Lebanon Cemetery


Lebanon Cemetery was an African-American cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania established in 1849. It was one of only two private African-American cemeteries in Philadelphia at the time. Lebanon Cemetery was condemned in 1899 and closed in 1903. The bodies were reinterred in 1902 to Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.
The former location of the cemetery is now the street corner of 19th Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia.

History

Lebanon Cemetery was chartered on January 24, 1849 by Jacob C. White on the Passyunk Road near present day Nineteenth Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia. It was a nonsectarian cemetery designated for African Americans since they were excluded from most of the new rural cemeteries.
Several hundred African-American veterans of the U.S. Civil War were buried in a reserved section of Lebanon Cemetery.
In 1882, a Philadelphia Press newspaper story sparked a sensational trial after a journalist caught body snatchers from the Jefferson Medical College stealing corpses for use as cadavers by medical students. Four grave robbers, including the cemetery supervisor, were arrested and sentenced to Moyamensing Prison for stealing bodies and providing them to Jefferson Medical College at the rate of $8 a body. After the arrests, it was determined that the body snatching had been going on for nine years and several hundred corpses had been sold to Jefferson Medical College.
The renowned surgeon and Jefferson Medical College anatomy professor, William S. Forbes, was arrested for his role in the grave robbery but was acquitted. Forbes helped write the 1867 Pennsylvania Law named the "Anatomy Act" which called for hospitals, prisons and mental health wards to provide the bodies of those that had no family or funds for burial to medical schools for anatomical research.
Due in part to the Lebanon Cemetery grave robbery scandal, the Pennsylvania Anatomy Act of 1883 was passed which provided for legal means by which medical colleges could obtain cadavers without having to buy them from grave robbers.
By 1889, the cemetery was overcrowded and in disrepair. Expansion of the city began to erode the size of the cemetery. By 1900, Lebanon Cemetery had shrunk from the original 11 acres down to 6 with over 17,000 corpses. In 1899, the city condemned the cemetery and in 1902 relocated the bodies to Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. Lebanon Cemetery was closed in 1903.

Notable interments