Going Greene: Almost Forgotten

Lucinda Coleman was born in Morgan Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania sometime in the late 1820s or early 1830s. Unfortunately, most records show her with different ages, so it is impossible to determine the exact date she was born. As a child she was known as Cynthia or Cindy and would be called that most of the rest of her life. Cynthia, however, wasn’t always well. She was prone to fits and had a hard time regulating her emotions, and only her parents seemed to have understood her.

Cynthia was cared for by and lived with her parents until her father died in 1849. After that, she went on to live with her brother for a few years. From what we have been able to find, her brother wasn’t able to care for her, and he soon moved to Ohio, leaving Cynthia behind, on her own in Morgan Township. It’s difficult to say how hard of a time this was for Cynthia. She doesn’t show up in any records until 1863 when she, and another woman who were both considered insane were brought to the Greene County Almshouse, or the County Home as it was called in later years.

Unfortunately, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, mental illness was very poorly understood, and if a person was prone to having fits or was dangerous to themselves or others the only way institutions knew to handle them was to restrain them.

By 1871, Cynthia was found nude, being held in a cage at the Almshouse by inspectors from the Pennsylvania Board of Public Charities. Another “insane” woman was being housed in the same ten by ten room with Cynthia in her cage. Unfortunately, her living conditions were not to change. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, inspectors reported Cynthia being held in that cage. Later, it seems that it was only part of the time and that she would only be kept confined at night.

Cynthia last appears in the almshouse and census records in 1900, as a woman in her 70s, but there are no written accounts of how she was housed at that time. By the 1910 census she is nowhere to be found. It is likely she died sometime between 1900 and 1910. Research was unable to find a death certificate.

Like so many other souls who lived and eventually died in the Greene County Almshouse, Cynthia was buried up on the hill in front of the almshouse, just behind the present site of the Greene County Jail. Hundreds lay forgotten buried beneath the soil of that potter’s field. All the graves but two were unmarked. Catherine Cox, widow of John Cox, and Henry Younkin are the only names that can be read in stone inscriptions up on that hill.

But these people wouldn’t be forgotten forever. One person who was especially keen on remembering and memorializing those who lived at died at the Greene County Almshouse was Bill A. Davison. Throughout the early 2000s he spent a great deal of time researching the almshouse ledger, county records and death certificates to find as many names of people buried there as he could.

Mr. Davison used dowsing rods and plot maps to locate as many graves as possible, and in coordination with Harry D. Gillispie, then warden of the County Jail, and the County Commissioners, wooden crosses were installed to mark all the graves that could be located. A rededication ceremony was held on May 27, 2005, to honor the efforts of Mr. Davison and memorialize the lives of those interred on the hill behind the county jail.

Ever since, the maintenance staff and inmates at the County Jail have been keeping the old County Home Cemetery clean and caring for the graves of so many forgotten souls. Forgotten souls such as Jimmy Stewart.

Jimmy Stewart became an inmate of the almshouse in the early 1860s, along with his wife and two daughters. The only record outside of the almshouse that can be found for Jimmy is the 1850 census where he was living with the Orndorff family in Franklin Township as a farm laborer. It seems that by the 1890s Jimmy’s daughters had left the almshouse, but he and his wife remained. By 1891 they were both in their 60s. Jimmy must have been very unhappy with his life at the almshouse. He is recorded as having “run off” several times and in July of 1891, he had had enough. 

Jimmy left out of the almshouse, and walked up the hill to the cemetery, likely telling others he was off to pick fruit in the orchard. (The cemetery was located within the almshouse orchard.) Instead of picking fruit, Jimmy hanged himself from one of the many trees and said goodbye to his troubles forever, leaving his wife alone at the almshouse. There, Jimmy would hang in that tree for more than a day until July 31, when Coroner Hiram Kent cut him down. Jimmy was taken back to the almshouse for a brief funeral and was then carried back up to the hill to rest for eternity.

In 2019, many of the wooden crosses marking the graves up in the cemetery had fallen over, and had begun to rot from exposure to the elements. When the Greene County Jail Warden John Kingston and Head of Maintenance Dave Ziefel reached out to the Greene County Historical Society, we worked out a plan to replace and install new crosses to mark the final resting spots of people like Jimmy Stewart and Cynthia Coleman.

George “Bly” Blystone, of the Greene County Historical Society, coordinated with the Pittsburgh Artist Blacksmiths Association (PAABA) and the W. A. Young Machine Shop of Rices Landing, operated by Rivers of Steel, to create new forged metal crosses. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and delayed things. The crosses were eventually fabricated, as pandemic conditions allowed, by the generous efforts of volunteers from The PAABA and the foundry.

In May 2022, the Greene County Historical Society was approached by Brad Litman, an employee of People’s Gas, who was looking for a cemetery to repair or clean up as a community outreach project. Dave Jones of the Historical Society and Brad Litman both immediately thought of the County Home Cemetery. On June 24, a beautiful summer morning, nearly 30 volunteers from People’s Gas, and the staff and volunteers from the Greene County Historical Society gathered on the hill to install the metal crosses on the graves of many former residents of the old County Almshouse.

It was a solemn experience, with many of the People’s Gas employees asking for and hearing stories of the folks they were there to commemorate. By that afternoon, all the work was finished, and everyone gathered for lunch and to reflect on all the lives that may otherwise have been forgotten, whose mortal remains still lie up on that hill.

It was an amazing partnership between several organizations and the County Jail to make this simple measure of devotion come to fruition. The selflessness that was shown by everyone on that hill that summer morning served as a reminder that what we were doing wasn’t about the credit anyone would receive for it. It was a genuine act of kindness and a sincere desire to remember those who could so easily been forgotten.

If anyone is interested in visiting the County Home Cemetery, please be reminded that it is on the grounds of the County Jail, and permission must be given prior to accessing the cemetery. Please respect the security concerns of a faithful county institution that is remarkably committed to preserving the memory and the final resting places of those who died in the County Almshouse.