AKA:
Number of Burials (approximate): 140
Dates of Activity: 1819 - 1935
Documentation/Publication:
CCGS, The Cemeteries of Gallagher, Pine Creek, and Wayne Townships (2005)
Directions/GPS:
As you are heading North on US Route 220 through Clinton County, get off at the Pine Creek exit. Turn left onto Tiadaghten Avenue, and travel 0.7 mile. Turn left onto Sulphur Run Road and travel 0.4 mile to the cemetery, which will be on your right just beyond the church. Parking is available adjacent to the church.
N41 12.379 W77 18.904
Landowner / Caretaker:
Garman Lutheran Church
1779 Sulphur Run Road
Jersey Shore, PA 17740
Condition/Needs:
Very Good / Some stones sinking into ground
History:
Early Lutheran activity in the Pine Creek area was influenced by monthly preaching at the home of Henry and Hannah Garmanby Rev. Shultz. A small congregation was organized in 1845 and named Pine Creek Union Sabbath School and Congregation, soon to become Pine Creek English Lutheran Church. It came to be known as Garman Church after its founding patrons. They gave the land for the first church building in 1846, and provided adjacent space for a small cemetery. In 1888, the first church burned and the second one was built in 1889, slightly east of the first site. The cemetery became full long ago. Charles Kissel was the old gravedigger, and no records or maps were kept. It is said that sometimes he would dig a grave, only to find it occupied, and as a result there are some graves with double-burials. By the 1930s, the cemetery had fallen into a state of disrepair. Ralph Shields and his father restored it by removing a rusted old fence and hauling away many weeds and poison ivy.
The church is currently active, with Rev. Ralph Heagy, pastor. It is under the jurisdiction of the Upper Susquehanna Synod, West Branch Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The cemetery is very well maintained today. All markers found in a reading of the cemetery made by the DAR over fifty years ago are still there.