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Simonstown Cemetery


The Simonstown Cemetery was originally the family cemetery of the Simons and Megargel families. James Simons (1782–1860) was one of the earliest settlers in Greene, arriving around 1808 from Ireland. He and his wife, Ann Bell, purchased 400 acres of land along the Wallenpaupack Creek where they built one of the first homes in the township, of native stone, which still stands today. There are 37 members of the Simons family buried in the cemetery. One prominent granite marker is that of the Joseph and Mary (Hazelton) Simons family. Their sons James (1798–1828) and William (1818–1833) are among the earliest graves in the cemetery.

Allen Megargel (1770–1829) arrived in 1805 and within 10 years had built a sawmill and gristmill on the Wallenpaupack Creek. The first one-room school in Greene Township was built on his property. When the mills and surrounding land were sold to William Ehrgood in 1829, the cemetery parcel was not included in the deed, and it has continued to be omitted from all deeds thereafter.

There are two distinct sections to the Simonstown Cemetery delineating the first settlers from those who came afterward. The earliest interments are located on the east (left) side of the cemetery where dozens of sunken fieldstones with no engravings mark unknown graves. Among the veterans who are buried in the cemetery, Private Darwin D. Hopps, Co. E, 13th Pennsylvania Infantry, fought in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Sergeant Herbert S. Phillips was killed in action in Belgium during World War II, and he is one of three veterans for whom the Phillips-Zacharias-Phillips American Legion Post 859 is named. Rather than forming a cemetery association, the families of the interred were responsible for their own lot upkeep. Today, volunteers with the Society’s Adopt-a-Cemetery Program maintain the grounds.