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Albright-Bennett Cemetery


The Albright-Bennett Cemetery was originally two separate, but adjacent, cemeteries. Traces of the original road that separated the two cemeteries can still be seen as a slight depression in the land running between the road and the creek. At one time this road was the access to present-day Mountain View Road, and the creek did not have a bridge, only a ford.

The Albright Cemetery was affiliated with the Albrecht Evangelical Church, built in 1854 on the property of David Wolfe, Jr. (1806–1872) and his wife Catherine Rohrbacker (1807–1901). The Wolfe and Rohrbacker families were among the earliest settlers along the Wallenpaupack Creek, having emigrated from Germany in 1828. The Albright Church (Anglicized from Albrecht) was located along the Newfoundland Road, and the cemetery was established behind it. David and Catherine Wolfe are among those buried in the cemetery. In the early 1900s, the church building was purchased by Dr. Arthur and Carrie (Houck) Simons and moved across the road, where it became part of their new residence.

The Bennett Cemetery was originally a family burial ground established in the mid-1800s on the farm of Jeremiah (1780–1852) and Elizabeth (Clements) Bennett. The original Bennett farmhouse still stands next to the cemetery. Although Jeremiah was born in Connecticut, he and his parents settled along the Wallenpaupack in 1814. Jeremiah was the first hotel keeper in South Sterling, and his sister Nancy was one of the first schoolteachers in the area. Jeremiah, his first wife, Lydia, and his second wife, Elizabeth, are among the earliest markers found in the cemetery.

During the Flood of 1955 many of the cemetery markers were swept away and others were toppled and broken. Unfortunately the records of plots and ownership were destroyed so that there is no way of knowing the exact locations of some of the graves. In 1964, the Albright and Bennett Cemeteries were joined under the management of the Bennett Memorial Cemetery Association, which currently maintains the cemetery. The latest burial in the Albright-Bennett Cemetery was in 1973.