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Neglected African-American cemetery for veterans may be restored

Source: Pittsburg Post-Gazette (2-9-06)

Cemetery Lane in Ross is home to cemeteries that are Jewish, Catholic and Protestant, but few know that an old African-American cemetery also is there on an overgrown hillside hugging the road.

Two posts with a fallen chain between them are all that mark the rutted road that leads to the cemetery. Woods crowd the hillside graveyard which, on a recent afternoon, was bone quiet except for a distant train whistle.

"When I first saw it, I thought it was just the most pathetic cemetery I've ever seen," said Sandy Brown, a local historian who lives in Ross. She heard about the cemetery a couple of years ago at a West View Historical Society event, and she searched for the burial ground until she found it -- unkempt and seemingly forgotten.

When she checked on it again a year or so later, it still appeared to be abandoned.

But that could change soon.

Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 7:19 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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