Donors sought to sponsor markers for unmarked graves at North Huntingdon cemetery

A Harrison City man who has spearheaded efforts to locate unmarked graves at a North Huntingdon cemetery is seeking donors to sponsor markers to be placed at those burial sites.

The $60 markers will be on display at the Trafford American Legion Post 331 booth at the Penn Township Fall Festival today and Saturday in the township’s park in Harrison City, said Bill Bray. Bray is the sexton for the Brush Creek Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery on Leger Road. An Army veteran, Bray also is the vice commander of the Trafford American Legion Post.

Sixty-five unmarked graves have been located in the cemetery over the past few months as a result of extensive use of a ground-penetrating radar instrument mounted on a wheeled cart. The radar found voids in the cemetery ground where there are no headstones, which Bray said are likely grave sites.

No burial records have been found for the cemetery, which has changed hands several times in the past two centuries as congregations have evolved, Bray said. The cemetery, which has 340 marked graves, is now owned by the New Hope Presbyterian Church in North Huntingdon.

Those who sponsor a numbered marker will have their name listed on a digital map of the cemetery that will be created, Bray said. The name of the donor will be listed with the corresponding marker number shown on the map. Bray said there also may be a map of the markers placed at the cemetery.

The markers are being sold through the nonprofit charity, Friends of the Old Brush Creek Cemetery, said Bray, who has been instrumental in getting new headstones for Civil War veterans buried there.

For more information, contact Bray at 724-552-6965.