - against the opening of any streets which may hereafter be laid out to run from west philadelphia toward the cemetery. So that he who selects the last resting place for himself and family in Mount Moriah can feel assured that while other places of burial will be surrounded, probably cut through, and in consequence gradually abandoned for more remote and safer places of interment, as we have seen to be the case in the old and smaller grave yards in different parts of the city, which were supposed to be safe enough when first used Mount Moriah, the great rural cemetery, will remain forever undisturbed in all ages to come.
Convenience of access
While Mount Moriah is by its geographical position forever secure against disturbance from opening of streets or the growth of the city, it is nearer to the heart of Philadelphia, say Broad and Market streets, than either Laurel Hill, Mount Vernon, or Old Oaks.
It is now reached by the Darby passenger railway, which runs within two squares of the entrance of the cemetery. The Chestnut and Market street cars connect in West Philadelphia with this railway company. Arrangements are in progress for additional facilities for reaching the ground, which will be perfected and completed during the coming year.
Improvements
A massive brown stone gateway and lodge at the entrance, surmounted by Baird’s colossal marble statue of Time; a heavy iron railing running along the front, and three quarters of a mile of high stone wall along the exposed boundary, protecting the ground from intruders; a large and convenient receiving vault; several miles of graveled avenues, all kept in good order; a neat and substantial iron bridge, spanning the creek in the midst of the cemetery; all these attest the fact that every improvement essential in a first-class cemetery has been secured. Nor have individual lot-holders been slow to make tasteful, elegant and costly improvements; several thousand lots have been improved; many in the most substantial and costly manner; many with evergreen hedges, presenting a handsome appearance, and always fresh and pleasing to the eye.
The monument now in course of erection in the circle of st. John, to Wm. B. Schnider, late grand tyler of F.A.M. of Pennsylvania, will be, when completed, a model of art and the perfection of elegance.
As a work of art the triangular monument of keystone chapter, no. 175, Designed by colonel alfred day, and executed by thomas hargrave, has been universally admired, and is not surpassed in style or execution by any similar work here or elsewhere.
The improvements made by lodges nos. 2, 9, 59 and 289, A.Y.M., reflect great credit upon the liberality of the fraternity, and the same may be well said of the enclosures of the lots of lodge no. 405, I.O.O.F., and Iroquois lodge and Kingsessing lodge, no. 309, of the same order, who purchased here in preference to the cemetery known as the Odd-Fellows.
The tomb of Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliot, second officer in command at the battle of Lake Erie, September 10th, 1813 , attracts much interest.
The family lots of Robert P. King, Senator Nichols, Col. George Spear, killed at Fredericksburg; Col. John W. Moore, Col. Geo. W. Hawkins, both distinguished during the recent conflict; Capt. James Ferguson, United States Navy; Rev. Thos. H. Stockton, Rev. Thos. H. Beveridge, James Cascaden, Robert Harmer, Capt. John Willitts, all now deceased; Col. Ellmaker, Col. Alfred Day, Captain James B. Kirby, Rev. James Neill, Col. D.M. Lane, Thos. T. Tasker, Burton J. Kollock, John C. Davis, Dr. Robert England, Dr. Matthew Semple, Wm. S. Stokely, Abram H. Derrickson, Richard Mccambridge, Hugh Purves, Charles Purves, J. Bernard Apple, Lewis S. Heins, Henry F. Prince, Thomas R. Brown, Joseph Fariera, Curtis Clayton, Thomas Tyson Butcher, John S. Snyder, Jacob Conrad, Henry Huhn, Edward C. Wayne, John P. And Charles W. Simons, William Devinney, Jonathan Wolfenden, James H. Lyons, Albert Winkle, James Smyth, Benjamin F. Kern, Joseph Garland, George Dehaven, Jr., well known citizens, and also numerous other gentlemen whom we have not room to name, which ornament the various sections of the cemetery in which they are located, are substantial evidences of correct taste, and of a large and free expenditure of means.
Scenery
Nature has done all that could be wished for Mount Moriah.
The great diversity of the surface, the variety of landscape, the hills overlooking the country for miles around, the slopes and ravines, the winding stream which gives so great a charm to the ground, and the great extent of the cemetery fringed with the foliage of old forest trees, all strike the observant visitor with equal surprise and pleasure. Every lover of the beauty and glory of nature is delighted with what he sees here.
Many persons who have visited Mount Auburn, the pride of Boston, the first great rural cemetery established in this country, have said that Mount Moriah resembles it more than any other cemetery they have seen.
In the beautiful grove in the back part of the original ground, and in the woods which cover the high shore along the north-eastern part of the new ground, one can sit in the shade for hours without being conscious that he is near a great city with a population of three quarters of a million, so quiet and tranquil is the solitude of those peaceful retreats. Here, beneath noble old trees of nature’s own planting, every variety of foliage may be seen. The tall hickory, the graceful ash, the rustling beech, the stately tulip poplar, the sturdy and wide-spreading oak, and the dark cedar, all mingle their leafy boughs to form a grateful shade. And what can present a greater contrast than the green lawns which brighten under the sunlight, sometimes sloping, rarely entirely level, and frequently glistening with the reflection of the pure white marble, memorials of those who sleep here forever.