Eagle Project for Brad Anthony, 2005.

The Prospect Cemetery

The Prospect Cemetery was established on February 19, 1907 by William F. Whitlinger and his wife Rebecca. It became to be known as the Prospect Cemetery Association. It is located in Kiskiminetas Township, Armstrong County and the land was purchased on April 1, 1903 by W. F. Whitlinger from William Bryar. This information was taken from Deed book volume 109, page 12, and Deed 131, page 192, March 8 1907.

The charter from the association was petitioned on December 19, 1906. (Found in Appearance Docket book number ?, dates March 1907 - Dec. 1907). On February 4, 1907, the corporation was approved with William Whitlinger as president and Frank Whitlinger as secretary.

The association had a tentative map of the layout for the cemetery. In the Kittanning Courthouse, the map room said that the plot of land purchased was 8.065 acres. Located in Plan book number 1, page 91, slide 16.

There were only 2 books that mentioned The Prospect Cemetery. One was "History of Apollo", written from 1816-1916 by T.J. Henry, M.D. A copy of this book is in the Apollo Memorial Library. It was published in 1916. On page 63, it lists the Apollo Cemeteries and states that the "Prospect Cemetery was laid out in 1906 by W.F. Whitlinger on his farm on the State Road." On page 64, it states that A.J. Artman is a Civil War Veteran that is buried at the Prospect Cemetery. According to his obituary, A.J. Artman was buried in the Apollo Cemetery, NOT the Prospect Cemetery. In "The Descendants of William Kerr" by Dennis Hall, M.D., on November 1994, states that "We suspect that they (Kerr's) were buried in what came to be known as Prospect Cemetery. This cemetery is located near Apollo on a hill on what was the old Kerr homestead. This cemetery is now defunct, with only a few stones standing, and it was a public cemetery for only a few years. We suspected that this was an old Kerr burying ground which was later converted to a public cemetery about 1900 by a new owner. We have no evidence for this, and only one Kerr marker was standing as of about 1977." As of the year 2004 the marker was not there. This book is located at the Apollo Library.

The cemetery is located at Latitude: 40° 57 Min. 96 Sec. Longitude: -79° 54 Min. 97 Sec., on the old state route 56, about 2 miles out of Apollo. The cemetery is 'land locked', no roads lead up to it anymore, and is surrounded by homes and private property. The cemetery is abandoned and no one takes care of it. For Brad's eagle project, he and other scouts and parents cleaned up part of the cemetery and made a list of its occupants for future reference.

During the 1960's and 1970's, various D. A. R. organizations of the area went to local cemeteries and recorded the burials. This was also done with the old Prospect Cemetery.

Through research at the Apollo Library, we found old newspapers, The Apollo Sentinel, that listed several obituaries for people who were supposedly buried in the Prospect Cemetery. We also found advertisements for the Cemetery. The going rate for burial was "$10 to $30 until April 1st" - from a newspaper dated Jan. 22, 1909.

Done by Brad Anthony as an Eagle Project for Boy Scout Troop 551 in 2005.

Special thanks to the following:

Boy Scout troop 551
Armstrong County Geneological Society
Apollo Historical Society
Vandergrift Historical Society
The Hughes Family

Copys of this report are available at:

Armstrong Historical Society
Vancergrift historical Society
Apollo Historical Society
Pennsylvania Historical Society