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Tri-Counties Genealogy &
History by Joyce M. Tice
Wellsboro Cemetery, Wellsboro,
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
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Photo by Joyce M. Tice August 1999
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Joyce's Search Tip - December 2007 -
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Do You Know that you can search just the
600
pages of Tioga County Cemetery Records on the site by using the Cemeteries
-Tioga button in the Partitioned search engine at the bottom of the
Current
What's New Page? If you use that partition follow these steps to
search just one cemetery.
1. Choose Cemeteries - Tioga.
2. Enter part of the cemetery name [ie Newbury or Furman] AND a surname.
3. Choose the Find ALL Words option. Then it will find just the pages
with that surname in the one cemetery you indicated. |
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WELLSBORO CEMETERY
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Wellsboro, TIOGA COUNTY,
PA.
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The following list is part of the Tioga
County Cemetery Inscriptions– Volume 6. The cemetery was read in the 1970s
by Rhoda ENGLISH Ladd and her husband William LADD and Mildred and Victor
TINKHAM. RePrinted by permission of Rhoda ENGLISH Ladd It was retyped 1997
by Carol Banduccie of Erie PA
Rhoda writes January 1998
that she and her husband, Bill, worked nights after work and weekends for
an entire summer and that Mildred and Victor also helped all they could.
A really big project and we are still grateful. Rhoda also notes
that the obituary file at The Tioga County Historical Society includes
enough information to update the list she prepared if anyone is looking
for a project and lives locally - hint, hint
As told by My Great Grandfather Robert Carl ( R.C.) Siemens : When the
cemetery was started by William Bache, he bought the land and laid out
the roads, set the trees, and sold what lots were needed. He then went
on to beautify the cemetery. He later turned it over to the Wellsboro Cemetery
Co., and when it was nearly sold they realized there had been no provisions
made for perpetual care. Everyone was expected to care for their own lots,
and many of the people did. But in a few years, most of the early lot holders
were dead, and there was no one to keep up the lots. The Cemetery Co. had
tried up until this time, to use the money from the lots sold for care.
However they never promised to do the upkeep when the lots were sold. The
time finally came when the Cemetery Co. realized it could no longer continue
the care and that at the time of purchase, provisions would have to be
made for perpetual care. They also would stop mowing the grass and and
other work as it costs more than the last year (1887) for the work than
received for lots sold, opening graves and the sale of vaults. Expenses
were coming up as in fencing at the rear of the new part of the cemetery,
layout of the new roads, trees and shrubs as well as the layout of lots.
The money from the sale of the lots is all that enables the Cemetery Co.
to accomplish these things. Their thoughts were that if everyone that had
a lot would pay something toward a fund, that the interest could be used
fro upkeep, and the cemetery would always remain beautiful. There as of
now (1887) more people buried there than there are alive in Wellsboro.
This story was put to writing by Eleanor Siemens Stork as told to here
by her father R.C.Siemens.
Carol Banducci
Tioga Agitator
October 25, 1865
The Wellsboro Cemetery Company
It has been said that the degree of civilization and refinement employed
by a community may be known on view of its burial place. We believe
the t??? to be a just one; and so believing presume that a few words touching
the efforts of our Cemetery Company to give Wellsboro and vicinity a good
name among men, will not be misplaced.
The Company was incorporated by act of Assembly, approved April , 1849,
but nothing was done until the passage of the supplemental act of April
1855, substituting Messrs. Chester Robinson, Wm. Bache, Geo. McLeod, S.F.
Wilson. S.E. Ensworth, James I. Jackson, Joseph Riberolle, and Levi I.
Nichols, in lieu of the persons named as corporators in the original act.
In July, following, the Company organized by electing L.I. Nichols President,
James T. Jackson Secretary, and J.L. Robinson Treasurer. A committee
on location was also appointed, which made a final report on the 7th of
September, and the Board decided to purchase the present site, then owned
by S.F. Wilson, containing 9 ½ acres. The price paid was $476.
In November, following, the ground was cleared, plowed and laid down,
and considerable progress made in improving the grounds under the superintendence
of Mr. B.F. Hathaway, of Flushing, L.I. The price of lots was at
first fixed at 8 and 10 cents per foot; but in June 1868, the minimum price
was fixed at 6 cents per foot and a sale by public outcry ordered for the
18th of August.
A Board of Managers was elected September 1 of that year, as follows:
Messers. Chester Robinson, Wm. Bache, Geo. McLeod, S.F. Wilson, S.E. Ensworth,
James L. Jackson, Joseph Riberolle, L.I. Nichols, and Peter Green.
The Managers encountered many obstacles (for work of civilization is never
light), but by dint of steady perseverance they triumphed over apathy and
prejudice. By issue of scrip, for the redemption of which the proceeds
of future sales of lots was pledged, the Company carried on the work of
improvement steadily, and the number of lot holders measurably increased.
In October, 1856, Mr. William Bache was elected President of
the Company, and Messrs. Jackson, and Robinson, were re-elected Secretary,
and Treasurer, respectively. The Board remained unchanged up to last
September, when M.H. Cobb was elected Secretary, vice James I. Jackson,
resigned. The original Board of Managers, with the exception of Messrs.
Robert Campbell and Wm. P. Shumway. Elected in place of Messrs. McLeod
and C. Robinson in 1862, and still continues.
At a meeting of the Board on the 16th ultimo, the President reported
one-fourth of the lots sold, and the virtual extinction of the corporation
indebtedness. The work of improving and beautifying the grounds will
now be steadily prosecuted. The Co., is now preparing to enlarge
the premises by purchase of lands adjoining, and it is to be hoped that
negotiations to that end may not meet with unusual hindrance. Already
the improvements reflect credit upon management. Trees have been
planted, the sloughs reclaimed, and roadways improved by labor and the
lapse of time. The enterprise has emerged from its embarrassments,
and seconded by a generous and appreciating public can now essay a larger
measure of improvement. All should remember that the stranger will
make our Cemetery the test of our culture and progress in civilization.
Every head of every family in this region should hasten to identify himself
with this effort to render the place of the dead as pleasing to the eye
as the grounds which surround the homes of the living.
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Bradford County PA
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Chemung County NY
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Tioga County PA
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Published On Tri-Counties Site On 29 OCT 1997
By Joyce M. Tice
Email: Joyce M.
Tice
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