This website contains a photograph of every stone in the cemetery, up to 2005, with the text of their inscriptions.

History of (Barren’s) Union Church

YORK COUNTY, PA.

Rev. Roland M. Banes, Lutheran Pastor

Rev. A.T. Kaup, Evangelical and Reformed Pastor

Salem Union, or (Barren’s Church) as it is commonly known, is one of the old landmarks of Washington Township, situated in the upper end of the Township in York County.

The first building was a log church, which was dedicated to the service of God on the first day of January, 1812. This building stood for fifty-three years. The Lutheran pastor at this time was Rev. John A. Rudisill, and the Reformed pastor was Rev. Charles Helfenstine; and the Building Committee were George Gentzler, Lutheran, and David Shearer, Reformed; and the Lutheran Council were: Elder, Nicholas Bentz; Deacons, Jacob Bentz and George Lau. The Reformed Consistory were Andrew Renoll, John March and Joseph Hershey.

There is no information available in existing records as to the date when the congregations were organized.

The first grave in the adjoining cemetery was that of Barbara Shetron, who died August 11, 1811. Near this building was a stone schoolhouse used as a parochial school by the church until the introduction of the free public school. On April 1, 1863, plans and specifications were adopted for a new church to take place of the old log church. The new church was built of brick, 38 x 50 feet, with a gallery on three sides of the church. The cornerstone was laid May 16, 1864; the ministers who participated in this service were the Lutheran pastors, Rev. D. Reigle and Rev. W.C. Bennett, of Boiling Springs, Pa. Addresses were delivered by Rev. Frey and Rev. Bennett.

Dedication services were held on May 21, 1866, with the following ministers participating: The Lutheran pastors, Rev. Peter Warner, M.J. Alleman, of Mechanicsburg, Pa. The total cost of the church was given as $4,710.10 ½. This building still stands and forms the nucleus of a new and modern church edifice, which was needed to meet the growing requirements of the church for more adequate worship and educational facilities.

Ground was broken in February 11, 1951, and the following pastors participating: Reformed pastor, Rev. A.T. Kaup, and Lutheran pastor, Rev. George N. Young. The cornerstone laying took place on April 8, 1951, with the Reformed pastor, Rev. A.T. Kaup, and the Lutheran pastor, Rev. Roland M. Banes, participating.

The following information is from the cemetery stones as of 7-21-2000, just the way they were spelled and legible. Information received from research at the Historical Society of York County will be noted in parenthesis with HS. Changes and updates as of 11-21-2005.

Photographs were taken by Marlene Bentz Badger of Dillsburg (photos may be used for nonprofit purposes without charge, provided that credit is given). Each photo is roughly 900KB, which is why they are in separate files; clicking on any of the names will bring up the relevant photograph. (One simple trick to bring up a photo in a separate window is to hold the SHIFT key down when clicking on a link; this will keep this page unchanged, letting you find your place easily after viewing a photo.) Another tip, in particular if you are looking for a specific person: type CONTROL F (that is, hold the CONTROL key down and type "F"), which will bring a "Find" box up that will let you search for a name or name fragment (or date, for that matter). Where precisely the "Find" box is depends on which web browser you're using.

Some of the inscriptions in the images can be hard to read. As opportunity allows, we may re-photograph these; however, in the meantime, realize that these are relatively high-resolution images - you may download them and then use image processing software to enhance contrast, etc., which can go a long way to making an inscription clearer.

This web page is by Bryan Bentz of Stonington, CT, email bentz (at) bentz-engineering.com (the "at" is to be replaced with the usual symbol; it is written this way here to help prevent spammers from grabbing the email address). Please do send corrections or updates; it is possible that I've made typographical or other errors. Note that name spellings which look like typos may not be; often there are several variants of family names, and even spelling errors on tombstones.

The tombstones are listed starting at Kralltown Road, next to Church, and working left to right. All rows are "stone number" worked left to right. Some stones have multiple photos (e.g., different sides); these will be listed under the first image, indented somewhat.

An aerial view of the cemetery showing the basic row structure is here. If you have Google Earth, Nasa Whirlwind, or something similar for viewing aerial photography, clicking on BarrensChurch.kmz will take you to the church/cemetery location (the file contains high-precision lat/lon information, suitable for GPS devices as well).

Row Index

Click on any of the row numbers here to jump to that row's stones in the page below:

"Virtual" Barrens Salem Union Cemetery

Kralltown Road, Dillsburg, PA

Row Index