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Zion African Union Cemetery

West Caln Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA

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  • Get directions 141 Lilly Road
    West Caln Township, Pennsylvania 19344 United States
    Coordinates: 40.04905, -75.92190
  • This cemetery is marked as private and may not be accessible.
  • Cemetery ID:

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Zion African Union Church was founded in ca. 1844. On the 18th day of May that year, Nelson Schofield and his wife deeded for the sum of $4 to Thomas Johnson, Henry John and Hamilton Jackson, Trustees of the African Union Church, a ¼-acre lot of land in West Caln Township for the erection of a meeting house. At the time of its founding, a sizable settlement of African Americans existed in the area, which also supported the foundation of an African Methodist Episcopal congregation at nearby Sandy Hill a decade later. Zion church appears to have survived into the 1880s if not beyond, though little documentation exists today of the church or its congregants.


The cemetery measures approximately 200 ft. × 200 ft. A stone wall encloses the church lot, and also a stone wall also outlines the cemetery area which is to the South of the church and on the East side of the lot. A cart road leading to the plot enters churchyard at the Southwest corner.


The church ruins measure about 23 ft. × 30 ft., with a wall approximately centered at the 23 ft. width, running in the 30 ft. direction. The door seems to have been at the Northwest corner due to the presence of a large flat stone that could have been the door sill. Fallen stones at the Northeast corner could have formed a fireplace chimney.


Many graves are unarmed; many more are marked with fieldstones. Large grave markers that once stood in the graveyard in the 1860s and 1870s appear to have been toppled or lost.


Today the cemetery is private property.

Zion African Union Church was founded in ca. 1844. On the 18th day of May that year, Nelson Schofield and his wife deeded for the sum of $4 to Thomas Johnson, Henry John and Hamilton Jackson, Trustees of the African Union Church, a ¼-acre lot of land in West Caln Township for the erection of a meeting house. At the time of its founding, a sizable settlement of African Americans existed in the area, which also supported the foundation of an African Methodist Episcopal congregation at nearby Sandy Hill a decade later. Zion church appears to have survived into the 1880s if not beyond, though little documentation exists today of the church or its congregants.


The cemetery measures approximately 200 ft. × 200 ft. A stone wall encloses the church lot, and also a stone wall also outlines the cemetery area which is to the South of the church and on the East side of the lot. A cart road leading to the plot enters churchyard at the Southwest corner.


The church ruins measure about 23 ft. × 30 ft., with a wall approximately centered at the 23 ft. width, running in the 30 ft. direction. The door seems to have been at the Northwest corner due to the presence of a large flat stone that could have been the door sill. Fallen stones at the Northeast corner could have formed a fireplace chimney.


Many graves are unarmed; many more are marked with fieldstones. Large grave markers that once stood in the graveyard in the 1860s and 1870s appear to have been toppled or lost.


Today the cemetery is private property.

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  • Added: 13 Dec 2021
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2743287