CLINTON COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY CEMETERY GUIDE            

MUNICIPALITY:  Noyes Township
CEMETERY NAME: 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery

SCHADT NUMBER:  068

AKA: 

Number of Burials (approximate):  200

Dates of Activity:  1897 - present

 

Documentation/Publication: 

CCGS, The Cemeteries of Colebrook, East Keating, Grugan, Leidy, Noyes, and West Keating Townships (2008)

 

Directions/GPS: 

From the intersection of Jay and Water Streets in Lock Haven (the Lock Haven Courthouse), travel west on Water Street for 1 mile.  Turn right onto PA Route 120 (Susquehanna Avenue) and travel 33.3 miles into Westport, past the bridge.  Turn right onto Bitumen Road.  Travel 2.5 miles.  The cemetery is on your left at the former Catholic Church.  It is very well maintained.

GPS = N41 17.960 W77 52.792

Landowner / Caretaker:

 

 

Condition/Needs: 

Very good; a few loose stones stacked at the church should be reset.

 

History:

The coal boom at Bitumen, on the mountain above Kettle Creek in Noyes Township, caused a large community to spring up around the mines.  Many of the settlers were immigrants from the present nation of Slovakia, formerly part of Austria-Hungary.  A few ethnic Carpatho-Rusyns from eastern Slovakia also settled here.  The First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota) provided funds for the construction of a house of worship for these immigrants, and the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church was completed in 1897.  A parochial school was also established, under the direction of the Vincentian Sisters of Charity.  The parish cemetery was opened next to the church and was called St. Mary's.

Wage conditions and strikes during and after World War I led to the demise of the Bitumen mining community.  Immaculate Conception Church was made a mission of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Renovo, and was eventually closed.  In 1969 it was converted to the status of a Shrine and is maintained by donations, with an annual homecoming service.