BELLEFONTE — The Centre County Board of Commissioners proclaimed July as Bellefonte Union Cemetery Month, recognizing the 168-year-old cemetery as a site of enduring historical and community significance.

Chartered in 1856, Bellefonte Union Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 8,500 individuals, including founders of Penn State, an early advocate for the Bill of Rights, several Pennsylvania governors and hundreds of veterans. The proclamation comes in advance of the cemetery’s 169th anniversary and highlights its role as a vital link to both regional and national history.

Though the name Union Cemetery evokes images of the American Civil War, it was actually named for the unification of several graveyards in the Bellefonte area.

“It was a union of private cemeteries,” explained Connie Cole, board member of the Bellefonte Cemetery Association.

On July 19, 1859, the Bellefonte Cemetery Association’s paperwork was executed in Centre County Court, combining the family burial grounds of the Dunlops and Burnsides with that of the Constanc Curtin Estate, formally establishing Bellefonte Union Cemetery.

One of the oldest cemeteries in Centre County, the first supposed burial at the site took place in 1806. That April, Dr. William Harris, a Bellefonte physician, was interred on the land–though the exact location of his grave remains unknown.

Since Harris’s burial, the cemetery has become the final resting place for thousands, including many of Centre County’s early leaders and prominent historical figures.

Perhaps most notable are the graves of three of Pennsylvania’s Governors: Andrew Greg Curtin (1817-1894), Pennsylvania governor from 1861-1867, United States Senator and president pro-tem of the U.S. Senate; James A. Beaver (1837-1914), Pennsylvania governor from 1887-1891 and acting president of Penn State from 1906-1908; and Daniel H. Hastings (1849-1903), governor from 1895-1899.

Governor Beaver is famously the namesake of Penn State Football’s Beaver Stadium.

Other significant Nittany Lions are also buried in the cemetery, including Evan Pugh (1828-1864), the first president of the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, the institution that would become Penn State; General James Irvin, who donated the land for the school; and Hugh F. McAllister, another founding father of the school.

Bellefonte Union Cemetery is also the final resting place of the town’s co-founders, Col. James Dunlop (1727-1821) and James Harris (1755-1826), whose family burial grounds were among those unified in 1859 to create the cemetery.

Unlike many cemeteries around the country which only buried whites, Union Cemetery was racially integrated in the late 1800s, so many notable black residents are also interred on the grounds. These include Black Civil War veterans, members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and soldiers of the famous Union “Army of James.”

The cemetery is also the resting place of the remains of Benjamin Frasier, a slave said to have died at the age of 121 and the grandparents of the Mills Brothers, one of the most famous black vocal groups in history.

Other notable individuals interred there include George W. Harris (1835-1921), a Civil War veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, and Anna Wagner Keichline (1889-1943), the first licensed female architect in Pennsylvania and an award-winning inventor.

Board Member Connie Cole says her favorite resident is William Petrikin, an ardent anti-federalist who was present for the signing of the Bill of Rights.

“One of the things we’d like to do, this year or next year, is put up some kind of storyboard that would recognize all of the members of Beaver’s unit in the Civil War who died in service,” Cole said. More than 200 men from the unit were killed, but many lie in unknown graves in national cemeteries across the country.

In total, Bellefonte Union Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 200 Civil War veterans and over 800 veterans overall. Many of their headstones are unmarked or obscured by time and erosion, making it difficult to track who is buried where.

“It’s really hard to keep up with all of them.” Cole said.

Keeping the historic cemetery maintained is no small task. Members of the Bellefonte Cemetery Association shared that the grounds sustained significant storm damage this year.

“The insurance coverage helps with that a lot, but it doesn’t cover the initial removal of all the trees, so we’re dealing with that this year,” she said.

The cleanup has delayed some of the group’s usual activities like flower planting and basic maintenance.

“Hopefully, by the end of summer, we’ll get a lot of that done,” she added. “It’ll be nice to have July be Union Cemetery Month–and start to remember that it really is our birthday.”

The cemetery, which is still active, no longer has an active maintenance endowment.

“The cemetery is so old the maintenance fund was pretty much completely drained,” said Commissioner Mark Higgins, who drew attention to the cemetery’s ongoing challenges.

For this reason, the cemetery largely relies on volunteers.

“The commissioners and citizens of the county want to thank you for your thousands of hours of volunteer efforts every year to keep about 8,500 stones in the cemetery maintained,” Higgins said during the proclamation.

Centre County Commissioner Amber Concepcion called the cemetery a “local treasure,” and praised the efforts behind its preservation.

“It’s a tremendous effort from the whole community,” she said.

The Bellefonte Cemetery Association is actively seeking volunteers to help maintain the grounds. Those interested can go to their website, bellefonteunioncemetery.com, or attend meetings held the first Tuesday of each month at the Bellefonte Borough Building, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.