Who owns Hanover's 250-year-old German cemetery?
No one at the Hanover Borough can seem to remember who owns the cemetery.
Who owns Hanover's 250-year-old German cemetery? No one at the Hanover Borough can seem to remember who owns the cemetery. Check out this story on eveningsun.com: http://evesun.co/2nEhUtK
Lillian Reed, lreed@eveningsun.com Published 12:16 p.m. ET March 31, 2017 | Updated 3:10 p.m. ET March 31, 2017
Toppled headstones rest on their bases at a German cemetery in Hanover Borough. The borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but there has been confusion about who actually owns the plot of land.(Photo: Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun)Buy Photo
Hanover Borough has been mowing a 250-year-old German cemetery for decades as a favor.
The trouble is no one at the borough can seem to remember why or for whom.
The cemetery, located at East Walnut Street and School Avenue behind Trinity United Church of Christ, might seem at first glance to be Hanover's oddest little corner of land.
Read: Hanover's oldest house up for sale again
Technically, the half acre plot is a recreation park for local seniors, equipped with grassed-over horseshoe pits, faded shuffleboard courts and a handful of park benches. On the other end of the park are neat rows of crumbling headstones inscribed in German and English, some bearing skulls and crossbones and others with faded, but familiar, Hanover family names.
A headstone with a skull and crossbones is one of many different gravestones at the German cemetery in Hanover Borough. (Photo: Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun)
The mystery of who owns the cemetery began recently when Hanover Borough manager Michael Bowersox asked municipal staff why the public works department regularly mowed this property that the borough did not own.
Borough staff members gave Bowersox multiple explanations, he said.
"Some said 'We have a lease with Emmanuel (United Church of Christ),' but no one could find the lease," Bowersox said. "So who owns it? 'I think Trinity does.' Then it was 'No, no, no Emmanuel does.'"
County tax records state "Trinith Reformed Church" owns the cemetery. Trinity officials are certain that Emmanuel owns it. Emmanuel's property chair confirmed that her church owns the cemetery but leased it to the borough years ago. Borough officials have no records of any such lease.
View: Photos of Hanover's historic Fisher-Crouse House
Borough staff's confusion between whether Emmanuel or Trinity owns the property could stem from the origins of the two churches.
Trinity's congregation was founded in 1883 when 125 of Emmanuel's former worshippers signed a charter indicating their wish to become a new church.
Legend has it, the churches split because the Trinity congregants wanted to hold services in German and the Emmanuel congregants wished to transition in to English, Emmanuel's property chairperson Linda McKonly said.
Emmanuel's congregation, which was originally called German Reformed Church, was founded around 1765, and one of its first churches stood on the plot of land along School Avenue where the cemetery and Trinity now stand, McKonly said Friday.
Emmanuel, which is now located in the 100 block of Broadway, still keeps a copy of the original deed from the 1760s, signed by Hanover's found Richard McAllister.
The signature of Hanover's founder Richard McAllister is still legible on the approximately 250-year-old deed to the land that once hosted the Emmanuel United Church of Christ congregation's first building. Hanover Borough was attempting to figure out this month who now owns a small German cemetery still located on the property. (Photo: Lillian Reed, The Evening Sun)
McKonly is certain Emmanuel owns the cemetery but says the church signed a 99-year lease with the borough in the 1980s. She was not aware anyone from the borough was inquiring about the property.
Read: Thomas Bros. store honors past, creates new future for seniors
The lease might have come about in 1985 when Homewood Retirement Centers was still located at the Richard McAllister Hotel building in the first block of York Street. The retirement facility needed a park for its senior residents and struck up a deal with the borough and Emmanuel to convert the cemetery into a recreational space complete with benches, horseshoe pits and shuffleboard courts.
Though the retirement facility has since moved elsewhere, the 99-year lease still remains, McKonly said.
Tax records listed on the York County website show the property, which is assessed at about $57,500, is zoned as a cemetery and owned by "Trinith Reformed Church." However, the county's annotation of a deed book and page, where such a record may exist on paper, is blank. Other property records usually have that information.
The county tax information is wrong, McKonly said. Trinity's Rev. Peg Grzelkowski confirmed as much in a voicemail Wednesday, stating the cemetery never belonged to her church but, rather, Emmanuel.
Read: Oscar winner, Civil War reporter and more: 5 women that left a mark on Hanover
"I think Emmanuel either leased it, or gave it, or sold it to the borough," Grzelkowski said, adding that she believes some of Hanover's founders are buried in the plot.
Hanover was laid out in 1763, according to the borough website. The earliest burial recorded in the cemetery took place in 1772.
Bowersox's staff reached out for answers to Bruce Rebert, who served as Hanover's borough manager from 1988 until 2010 and who also happens to be a Emmanuel history buff. He even published a book on the church's history in 2015.
Photos: A walk through Hanover's German cemetery
A headstone with a skull and crossbones is one of many different and interesting gravestones at the German cemetery, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
A big stone memorial recognizes all the bodies that were once buried in the cemetery, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Light shines through branches of a tree that's coated in ivy, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
A tombstone is framed by an iron fence, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Patches of long grass now cover old horseshoe pits on one side of the cemetery, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Tombstones, which have not been knocked over, stand in the cemetery, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Tombstones scattered across the plot break up a recreation area with benches on one side, and old, faded horseshoe pits on the other, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Damaged headstones sit in the middle of the cemetery, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Toppled headstones rest on their bases, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Hanover Borough has been mowing the plot for decades, but they're not really sure for whom. Ty Lohr, The Evening Sun
Bowersox said Rebert indicated the property was gifted or leased to the borough and paperwork should be located in the borough's safe. When Bowersox checked, no evidence of a lease or deed could be found.
McKonly was not sure Friday whether Emmanuel still has a copy of the lease. For some years, the church kept copies of important and historical documents in a safety deposit box at the now defunct Bank of Hanover. At some point church officials sorted the contents of the box and moved them to the church. McKonly said she will need to search Emmanuel's archives to see if they still have a copy.
A few more clues on the history of the cemetery can be found at its entrance.
View: Discover these places in your own York County backyard
A yellowing historical sign bordering the plot identifies the property as "Reformed Cemetery" and notes that at one time 11 Union cavalrymen were buried at the site, with Rev. W.K. Zieber of Emmanuel Reformed Church having performed their funeral ceremonies. The bodies were later exhumed and reburied in the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the sign states.
Hanover Borough Council and staff are considering legal options for how to proceed if no lease can be found.
"We're paying borough employees to maintain that and the question I asked was why," Bowersox said. "We'll research and find out legally who the owner is."
Read or Share this story: http://evesun.co/2nEhUtK