Rick's Memorial Cemetery
Photo added by Dan Oh

Rick's Memorial Cemetery

Also known as Devon Cemetery , Theodore Ricks Memorial Cemetery

Devon, Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA

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  • Get directions 680 North Valley Forge Road
    Devon, Pennsylvania 19333 United States
    Coordinates: 40.05960, -75.42842
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Many of the graves were originally marked by hand-made headstones. Somewere made out of cement, with the name incised with a stick or traced with a finger. Other graves were marked simply by a large fieldstone or piece of native limestone. Unfortunately, many of these early markers have now either deteriorated or disappeared, and today only a few of the 275 recorded burials in the cemetery are still marked by stones.

The Theodore Ricks Memorial Cemetery

On the west side of Valley Forge Road, north of Beaumont Lane in Tredyffrin Township, is a cemetery for the Black people of the community. It was originally known as the Devon Cemetery Association, and is now known as the Theodore Ricks Memorial Cemetery.

The cemetery was established in 1921 when there was no longer room for additional interments in the small churchyard at the Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church at Fairfield and Berwyn Baptist roads in Devon. To provide a proper burial ground and resting place for the parishioners, Theodore Ricks and several other members of the congregation in that year formed the Devon Cemetery Association. Incorporated under decree of the Court of Common Pleas in West Chester in July of 1922, the Association purchased this one-half acre lot from Ricks for $500 for the new burial ground. (The deed was recorded at the court house in West Chester on October 2, 1926.)

A board of five directors was appointed to govern the Association. Its members included Ricks, Andrew Hearn, Robert R. Welburn, George Hitchens, and John Wright.

Narrative Courtesy of Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. History Quarterly Volume 26 Number 1, Pages 13–18 (January 1988). Other portions of individual entries also attributed to the TEHS.









Many of the graves were originally marked by hand-made headstones. Somewere made out of cement, with the name incised with a stick or traced with a finger. Other graves were marked simply by a large fieldstone or piece of native limestone. Unfortunately, many of these early markers have now either deteriorated or disappeared, and today only a few of the 275 recorded burials in the cemetery are still marked by stones.

The Theodore Ricks Memorial Cemetery

On the west side of Valley Forge Road, north of Beaumont Lane in Tredyffrin Township, is a cemetery for the Black people of the community. It was originally known as the Devon Cemetery Association, and is now known as the Theodore Ricks Memorial Cemetery.

The cemetery was established in 1921 when there was no longer room for additional interments in the small churchyard at the Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church at Fairfield and Berwyn Baptist roads in Devon. To provide a proper burial ground and resting place for the parishioners, Theodore Ricks and several other members of the congregation in that year formed the Devon Cemetery Association. Incorporated under decree of the Court of Common Pleas in West Chester in July of 1922, the Association purchased this one-half acre lot from Ricks for $500 for the new burial ground. (The deed was recorded at the court house in West Chester on October 2, 1926.)

A board of five directors was appointed to govern the Association. Its members included Ricks, Andrew Hearn, Robert R. Welburn, George Hitchens, and John Wright.

Narrative Courtesy of Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. History Quarterly Volume 26 Number 1, Pages 13–18 (January 1988). Other portions of individual entries also attributed to the TEHS.









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  • Added: 5 Apr 2010
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2349226