History of Green Hill Cemetery

Green Hill Cemetery, l851 to the present. The simple iron fence with cast posts survives. It was placed in position on Nov. 1, 1902. The present Shingle Style lodge is from the same era. The Virginia General Assembly incorporated the cemetery co. on March 4, 1854, and in April of the same year fifteen and a half acres were acquired for the new cemetery. The land covered all sides of a cone shaped hill, and both that hill and other hills viewed from it were and are verdant. The landscape design evidently evolved from sketches made by Martinsburg artist David Hunter Strother. He had sketched a cemetery in Paris that he liked, and he and surveyor J. P. Kearfoot translated the French design to a Virginia, hillside.

The cemetery had been sufficiently developed to be dedicated on Nov. 11, I854, and presumably was soon used, 'the crest of the hill, viewable from the entrance was initially topped with a chapel of unknown design.' It is now crowned with a neo-Classical Revival stone mausoleum, built 1917. It has stained glass and bronze entrance doors. In one end is a conventional pastoral rendering in stained glass, in the other the same scene in a most abstract and colorful rendering. These panels are excellent, and unsigned. From this site and from almost any site in the cemetery there are truly magnificent views. Those of Chambersburg and of downtown Martinsburg are particularly agreeable. Among notables buried in the cemetery are the architect David Strothers, Capt. A. G. Alburtis, who commanded the Berkeley Company at Harpers Ferry during the John Brown raid, Alien C. Harrmond, a Confederate States Senator, the actor Robert H. Barratt, and numerous mayors and military men, including 30 unknown Confederate soldiers. Ezekiel Showers, Mayor of Martinsburg and the man on whose land the cemetery was established, is buried here as are Dr. and Mrs. Newton D. Baker, parents of the Woodrow Wilson cabinet member.

Green Hill is an important outdoor museum of the sculptors and stone carver’s art, dripping in Victorian opulence and symbolism. Among the notable stones are; The H. H. Deatrick marker, c. 1891, an exceptionally fine cast metal monument on a stepped base with classical, sheaf of wheat and draped decoration all in a soft gray. It is topped by a cast statue of dark metal with pointing finger and masonic symbols; the Lillie Gatzen- dararaer marker, ca. l881|, is also metal with fine casting, though the top. It’s now broken; David H. Swigert's stone, c. 1892, features well detailed clasped hands; 3 Kilmer stones of the l850s feature fine deep carving and foliar motifs; the William L. Taverner angelic child Taverner died in 1914 at the age of 4 in a fine sculpture signed *Kantner ; the John and Sarah Small stones with their multifoil and wreath carvings, c. 1880, are signed "Turner"; Mary E. Swartz's marker, c. 1856, features a scroll urn with garlands and doves and lily bouquet in deep relief. It is signed "A. Gaddes, Bait."; Alex. Kratz's marker has a fluted truncated column, c. 1819, signed "Young & Turner.11 ; the Zepp stones of the 1880s with their deep sheaf of wheat carvings and fine tops are signed "T.M. Turner"; fine turn of the century cast-iron encloses the Williams plot; the Thomas and Robert Robinson markers of the 1860s, one with a square, the other with a round column, have urn toppings and large classical bases; "Crump", in rustic twigs, is on the base of the Wm. Wallace Crump monument, ca. 1891, which features a magnificent angel recording Crump's name in the book of life. It is signed "C. Mezger & Son, Baltimore"; Lillian Louise More, 5 years old, is also memorialized by an angel, with a bouquet and ivy wreath; the Wegenast plot has fine iron surrounds and impressive stones; the obelisk on tall pedestal of Mrs. John Weller, "died MDCCCLIV(1854), Age XIS,(19) signed "W. S. Anderson, Frederick, Hd."; the Seibert stones of the 1860s feature a deep bas-relief pointing finger; the Hodge obelisk signed "Mud era & Kantner" is late 19th century with a foliar frieze and "Free at Last" inscription; the Strother plot contains the "artist, author, soldier, Born Sept. 26, 1816, Died March 8, 1838" and his two wives. The stone of Anne Doyne Wolff, who died in 1859 would have been selected by Strother. It was carved by "Diehn and Bro.", has a rounded top and a rose in full bloom; Nancy Van Metre is remembered by a stone featuring a weeping willow with tasseled rope surround, c. l85ii and one of the earliest in the cemetery; the Godleib and Elizabeth Noll markers of the 1880s feature lace, laurel leaf surrounds and the pointing finger over the legend "Gone Home."

To the east of the mausoleum and reverted into the hillside is the brick receiving vault, possibly mid-19th century. It features iron doors with star and half-moon cut outs. These astrological signs seem unusual in a cemetery such as this. It adds depth to the variety of the symbolism and art. Record books now in the cemetery lodge for l897-1915 indicate a great deal about the area, cemetery and local folkways and more. Such entries as "Greek", "Italian," or Slav appear, as do "suicide," "Diphtheria," ''Small pox," and "killed on electric wire. Beside the funeral of Mrs. Samuel Watson, Jan. 12, 1914 the cemetery superintendent recorded "coldest weather ever in Martinsburg, thermometer registered 20 degrees below zero! Railroad entries are frequent, such as "killed in railroad yard," "Killed at Opequon by B & 0," and "killed at Couchman's curve. If perhaps the most poignant entry is "Tramp burnt at lime kilns." The history embodied here is important, the mausoleum and receiving vault good architecture. The monument collection is superb, the landscape architecture open and well suited to the site, and the vistas superb, as might be expected from a hillside cemetery in the Valley of the Virginias.