AKA:

Number of Burials (approximate): 750

Dates of Activity: 1897 - present

Documentation/Publication: 

CCGS, The Cemeteries of Gallagher, Pine Creek, and Wayne Townships (2005)

Directions/GPS: 

From US 220, take the McElhattan/Woolrich exit.  Turn left and travel approximately 1.0 mile through McElhattan.  Turn left onto Linnwood Road and travel approximately 0.3 mile.  The cemetery is located on your right, at the site of a decaying old EUB Church and Tombstone Lane.

N41 09.379 W77 21.911

Landowner / Caretaker:

Linnwood Cemetery Association

McElhattan, PA 17748

Condition/Needs: 

Excellent

History:

Land for a cemetery in Wayne Township near McElhattan was purchased from Charles Snyder on 18 November 1897.  There is some dispute about the name for the cemetery.  Early minute books and some news articles refer to it as Linwood Cemetery.  The deeds and references to the charter, however, name it as Linnwood Cemetery.  At any rate, the cemetery was laid out on this ground adjacent to the EUB Church and just south of the Union-Throne Cemetery.  It was probably popular as it was not as susceptible to flooding.  It was fenced in with an arched gate.  The cemetery was chartered in Clinton County at January Term, 1898.

The same year (1897), the Pennsylvania State Capitol building burned down in Harrisburg.  Anna S. Stabley was able to secure a pillar from the capitol ruins which was part of the original 1820 structure.  It was conveyed to McElhattan and erected at a cost of $1,000, and dedicated on 12 May 1900.  The pillar, red sandstone of 41' high and a 4' diameter, was engraved with the names of local soldiers and the surrounding plot was given to the Soldiers Memorial Society in Wayne Township, "for burial of soldiers of Wayne Township who served or may serve in any of the wars of the U.S.A."  At that time, L. E. Snyder was president of the Linnwood Cemetery Company.

In June, 1920, additional land was purchased from Charles Snyder.  Another addition was made from Clifford Snyder'sland in June, 1950.  By the 1930s the old fence had been removed.  In 1999, the Wayne Township Supervisors partnered with the cemetery association to renovate the historic pillar, and the names of recent war veterans were added to it.

The cemetery is active and is well maintained.  Some of the burials include graves removed from the Union-Throne Cemetery, which is just across the railroad tracks from this burial ground.