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The "New" Rumbarger Cemetery.


Rumbarger Cemetery

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With water, gas and electricity, arc street lights, the town took on city

airs with the opening of the nineties, and there began really serious talk of a

street railway. The Griers, Bostwick, Jimmy Lane, with the aid of the Bailey

brothers of Ford City, who came to look over the prospects for an electric car

line from the DuBois House, east side, to Electric Park, end of South Main

street. That venture was of magnitude and took time and a good lot of capital.

Meantime John Bierly came to take hold of the Commercial hotel corner lot, and

the new three-story brick hotel was to replace the one-story red brick

structure in which the banks had burned out. E. Kuntz had built the brick home

at the rear of Commercial building; Griers and Henry Knorr rebuilt in brick,

the latter three rooms, two stories high; the postoffice now occupied the new

brick next to the Deposit bank building toward Scribner; the LeGrande Hotel was

a new brick north side Booth; Henry Knorr had his new brick house at corner

Long and Stockdale; St. Paul's church went up next Bilger's livery on Scribner;

the Methodists got a new location and built a brick church at corner of Long

and High; the new Central hotel went up in brick at corner Long and Evans.

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Rumbarger Cemetery and Electric Park

 

Thank you Borninabarn.  I also have heard about the Electric Park and would like to learn more about it.  The Rumbarger Cemetery area was very active at this time and a major trolley station cross town to the East Side.  The trolley system in Du Bois must have been a sight to behold.   Any photos out there of Electric Park?

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Electric park is where the west hospital is now. If you read some of the early history of DuBois you will see it was a picnicing social gathering place . It is mentioned in a few of the old boooks about DuBois. Jan Nichols book also talks about it, I would love to see pics of it or learn more about it. The hospital at the time was a house on Scribner by where the city bldg. is now. When they bought the land where electric park stood to build todays DRMC WEST.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Childs Mausoleum Restoration Project

 

April, 2012

 

From left, volunteering after work, Scott Farrell, Ron Miknis, Ed Wells and Greg Vida apply a coat of cement to a crumbling mausoleum at Rumbarger Cemetery in DuBois Thursday, April 12, 2012 as part of an ongoing effort to restore the historic site. Zack Farrell also helped out with the project. Zack will use the time he volunteered towards his community service for school. Thank you all for helping out. We really appreciate your time and efforts. (Courier Express, PhoCC)

cm1_6390.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

The DuBois Area Historical Society is having their annual walk on Saturday May 5th.  Paul Sprague, the president of the Rumbarger Cemetery Preservation Society will be conducting the tour at Rumbarger Cemetery on Main St at 10AM. Paul will give the history of the cemetery and the "famous" founding fathers of the City of DuBois (formerly call Rumbarger before DuBois) that are buried there. The walk is free too! Come out for a while, enjoy the beautiful weather and learn some history of our town.

Hope to be there !

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  • 2 months later...

It is great to see that this cemetery is looking so wonderful!! Great job to so many people that contributed  :)

 

 

Thank you Dollymama! We have a dedicated board that really wants to make Main St look good when you're entering DuBois. We have had support from the City of DuBois, local businesses and several people in the community too. We have 11 flower urns planted full of flowers through out the eight acres, the front sign is planted, the Soldiers Circle got new plants and our new flower bed by the electrical box is full of flowers too. The 11 flower urns have been empty for over 50 years, so it's nice to see color and flowers again. Some of the urns are over 100 years old, but they are still holding up. If you get a chance to go for a walk, check out how good the cemetery is looking. We are so appreciative of the way the people in our area are getting involved and helping us out.

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Hipower,

   We do not have any plans to sell lots for burials for several reasons.  First, Pa cemetery laws require that a substantial amount of money be in escrow of the Cemetery Company for perpetual so cemeteries do not get run down, as has happened so many times in the past. Secondly, the Rumbarger Cemetery Preservation Society was established to " Preserve, Protect, and maintain " Rumbarger cemetery, not to act as an active burial site. Finally, and perhaps most important and interesting . . . without knowing exactly where people might be buried ( horrible record keeping, graves moved, etc. ) we do not want to sell someone a lot and when their time comes and we dig them a grave find it is already occupied by someone . . .  or several someones ! Yes, rumors and urban myths from the past suggest that some previous owners of the Cemetery, manyyy years ago, might have sold the same lots to different people!.

   Interesting fact though. If a person already owns a lot they are permitted to be buried there. So if you are driving by someday and see an excavator there, it'

is a possibility that a funeral is taking place !

   hope that answers your question . . .

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Story Tellers

The Story Tellers

 

We are the chosen. My feelings are in each family

there is one who seems called to find the ancestors.

 

To put flesh on their bones and make them live

again, to tell the family story and to feel that

somehow they know and approve. To me, doing

geneology is not a cold gathering of facts but,

instead, breathing life into all who have gone before.

We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have

one. We have been called as it were by our genes.

Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell

our story. So, we do.

 

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.

How many graves have I stood before now and

cried? I have lost count. How many times have I

told the ancestors you have a wonderful family

you would be proud of us?

 

How many times have I walked up to a grave and

felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot

say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to

who am I and why do I do the things I do? It

goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever

to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let

this happen.

 

The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh

of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able

to accomplish. How they contributed to what we

are today. It goes to respecting their hardships

and losses, their never giving in or giving up,

their resoluteness to go on and build a life for

their family.

 

It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and

keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense

understanding that they were doing it for us.

That we might be born who we are. That we might

remember them. So we do. With love and caring

and scribing each fact of their existence, because

we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called,

I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one

called in the next generation to answer the call

and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.

 

That, is why I do my family geneology, and that

is what calls those young and old to step up and

put flesh on the bones.

 

Unknown Author

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Hipower,

   We do not have any plans to sell lots for burials for several reasons.  First, Pa cemetery laws require that a substantial amount of money be in escrow of the Cemetery Company for perpetual so cemeteries do not get run down, as has happened so many times in the past. Secondly, the Rumbarger Cemetery Preservation Society was established to " Preserve, Protect, and maintain " Rumbarger cemetery, not to act as an active burial site. Finally, and perhaps most important and interesting . . . without knowing exactly where people might be buried ( horrible record keeping, graves moved, etc. ) we do not want to sell someone a lot and when their time comes and we dig them a grave find it is already occupied by someone . . .  or several someones ! Yes, rumors and urban myths from the past suggest that some previous owners of the Cemetery, manyyy years ago, might have sold the same lots to different people!.

   Interesting fact though. If a person already owns a lot they are permitted to be buried there. So if you are driving by someday and see an excavator there, it'

is a possibility that a funeral is taking place !

   hope that answers your question . . .

Yes it did.  Thanks.  My apologies for not responding sooner, unfortunately I got sidetracked by more pressing things.

 

 

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