Shawnee Cemetery, Plymouth, Pennsylvania


Shawnee Cemetery in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, located on 13-1/2 acres on a hillside overlooking Wyoming Valley, was established by the Shawnee Cemetery Association, and chartered on September 5, 1873. Interments began in the fall of 1873, many of which were initially reinterments from other older cemeteries.
At an initial meeting of the directors of the Association, chaired by Draper Smith, deeds for the cemetery grounds were paid for and accepted from John B. Smith, and Ira and Oliver Davenport, and a committee was appointed to install a fence around the grounds.
In 1994, following decades of neglect, Plymouth’s General Federation of Womens' Clubs, led by Janice Williams, undertook the task of reclaiming the once beautiful cemetery from decades of overgrowth. A new shed was constructed to house the equipment needed to maintain the grounds. Iron fences were painted, headstones repaired, trees removed, road repairs begun and new street signs installed.
In 2008, the Shawnee Cemetery Preservation Association took over the work of maintaining the grounds. Led by president Tom Jesso Sr., the group has installed benches, made roadway repairs, removed brush, and repaired headstones. The Association's efforts to reclaim several hundred graves from the overgrowth in the outermost sections have facilitated the compilation of historical data, and revealed the borders of the cemetery.

Notable interments