Pauper’s Cemetery story kept alive by DAR
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LEWISTOWN -- I have had a fascination with cemeteries since I was in my mid-20s. For over 40 years, cemeteries have told me stories about the deceased. Almost 12 years ago, I joined Find-A-Grave to volunteer to take photo requests of specific tombstones and to create memorials, with photographs, where there is none on Find-A-Grave.
The Pauper's Cemetery in Lewistown, also known as the County Home Potters Field Cemetery, is where those who have no family, no money, or unknown have been buried by the county. The earliest burial is 1854 and it is still active. It used to sit in a field surrounded by nothing but land. Geisinger built a medical building nearby. I would see this lonely cemetery, surrounded by an iron fence, as I walked out from my doctor's appointments.
One day I decided I was going to walk over and visit the cemetery. It had very few tombstones, maybe three at the most, at that time. It was a sad and lonely place. A board listed those buried there. There would be names with no known date of birth and just the date of death. There were also unknown birth and death dates, just a name. There were tramps, Italian tramps, German tramps, unknown females, unknown males, unknown children, unknown stillborn and few that were unknown except for the last name.
An Eagle Scout project created an area made of pavers, with a bench and a few plants. It was an area to sit and reflect on these forgotten souls. Later another Eagle Scout project would put in a new board with the updated burials. This has since been replaced with a weatherproof board and metal plates with the names engraved and room for more names.
Friends of my parents had died and were buried in a local cemetery. They had a son that died at an early age after their deaths. The siblings could not afford to have him buried with his parents so he was buried at the Pauper's Cemetery. It became very personal to me. This was a man I knew as a teenager. Our parents would have dinner parties and celebrate holidays together. I made stops to say "hello," and each time I would notice that more houses were being built in the area, yet the cemetery still felt sad to me. Now there are four houses in front of the cemetery and an entire development stretching in both directions.
I became a member of the General Thomas Mifflin Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution on Jan. 5, 2023. The DAR is a service organization and one of the things we do is service projects for the community. I kept going back to the cemetery and thinking about a flower garden. I approached my DAR Sisters about the idea, and they agreed it was a worthwhile project. I contacted the county to get permission and in 2025 we started a perennial garden and included some annuals. The bench slats were replaced this year by the county. Solar lights are around the garden, a garden flag, and two small angels are in the garden. We obtained permission to place a sign stating the garden was maintained by our Chapter.
Now we weed and plant. You can sit and look at a tree that has been growing since before the Declaration of Independence was signed. It is a beautiful tree. There is a sense of peace now. Those souls are remembered. Each year we keep adding perennials so that there is always something blooming. I hope the neighborhood stops and has a seat. That they think about all those souls.
This is how the General Thomas Mifflin Chapter of the DAR became involved with the Pauper's Cemetery.