The Israel Benevolent Society Cemetery also known as the Old Jewish Cemetery of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania is believed to be the earliest Jewish American burial ground west of the Susquehanna River. The oldest headstone refers to a burial in July 1840. At that time only a handful of Jewish families, mostly recent immigrants from Germany, lived in the small towns and villages of south-central Pennsylvania and adjoining counties of Maryland.
As there was no organized Jewish community life anywhere in the area until late in the 19th century, the Jewish burial society (Chevra kadisha), which administered the Chambersburg cemetery, was the main organizational structure of the Jewish minority in south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland. Among those who buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery in Chambersburg were the Jewish inhabitants of Hagerstown, Carlisle, and Mechanicsburg.
Isaac Burgauer, a Confederate soldier from Arkansas, who was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and died soon after in Hagerstown, is buried here.
Around 1900 the burial society dissolved, and the cemetery fell into disrepair and dilapidation. It was restored in 1988, and again in 2000.
Washington County is located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 154,705. Its county seat is Hagerstown. Washington County was the first county in the United States to be named for the Revolutionary War general George Washington. Washington County is one of three Maryland counties recognized by the Appalachian Regional Commission as being part of Appalachia. The county borders southern Pennsylvania to the north, Northern Virginia to the south, and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia to the south and west. Washington County is included in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.
Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and 13 miles (21 km) north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and 52 miles (84 km) southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital. According to the United States Census Bureau, Chambersburg's 2020 population was 21,903. When combined with the surrounding Greene, Hamilton, and Guilford Townships, the population of Greater Chambersburg is 52,273 people. The Chambersburg, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes surrounding Franklin County, and in 2010 included 149,618 people.
Mercersburg is a borough in Franklin County, located near the southern border of Pennsylvania, United States. The borough is 72 miles (116 km) southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital.
The Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, also known as the Beth Israel Synagogue Cemetery, is a Jewish cemetery located on west side of Windsor Street at the intersection of Connaught Avenue beside Fairview Cemetery in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It has been the burial ground of the congregation of the Beth Israel Synagogue of Halifax since 1893.
Antietam National Battlefield is a National Park Service-protected area along Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Washington County, northwestern Maryland. It commemorates the American Civil War Battle of Antietam that occurred on September 17, 1862.
Mikveh Israel Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, giving evidence of a settled community as early as 1740. A number of outstanding patriots, pioneers, and other notables of the Jewish faith who made important contributions to the history and freedom of America during the Colonial and Revolutionary period were interred here, and for this reason, in 1959, by an act of Congress, the burial ground was designated as a unit of the Independence National Historical Park, while continuing to be maintained by the sponsoring Congregation Mikveh Israel. The cemetery was certified by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, and in 1971, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Congregation Mikveh Israel, "Holy Community Hope of Israel", is a synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that traces its history to 1740. Mikveh Israel is a Spanish and Portuguese synagogue that follows the rite of the Amsterdam esnoga. It is the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia, and the longest running in the United States.
The Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Cumberland Valley Railroad was an early railroad in Pennsylvania, United States, originally chartered in 1831 to connect with Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works. Freight and passenger service in the Cumberland Valley in south central Pennsylvania from near Harrisburg to Chambersburg began in 1837, with service later extended to Hagerstown, Maryland, and then extending into the Shenandoah Valley to Winchester, Virginia. It employed up to 1,800 workers.
WCHA is an oldies formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, serving Chambersburg in Pennsylvania and Hagerstown in Maryland. WCHA is owned and operated by Alpha Media.
Hagerstown Valley is located in Maryland in the United States. It is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, which continues northward as Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania, and southward as Shenandoah Valley in West Virginia and Virginia.
Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstown metropolitan area was 293,844. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's sixth-largest incorporated city and is the largest city in the Panhandle.
Beallsville is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a small community located north of Poolesville. The ZIP Code for Beallsville is 20839.
The Conococheague Formation is a mapped Appalachian bedrock unit of Cambrian age, consisting primarily of limestone and dolomite. It occurs in central Maryland, southern and central Pennsylvania, the Valley and Ridge of Virginia and easternmost West Virginia.
The Blue Ridge League was the name of two minor league baseball organizations that operated in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States.
The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) is an American non-profit 501(c)(3) volunteer historical society. The society locates sites of American and Jewish historical interest and importance. It works with local community organizations, synagogues, churches, historical societies, governments and individuals, to erect interpretive historical markers that help illuminate the American-Jewish experience and reflect on the commonality of being American.
Sarah "Sallie" Middleton Robbins Broadhead was a teacher, diarist, and resident of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Battle of Gettysburg. She was the author of The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from June 15 to July 15, 1863, which is a primary historical source for what happened during the battle and especially how it impacted the residents of the borough. It has been called the most comprehensive written document on the role of women in the Civil War. Ken Burns quoted entries from the diary in his 1990 documentary series, The Civil War.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1702 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The church is a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. It is located at 301 East 9th Street and is an active worship center.
The First Jewish site in Los Angeles is a first Jewish cemetery in the City of Los Angeles, opened in 1855 by Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles, the first charitable organization in Los Angeles. The First Jewish site in Los Angeles was designated a California Historic Landmark on Jan. 26, 1968. The First Jewish site in Los Angeles is located at Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles in Los Angeles County. In 1902 the cemetery was moved, a California Historic Landmark is at the place of the original cemetery. The Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles was founded in 1854 for the purpose of "…procuring a piece of ground suitable for the purpose of a burying ground for the deceased of their own faith, and also to appropriate a portion of their time and means to the holy cause of benevolence…,". The Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles received the deed to land from the Los Angeles City Council on April 9, 1855. With this land they established the first Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles at Lilac Terrace and Lookout Drive in Chavez Ravine. The site is now the current site of Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles Fire Department's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center.
The Mikveh Israel Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery known as the Federal Street Burial Ground and located at 11th and Federal Streets in the Passyunk Square neighborhood of South Philadelphia. It was first called Beth Hahayim. It is one of three cemeteries belonging to Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia's oldest synagogue.
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