Lebanon Cemetery

Lebanon Cemetery was chartered on January 24, 1849{{cite book |last1=Scharf |first1=John Thomas |title=History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884 |date=1884 |publisher=L.H. Everts & Co. |location=Philadelphia |page=2360 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uYkAAAAYAAJ&q=moriah |access-date=23 August 2019}} by Jacob C. White{{cite web |title=Eden Stories |url=https://www.edencemetery.org/news |website=www.edencemetery.org |access-date=20 July 2019}} on the Passyunk Road near present-day Nineteenth Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia.{{sfn|Keels|2003|p=84}} It was a nonsectarian cemetery designated for African Americans since they were excluded from most of the new rural cemeteries.{{sfn|Keels|2003|p=79}}

The cemetery was a part of the United States National Cemetery System during the American Civil War with a leased lot within the cemetery for soldiers that died in nearby hospitals. 339 African-American veterans{{cite book |title=Message of the President of the United States and Accompanying, to the Two Houses of Congress |date=1868 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington |page=931 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xkVfU4VjtD0C&pg=PA931 |access-date=10 January 2022}} of the U.S. Civil War were buried in a reserved section of Lebanon Cemetery{{cite web |last1=McLeary |first1=Erin |title=The Curious Case Of Body Snatching at Lebanon Cemetery |url=https://hiddencityphila.org/2015/04/the-curious-case-of-body-snatching-at-lebanon-cemetery/ |website=www.hiddencityphila.org |date=13 April 2015 |access-date=20 July 2019}} and were reinterred to the Philadelphia National Cemetery in 1885.{{cite book |last=Holt |first=Dean W. |title=American Military Cemeteries, 2d ed. |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |pages=397 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtGA-cP3-HsC&pg=PA233 |isbn=978-0786440238}} See p. 233.

In the early 1870s, Henry Jones, an affluent African-American man who worked as a caterer, purchased a lot for burial in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. After his death in 1875, cemetery authorities refused to bury him based on his race. A lawsuit was filed against the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association and in 1876 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Jones had the right to be buried in the cemetery.{{cite web |title=Mount Moriah Cemetery Naval Plot |url=https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/lots/mountmoriah_Naval.asp |website=www.cem.va.gov |access-date=23 August 2019}} During the court case, Jones' body was stored at a burial vault at Lebanon Cemetery. His family had planned to bury him at Lebanon Cemetery but he may have been buried at the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia instead.{{cite web |last1=Wysong |first1=Lori |title=Cemeteries, Segregation, and the Funerals of Henry Jones |url=https://hiddencityphila.org/2020/10/cemeteries-segregation-and-the-funerals-of-henry-jones/ |website=www.hiddencityphila.org |date=9 October 2020 |access-date=11 December 2020}}

In 1882, a Philadelphia Press newspaper story sparked a sensational trial after a journalist caught body snatchers from the Jefferson Medical College stealing corpses for use as cadavers by medical students.{{cite web |title=Historic Eden Cemetery – Eden Stories |url=https://www.edencemetery.org/news |website=www.edencemetery.org |access-date=10 July 2019}} Four grave robbers, including the cemetery supervisor, were arrested and sentenced to Moyamensing Prison for stealing bodies and providing them to Jefferson Medical College at the rate of $15

a body. After the arrests, it was determined that the body snatching had been going on for nine years{{cite web |last1=Bechen |first1=Christopher |title=Ashes to Ashes: Social Stratification After Death in Philadelphia's Burial Grounds |url=https://medium.com/@cbechen/ashes-to-ashes-social-stratification-after-death-in-philadelphias-burial-grounds-68959ea2855c |website=www.medium.com |date=12 May 2016 |access-date=3 May 2021}} and several hundred corpses had been sold to Jefferson Medical College.{{cite book |last1=Keels |first1=Thomas H. |title=Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love|date=2010 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=978-1-59629-787-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yagjCgAAQBAJ&q=%22lebanon+cemetery%22+philadelphia&pg=PT36 |access-date=20 July 2019}} The reports of bodysnatching caused an uproar in the African-American community in Philadelphia.{{cite web |title=Hidden in Plain Sight: Cemeteries and Civil Rights |url=https://www.civilrightsafterlife.com/the-stories |website=www.civilrightsafterlife.com |access-date=4 May 2021}}

The renowned surgeon and Jefferson Medical College anatomy professor, William S. Forbes, was arrested for his role in the grave robbery but was acquitted. Forbes helped write the 1867 Pennsylvania Law named the "Anatomy Act" which called for hospitals, prisons and mental health wards to provide the bodies of those that had no family or funds for burial to medical schools for anatomical research.{{cite web |last1=Rowan |first1=Tommy |title=1882: Grave robbers sold black bodies to medical college |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/real-time/1882-Grave-robbers-sold-black-bodies-to-medical-college.html |website=www.inquirer.com |access-date=20 July 2019}}

Due in part to the Lebanon Cemetery grave robbery scandal, the Pennsylvania Anatomy Act of 1883 was passed which provided for legal means by which medical colleges could obtain cadavers without having to buy them from grave robbers.

File:Eden Cemetery Entrance.jpg in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.]]

By 1889, the cemetery was overcrowded and in disrepair. Expansion of the city began to erode the size of the cemetery. By 1900, Lebanon Cemetery had shrunk from the original 11 acres down to 6 with over 17,000 corpses. In 1899, the city condemned the cemetery and in 1902 relocated the bodies to Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. Lebanon Cemetery was closed in 1903.

• Aaron Anderson (1811-1886), Landsman USS Wyandank, US Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for heroic actions on Mattox Creek, VA, 17 MAR 1865.
• John C. Bowers (1811–1873), entrepreneur, organist and abolitionist
• Octavius Valentine Catto (1839–1871), civil rights leader and baseball pioneer
• Rachel Cliff (1805–1885), delegate to the 1855 Colored Convention
• Emilie Davis (1839–1889), writer
• Nathaniel W. Depee (1812–1868), activist and abolitionist
• Absalom Jones (1746–1818), abolitionist and clergyman, buried at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Reinterred in 1887 to Lebanon Cemetery when the church was demolished.{{sfn|Keels|2003|p=81}}
• Grace A. Mapps (c. 1835–1897), educator, administrator and poet

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Citations

{{Reflist}}

Sources

• {{cite book

| last = Keels

| first = Thomas H.

| year = 2003

| title = Philadelphia Graveyards & Cemeteries

| publisher = Arcadia Publishing

| isbn = 0-7385-1229-X

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rzNvCR4_-2YC&q=pauline+oberdorfer+minor

}}

• [https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A64213 The Library Company of Philadelphia – Chapel of the Lebanon Cemetery Lithograph by G. Dubois]

Category:1849 establishments in Pennsylvania

Category:African-American cemeteries in Pennsylvania

Category:African-American history in Philadelphia

Category:Body snatching

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1840s

Category:Cemeteries in Philadelphia

Category:Former cemeteries

Category:United States national cemeteries