NEONBRAND VIA UNSPLASH This forgotten rural cemetery — or perhaps a graveyard — may bear a resemblance to Cryder Cemetery.

According to a map from the county government, there are 70 known cemeteries throughout Clinton County, more or less. I have a copy of the map at home in my office; last time I visited the county building, I begged them to print me off a copy. I’ve had a sort of unofficial goal for a few years — I want to visit every cemetery in Clinton County. I think I’m about halfway through the list.

City Councilman Bill Mincer suggested recently that I write about one I haven’t been to yet — The Cryder Family Cemetery. Some of his ancestors are buried there, and he was interested in the topic. Bill has been quite a frequent flyer in my column recently; his suggestions led me to two different columns back in November. Makes me glad I voted for him.

So I started digging into the Cryder Family Cemetery. Figuratively. Not a whole lot seems to be known about this cemetery, which the Clinton County Genealogical Society places on the north end of Gallagher Township near Old Carrier Road.

If you wanted to get there, you’d have to go up Route 664, turn onto Old Carrier Road, and then get out of the car and trespass on private property, avoiding the rattlesnakes that are said to infest the area.

You could, I suppose, cut back on the chance of rattlesnakes by going during the winter, but then you’re risking stray bullets from hunters in the area. All of this has considerably cooled my enthusiasm for going out to visit the Cryder Family Cemetery.

The Cryder Family Cemetery was created, as the name might suggest, by the Cryder family. (That may seem obvious, but you never know.)

William Cryder moved into Gallagher Township from Pine Creek in 1845, with his family. The first year he lived there, Cryder killed five bears, and six the second year, plus some deer and small game for food. When John Blair Linn’s “History Of Centre and Clinton Counties” was published in 1883, he was listed as 87 years old.

The book makes a big deal out of how long he was living, describing him as unimpaired and in good health, “though having lived some years beyond the time allotted man.” He isn’t buried in Cryder Cemetery. He might be still alive for all I know.

One of his sons, Philip Cryder, seems to have been responsible for creating the cemetery. Philip and his wife Rebecca lost three of their children, who were buried there. This would actually make the cemetery a graveyard; the terms are used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be.

The difference is one of planning. A cemetery is purchased, surveyed, and planned before anyone dies there, for the purpose of burying the dead. A graveyard is unplanned; when Great-Uncle Jebediah dies in mid-April and you have nowhere to put him, you pick a spot in the backyard, and that becomes the graveyard.

So the Cryder Family Cemetery is really more of a graveyard, if you want to split hairs. The Cryder family buried at least three of their children there. Joseph Cryder died at one years old in November of 1850, which was probably the beginning of the graveyard. Caroline Cryder was almost two when she died in February of 1853.

The oldest of them was Soloman Cryder, who was 19 and serving in the Civil War. He was serving with Company F, 148th PA Regiment, and his stone notes that he died at Cockeyville, Maryland on Oct. 6, 1862.

The cemetery isn’t marked on the Clinton County 1862 map, in spite of the fact that it certainly existed by then. That particular map can be a little bit hit-or-miss, though. Oddly, it does note the property where Valentine Cryder, a relative of the family, was buried after having built his own casket from a tree he grew himself for that purpose.

So there you have it, Bill. That’s what I was able to find out about the Cryder Family Cemetery. Oh, and if you happen to bump into William Cryder, tell him I said hi.

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Lou Bernard is a Lock Haven resident with a keen interest in the history of this area. He is adult services coordinator at Ross Library and may be reached at loulhpa@gmail.com or 570-660-4463.