The following information is provided to me by Noble Preservation Services, Inc.:

Cemetery at the Silk Mill – results of research to date

Current Conclusion

Research to date indicates that the cemetery probably stopped accepting new burials around 1890. There is no conclusive information as to the exact date the cemetery was abandoned, although a date after 1910 is most probable. Church records are not available and the city and county have no information. None of the local historical societies have information on the cemetery. No newspaper articles were located that mentioned the disposition of the cemetery, but the index ends in 1912. A cursory search of the local cemeteries in Bethlehem shows that no graves that were in the cemetery at the Silk Mill were moved to other cemeteries.

There is a reasonable possibility that the graves were not moved and that the headstones were simply removed.

Details

• Cemetery was owned by St. John’s Church of the Evangelical Association. This church was associated primarily with the Evangelical denomination and secondarily with the Methodists. The church merged with the United Brethren Church in 1946 and became the United Methodist Church (a Korean church) in 1989. The present church building, dating to 1880, is on the northeast corner of North and New Streets.
• The cemetery which was in the present location of the gravel lot to the north of the Silk Mill was apparently established in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was owned by St. John’s Evangelical church and went by the following names:

- Evangelical Cemetery

- Goepp Street Cemetery

- Methodist Cemetery (most common name on maps and city directories)

The original entrance to the cemetery was on Goepp St.

• The cemetery was transferred in two sections to the Bethlehem Silk Company (conveyed by the Trustees of St. John’s Church of the Evangelical Association). Tract 4 was sold on May 27, 1901. Shortly thereafter the northern extension of the Silk Mill was built on this land. Tract 5 was transferred on February 22, 1910. Nothing was built on this section.
• A search on the Bethlehem Globe from April to July 1901 to Jan to April 1910 turned up no mention of the property sale or of the disposition of the cemetery. A search in the Bethlehem Public Library’s Bethlehem Globe newspaper index from 1867 to 1912 did not turn up any mention of the property sale or of the disposition of the graves in the cemetery.
• The Bethlehem Public Library’s newspaper index ends in 1912. It is possible that the graves were moved after this point; the only way to see if it is included in the newspaper is to manually search the years, day by day after 1912.
• The latest obituary listing for people in this cemetery in the newspaper index is from the year 1890. It is possible that the cemetery stopped accepting new plots at this point.
• The city directories list the “Methodist Cemetery” up until 1911. The next city directory available is from 1917-18, which does not list the cemeteries in Bethlehem. The next available city directory from 1923 does list the cemeteries in Bethlehem, but it does not list the Methodist Cemetery. The following new cemeteries appear in the 1923 directory which are not in the 1911 directory:

- Altoona Cemetery

- Holy Ghost Cemetery

- Memorial Park Cemetery

- St. Joseph Cemetery

- Union Cemetery

It is possible that the graves were moved to one of these cemeteries.

• Fountain Hill cemetery, the largest protestant cemetery at the turn of the twentieth century, did not have the graves of two people from the Methodist Cemetery that I had the administrator of the cemetery look up over the phone.
• A search using Internet gravesite listings (such as findagrave.com) comparing obituary listings in the Bethlehem Public Library index did not turn up any matches (approximately 50 names were cross referenced).
• The current church (United Methodist) in the same building of St. John’s Evangelical does not have any records previous to 1989.
• St. George’s United Methodist Church in Philadelphia was supposed to receive all church records from St. Johns/United Brethren prior to 1989. According to Brian McColskey from St. George’s, they received no records older than 1976. He was going to check with Rev. Russell Walters if he might know more information.
• The City of Bethlehem doesn’t keep track of information on cemeteries nor does Northampton County.
• The South Bethlehem Historical Society, The Moravian Historical Society, and the Northampton County Historical Society have no information on the cemetery.
• No history books on Bethlehem mention this cemetery (approx. 20 books were checked).
• I called all the Methodist churches in the area to see if they knew anything about St. John’s Evangelical or of the cemetery. Only one gentleman knew something of the church, but knew nothing of the cemetery.
• Confirmed that St. John’s Evangelical church is not related in any way to the current St. John’s Windish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
• The last remaining possibility is to call and check names in each surviving local cemetery using names from obituaries in the Bethlehem Globe Times newspaper.