Green Lawn cemetery on Concord Road in Chester Township, PA had been one of those neglected burial grounds that was reserved for Blacks when cemeteries were segregated by race. Saved by Chester’s Twyla Simpkins and her cadre of volunteers, they have made great strides tending to the grounds and restoring dignity to our ancestors.
Part of their mission in this abandoned cemetery is to cut grass and take inventory of who is buried here. They have sectioned off the cemetery and are tackling the ground keeping and inventory one section at a time.
With probably less than half of the cemetery headstones identified, they’ve discovered up to 200 veterans from wars dating back to the Civil War including four Buffalo Soldiers.
On Saturday, Twyla and crew staged a Veteran’s Day event to honor those former soldiers buried at Green Lawn with a special tribute from the Rothwell family who is believed to be Chester’s original Black family having moved here in 1851.
The great, great, great granddaughter of Private Isaac Rothwell presented a touching family history of her relative buried at Green Lawn who died fighting in the Civil War. There was a presentation on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and a reading by local students of the names of all the 200 veterans identified so far buried at Green Lawn.
Before the program kicked off, I helped place American flags at grave sites of some of the veterans. One area of the cemetery is identified as Veteran’s Row which is four rows of tomb stones and markers of just veterans. The rows may even go further than what we could get to but so much of the cemetery has yet to be cleared of high grass and weeds.
The event was extremely touching as the confluence of emotions grew while trudging through the conditions of a long neglected Black cemetery; hearing the story of the Rothwell family; seeing the large number of veteran’s graves from wars dating back to slavery, and enduring the long recitation of names of all those real Black soldiers buried there.
View Twyla Simpkin’s short documentary on Green Lawn Cemetery.
Chester Matters Blog 
Good story. The 1936 WPA Survey lists two historically Black cemeteries: Marker 143 is Gravel Hill Cemetery, est’d about 1876 at the SW corner of Carter Ave. and Concord Rd, just north of the B&O railroad. By about 1907 this cemetery had become filled, and the Greenlawn Cemetery was established on the borders of Gravel Hill.
Marker 139 is located on the north side of Chichester or Bethel Rd, about 400′ west of the NW corner of Felton Ave. in Feltonville, in the rear of an old school house. This cemetery was used from about 1866 until 1907, and by 1936 had been completely abandoned, although several tombstones were visible to the analyst in 1936.
In Chester, there is one more cemetery that was completely forgotten by the Revolutionary War. Henry Graham Ashmead in his History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (published 1884), mentions it on p. 336, The City of Chester, on the last few paragraphs of the page, and for emphasis prints the text The land bequest that was made 6 April 1760 for the benefit of Black Friends (Quakers); the cemetery was rendered unfit by the British Colonial government, another way to antagonize colonists who did not toe the line.
Thank you. Interesting facts that must be saved and placed in historic record.
Immediately after slavery my ancestors moved to Chester, PA. Through my research, I discovered many of my ancestors were buried at Green Lawn. About 10 years ago I traveled to Chester to visit their grave sites. I was astonished by the disrepair of this cemetery. Living close to many immaculately maintained miliary cemeteries myself, I could not believe that any cemetery could look like Green Lawn. I was so upset that I did not even venture to look for my relatives because I knew I would not be able to locate them. I tried to get in contact with anyone with information about the location of my loved ones, to no avail. By chance I came across this video and would like to know how I can help and who I can contact.
Ms. Twyla Simpkins rwsty@aol.com
I was close to shedding tears when I read T. Ward: “I knew I would not be able to locate them…” This is the ultimate effect of decisions ill-made, years ago. We understand that we are the Posterity those before us decided to forsake…
By working on behalf of a historical group in Chester, I was able to finally piece together the story of my great-granddad in Indiana. It took years to reveal itself. Miss Twyla and I both understand the bitter truth that no governmental authority exists to pay for the upkeep nor for the liability insurance of ancient monuments.
The US has few UNESCO world heritage sites. Its Federal-level preservation is limited to our Library of Congress maintaining a National Register of 15-page reports. In recent years, PA divested itself of as many historical sites as it could. And as of this year, our County Historical society closed its doors and is in the process of distributing its contents to individual townships and municipalities.
That is our bronze serpent hanging on a pole, of which the scrap value has already been calculated.
Dear Anon: That last sentence is as accurate as one that’s ever been stated. To that end, let’s remember why our ancestors made it a point to OWN LAND! When you own, you don’t have to listen to those who don’t.