Chester Rural Cemetery

Chester Rural Cemetery

Details
Year established	1863
Country	United States
Location	Chester, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	39°51′37″N 75°22′5″W / 39.86028°N 75.36806°W / 39.86028; -75.36806
Type	Public
Size	36 acres (15 ha)
Number of graves	31,000

Chester Rural Cemetery, located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania near the city of Chester, was founded in March 1863. Civil War soldiers, both Union and Confederate, who died at the government hospital across the street, were some of the first burials. Many of the soldier's graves were moved to Philadelphia National Cemetery in Philadelphia in 1891.^[1]

The cemetery is landscaped and had a large lake, which was drained in the 1950s. It covers 36 acres and contains the graves of 31,000 individuals. Two monuments in the cemetery have been documented by the the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System: "Sorrow" by Samuel Murray, and the Civil War Memorial, by Martin Milmore.^[2][3]

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  Civil War Memorial by Martin Milmore

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  "Sorrow" (1912), a memorial to Alfred O. Deshong, by Samuel Murray

Notable burials

• The unidentified victims of the 1917 Eddystone Ammunition Company disaster
• Edward Darlington (1795-1884) - US congressman
• Samuel Edwards (1785-1850) - US congressman
• James William Reese (1920-1943) - Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
• William Cameron Sproul (1870-1928) - Pennsylvania governor
• William Ward (1837-1895) - US congressman

References

1. ^ A brief history of Chester Rural Cemetery Chester, PA, accessed October 31, 2011.
2. ^ Sorrow SIRIS, Control Number IAS 44730002, accessed October 31, 2011.
3. ^ Civil War Soldier SIRIS, Control Number IAS PA000125, accessed October 31,2011.

Further reading

A History of Delaware County, George Ashmead.