Bourneman Family Cemetery - Upper Hanover Township, PA, USA - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

The following was published in the Allentown Morning Call Newspaper on October 6, 2003:

"For four years, the Borneman family of the Upper Perkiomen Valley has tried to convince federal, state and local officials that Montgomery County dug up an ancestral graveyard to extend a recreational trail.

So far, no luck. But an official investigation continues.

The family claims the parks department placed a connector trail directly over the graveyard when it expanded the Green Lane Dam’s trail system. Ron Ahlbrandt, director of Montgomery County parks, claims there is no evidence a graveyard ever existed at that site. But, he said, an investigation is under way.

In late July, the parks department hired a company to use ground-penetrating equipment to search the area for irregularities in the ground, metals or some other evidence of burial. Ahlbrandt says the survey found nothing to indicate a graveyard existed.

Bob Borneman, a spokesman for the Borneman family, claims the site was destroyed and evidence removed when the trail was built. The only thing that remains is a memorial marker to the family’s patriarch, Daniel Borneman.

Bob Borneman said the site was the family burial ground from the early 18th century to 1832, and 18 family members were interred there. Daniel Borneman, who was born in 1699 and died in 1768, is buried there, he said.

Ahlbrandt said the permitting process to build the pathways required a categorical exclusion search. This process would have found a paper trail indicating the graveyard’s existence. He says the process didn’t show any evidence of the burial site.

In September 1998, when trail construction began, Borneman said the family went to the site and notified the construction company about the graveyard.

Ahlbrandt said he met with the project engineer, who talked to the construction contractor and alerted him to watch for signs of the cemetery. The engineer and contractor did a visual inspection of the site and were unable to find any evidence of the burial grounds.

Borneman said the memorial marker should have been the first obvious visual evidence.

Borneman said there is a legal deed restriction for the cemetery’s care. In Henry Borneman’s deed, dated 1721, it states “to keep enclosed forever the adjacent ground.” Bob Borneman also said the cemetery is well-documented in county records and historical data, such as old newspapers.

A letter from Brenda Barrett, director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, criticizes the trail because her office was not notified before its construction.

Borneman said that because federal money was used to construct the trail, the commission was required to approve the project. “They never signed off on the project because nothing was ever submitted to them,” he said.

In August, the Borneman family had its own survey done of the site and are waiting for the results.

Martha Gehringer is a freelance writer."


Now, there is a nice blue sign and a couple of the original remaining gravestones. There is parking to the east of off Knight Road.

City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County, PA Approximate number of graves: 18 Cemetery Status: Inactive Maintained Cemetery Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Post an original, un-copywrited picture of the Cemetery into this Waymark gallery, along with any observations about the cemetery.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.