Hayti Cemetery and the Marple UAME Church
By Sam Pickard
When I started the Marple History blog, I knew that the Hayti Cemetery and the Marple UAME Church was something that I wanted to cover. That said, I wanted this piece to add to the information out there and present something new. I was relatively thorough in my research, though I should note that this post is not exhaustive. I also reached out to Trinity UAME Church but did not hear back from them, though I would love to incorporate any information they have about their history. Finally, while this post focuses on the Marple UAME Church and its cemetery, I intend to cover the actual community of Hayti—a Black community in Marple Township—in future posts.
Most people in cars rushing along the Blue Route probably pay little attention to the tree-covered hill on the north side of the interchange with Route 1. Those passing underneath the interchange on Old Marple Road might notice small American flags and a blue sign planted at the bottom of the shaded hillside. This hill is home to a cemetery—now known as Hayti Cemetery—that actively served the local African American community for more than a century. While accounts of the cemetery (and the church congregation that established it) have been in print for almost 140 years, I have not been able to find a thorough, up-to-date history. I hope that this is a step in the direction of providing one.
The Founding of the African Union Church of Marple
In the mid-1830s, stone mason Thomas Rudolph subdivided and sold 23-acres of land he had acquired on the southeastern edge of Marple Township at the end of the previous decade. Between March 1834 and April 1837, three African American men purchased parcels of land from Rudolph—Charles Brown, John Wesley, and George Ambrose. With these purchases, the nucleus of an African American community in this area of Marple, later known as Hayti (pronounced Hay-tie), was established.[1]
According to a history prepared by Percy O. Batipps Sr. in approximately 1929, the only churches serving Delaware county’s Black population in the 1830s were located in Chester and Paschalville (technically in Philadelphia). Because of this, individuals would meet in each other’s homes to worship, forming congregations. The above-mentioned Charles Brown (ca. 1810-1867), an illiterate farm laborer, appears to have helped organize one of these infant congregations and served as their pastor. In 1838, the congregation constructed what Batipps described as “a quaint little [wood] frame structure,” atop a hill on the 2.5-acre tract of land Brown had purchased in 1834.[2] On February 6, 1839, Brown formally sold a 10 square perch (1/16 of an acre) rectangular plot of land to the four trustees of the African Union Church: William Sadler of Springfield, Absalom Lockwood of Upper Providence, Robert Warwick of Ashtown (Aston), and Selby Howard of Middletown. The congregation’s meeting house was located on this land, and the deed stipulated that the property was to be used for divine worship and burial purposes.[3]
The African Union Church (formally the Union Church of African Members) was a Christian denomination established in 1813 by Peter Spencer and William Anderson in Wilmington, Delaware. The African Union Church broke away from the Methodist Episcopal Church when Spencer and other leaders realized that their Black congregation would be not be allowed to elect their own preachers or church trustees like White Methodist congregations.[4] The African Union Church remained essentially Methodist in its doctrine and rules, but abolished the position of bishop and presiding elder. Congregations were governed by elected lay ruling elders, and three orders of preachers. Elder ministers fulfilled a similar role to Methodist bishops and oversaw all congregations. Deacons were ordained and permitted to preach and baptize, but not administer holy communion. Finally, licensed preachers were unordained members of congregations who were permitted to preach and could be men or women. In a sharp divergence from Methodist practice of the day, preachers were not to be itinerant, but were instead encouraged to settle down and serve a congregation without a salary.[5] Levi J. Coppin, a bishop in the separate African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) noted that the African Union Church’s “preachers would work in the field all week and preach on Sunday…”[6] As an extension of this, congregations and their members were encouraged to be self-reliant and acquire property to support themselves.[7] Charles Brown had been born in Delaware and he may have been brought up in the African Union Church.[8] Indeed, it is not too much of a stretch to suppose that he may have been ordained as a deacon in the church while living in Delaware.
The Congregation’s Early Years, 1839-1867
Few specifics are known about the early years of the African Union Church in Marple (also noted as Springfield in African Union Church records[9]). According to Batipp’s history, a Sunday school was established in 1850. Children remained outside of the church building during services and then came inside afterward for their religious education. On the second Sunday of February, May, August, and November, congregants would journey to Wilmington for the African Union Church’s quarterly meetings.[10] The most important of these quarterly meetings, the August meeting, was and still is known as the Big Quarterly. The Big Quarterly drew church members from as far away as Chester County, with some of the more distant attendees leaving their homes the night before and walking through the night to make it to Wilmington by sunrise. At daybreak was the Methodist lovefeast or fellowship meal, followed throughout the day by three more meetings, which included sermons, hymns, and more.[11] All attendees brought food, which Batipps implies was served as a communal dinner.[12]
There is no known direct evidence relating to the African Union Church or its community to the Underground Railroad, though there is evidence of stations in Marple Township.[13] It seems highly likely that a free Black congregation would have been in a prime position to assist any enslaved people who were in the process of escaping north to freedom. Other congregations in the African Union Church, including the mother church in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Hosanna Church in Oxford Township, Pennsylvania, have been more directly linked to the Underground Railroad and figures such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.[14]
In 1854, Pastor Brown sold the remainder of his land and moved to Upper Providence.[15] While not confirmed, he may have continued to serve as pastor of the Marple church. Despite this, change was underway. In July 1864, the congregation purchased from Felix Velotte a roughly rectangular 0.28-acre lot of land adjoining their original church and burial ground. Batipp wrote that the congregation built a new, larger, stone church, “with more modern touches of architecture,” on this ground near the base of the hill.[16] In an 1884 county history, this new church was described as being 60-x-40 feet.[17] At the time the land was purchased, the congregation had nine trustees—Absalom Lockwood (possibly the same as the 1839 trustee), William L. Johnson, William Miller, George Brown, Noah Stout, Samuel Williams, John A Lockwood, Henry Bradshaw, and Edward Brown—hinting at the probable growth of the church over the preceding 25 years.[18]
New Pastors and a New Name
The last of the trustees mentioned above, Edward Brown (ca. 1837-1892), was listed by Batipps as one of the church’s pastors. Then about 27 years old, he lived near the church with his parents, George and Maria Brown, and may have taken over the pastorship of the African Union Church upon the death of Charles Brown in January 1867.[19] In August 1869, the congregation applied for and received a charter in Delaware County under the name Union American Methodist Church of Marple.[20]
The name change from African Union to Union American Methodist reflects a split in the denomination that occurred in the 1850s and 1860s. One group of churches adopted the new name African Union Methodist Protestant (AUMP) Church while the other, including the Marple church, became the Union American Methodist Episcopal (UAME) Church in 1865. With the change in name came other reforms in the UAME, including the re-establishment of bishops and elders, and the adoption of itinerant preachers, with a two-year term for pastors and salaries.[21]
Little documentation on the Marple UAME Church is readily available for the 1870s and 1880s—even the precise order of pastors is unclear. Batipps lists Rev. Edward Brown after Rev. Charles Brown, and Edward and his wife Rebecca were living near the church in 1870. The next pastor on the list was Rev. Henry Mode (ca.1820-1891), who appears to have lived in South Philadelphia during the 1860s and 1870s.[22] Mode seems to have operated an oyster house in Philadelphia, though he was appointed the pastor of congregations in both Chester and Springfield [the Marple UAME Church] by 1876.[23] He may have been at the church as early as 1875, when he led a camp meeting revival in Swarthmore. A newspaper article from the time referred to him as from Delaware County and called him “an intelligent and popular minister.”[24] An 1878 newspaper article refers to Mode as an elder and Brown as a deacon, perhaps indicating that Brown had charge of the congregation in Marple when no elder minister was present.[25]
The 1880 census enumerated both Brown and Mode in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia.[26] It seems likely that Marple UAME’s next pastor, Francis H. Norton (ca.1834-ca.1898), was serving the church by that time. A native of Maryland, Norton and his family were living in Chester in 1880 and an 1882 newspaper notes that like Mode before him, he was serving as pastor for both the Chester and Marple congregations.[27]
In Henry Graham Ashmead’s History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, published in 1884, a brief historical sketch of Marple UAME was included. According to the book, the pastor at the time was (once again) Rev. Edward Brown and the congregation numbered 28 members.[28] In August 1884, the congregation acquired a 12 square-perch parcel from John Bowman—likely part of the lands Rev. Charles Brown sold in 1854.[29] At some point in the 1880s, Rev. Lebanon A. Purnell (1839-1911), a Civil War veteran, served as pastor, and was followed by Rev. Charles H. Nichols (also spelled Nicholas).[30]
The Marple UAME Church Moves to Media
Charles H. Nichols (1837-1919) was also a Civil War veteran and a native of Delaware.[31] He took charge of the Marple congregation in about 1889, though he was only a deacon as late as April 1891, when he was elected an elder at the annual conference. At that time, he was running a mission in Philadelphia, where he resided, as well as serving as the Marple pastor.[32]
Shortly after Nichols took the helm at Marple UAME, something happened. At the April 1891 annual conference of the UAME Church, trustee Jacob Johnson requested that the conference “aid the church at Marple,” according to an article in the Delaware Gazette & State Journal.[33] In November 1891, the Morton Chronicle reported that “A bazar and entertainment” was to be held that December in Media’s Fifth Street Hall, with the proceeds supporting the “Springfield U.A.M.E. Church.”[34] As the location of the church appears to have been interchangeably referred to as Marple and Springfield, it seems likely that this is referring to the Marple UAME Church.
According to Batipp’s history, “after about twenty-eight years of services, a fire of incendiary nature, destroyed the building…”[35] He follows two paragraphs later by relating how it was decided to build a church in Media as many younger members of the congregation had moved there, presumably due to greater economic opportunity. A lot on North Olive Street was purchased in May 1892 and Isaac Flounders built the present church on that site in 1893.[36]
Numerous histories of the church and cemetery since Batipps presume that the destruction of the Marple church by arson in early 1892 prompted the congregation to purchase the ground for a new church in Media. Despite its ubiquity, there are several issues with this interpretation. Depending on whether you count “about twenty-eight years” from 1864 or 1865, the fire could have occurred between 1891 and 1893. Additionally, Batipps does not present the fire and the purchase of a lot in Media as cause and effect. Coupled with the requests for aid and the fundraiser in 1891 may indicate that the church had already suffered a fire. Finally, a search of newspapers from the first half of 1892—the Philadelphia Inquirer, Delaware County American, Delaware County Democrat, and Morton Chronicle—produced no mentions of a fire. Further research is needed to better understand the transition of the congregation from Marple to Media, though it may turn out that the fire occurred earlier or later than has normally been supposed.
With the official dedication of the new church on North Olive Street in Media on October 1, 1893, the congregation became known as the UAME Church of Media.[37] Pastor Nichols had relocated from Philadelphia to Media the preceding summer and the congregation, which was renamed Trinity UAME Church in 1909, continues to thrive in Media to the present day.[38]
The Cemetery After the Church, 1893-present
While church services may not have been held in Marple anymore, the association between the congregation and the spot was not forgotten. The Philadelphia Inquirer referred to “the ruins of the Hayti Church, in Springfield,” in August 1908[39] and the UAME congregation continued to use their burial ground at the site, which they referred to as Springfield Cemetery. While burials slowly tapered off over the course of the 20th century, it seems that interments may have occurred as late as the early 1950s, with Archie Smith and June Cooper being possible candidates for the last burials in the cemetery.[40]
Around the time of the last burials, the cemetery apparently sustained damage from dynamite blasts in quarries just to the northeast. In 1994, Marple historian Hilda Lucas related to the Philadelphia Inquirer that gravestones were toppled and even coffins were reportedly shaken loose before township officials ended the dynamite blasting.[41]
Not 10 years after the last known burial, local historian Clarissa Smith wrote about Hayti, the Marple UAME congregation, and the church’s cemetery in the Delaware County Daily Times. Smith noted that while the cemetery was gradually “almost forgotten,” there were occasional memorial services. Additionally, each Memorial Day, new American flags were placed on the 12 graves with G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic—a Union veterans association) markers to honor the Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery.[42] In 1969, Elizabeth C. Lodge included a page on the cemetery in her book, Marple’s Heritage 1684-. This is earliest use in print of the name “Hayti Cemetery” that I have seen. In this book, Lodge attributes the placement of flags on Memorial Day to the Marple Memorial Post 805 of the American Legion.[43]
In the ensuing years, the cemetery’s condition slowly deteriorated, with a 1983 report on the township’s historic resources noting that it had “been ravaged by souvenir hunters.”[44] An October 1984 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer went further in describing the effects of neglect and vandalism. “The gravestones, some readable and others weathered away, are toppled among the fallen leaves,” and while the tree-covered hill was peaceful, “beer bottles and cans litter” the ground.[45]
Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the cemetery gained occasional attention in the press, mainly relating to attempts to identify and honor the Civil War veterans buried in the hillside cemetery.[46] In 2015, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the late Rich Paul’s efforts to get protections for the cemetery. Paul, the chair of the Delaware County Historical Commission and vice president for property at the Massey House, tracked down descendants of those buried in the cemetery and reached out to local politicians in addition to organizing cleanups.[47]
In 2019, he worked with Pennsylvania State Representative Jennifer O’Mara, whose district includes the cemetery, to gain recognition for the Hayti Cemetery and other forgotten cemeteries with the passage of H.R. 278, establishing Forgotten Cemetery Day.[48] In recent years, Marple Township has taken over some upkeep of the cemetery and O’Mara has continued to organize an annual cleanup and flag-planting at Memorial Day to honor those interred in the cemetery.
While the UAME church is no-longer located in Hayti, the congregation and their cemetery endure. While the cemetery may be unknown to many in the township today, it has not been totally forgotten due to the efforts of those who continue to care for it and those who, according to Percy Batipps, “rest beneath the rich, luxuriant grass, under the sturdy oak trees with waving branches where the wind plays and near the cooling rill whose merry waters echo the sacred strains of the hymns they use[d] to sing, resting near these sense that they always knew.”[49]
If you have any information relating to the Marple UAME congregation or the Hayti Cemetery (or are a descendant of someone buried there), please feel free to reach out to me at marplehistory@gmail.com. I’d love to include your information, stories, or perspectives.
[1] Michael Parrington, George D. Cress, Tod L. Benedict, Daniel P. Wagner, and Cheryl A. Holt, Mid-County Expressway, Interstate 476, L.R. 1010, Section 300, Archaeological Data Recovery at the Charles Brown Site (36DE73), Delaware County, Pennsylvania ER 82-0773-042 (Prepared by John Milner Associaties/Commonwealth Heritage Group, West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Urban Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Federal Highway Administration and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 2020), 5-6.
[2] Percy O. Batipps Sr., “The History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church, Media, Pa.,” 1, (circa 1929), copy in the possession of the Marple Historical Society, Broomall, Pennsylvania.
[3] Delaware County Deed Book W, 99-100.
[4] Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, “History,” Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, accessed June 2021, https://uamechurch.org/history; Lewis V. Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism: A History of the African Union Methodist Protestant and Union American Methodist Episcopal Churches, 1805-1980 (Metuchen, New Jersey: American Theological Library Association and Scarecrow Press, 1983), 42-47.
[5] Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 47-49.
[6] Levi J. Coppin, quoted in Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 57.
[7] Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 47-49, 65, 67.
[8] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township, sheet 203B, lines 17-22.
[9] Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 59.
[10] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 2.
[11] Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, “History,” Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, accessed June 2021, https://uamechurch.org/history; Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 126-127, 132-133.
[12] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 2.
[13] Clarissa Smith, “Negro Heroes Rest in Marple Plot,” Delaware County Daily Times, 7 April 1961, 6; Parrington et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Charles Brown Site, 10.
[14] Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 64-65.
[15] Parrington et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Charles Brown Site, 9.
[16] Delaware County Deed Book O2, 241-242; Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 2.
[17] Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 582.
[18] Delaware County Deed Book O2, 241-242.
[19] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 4; 1870 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Township, page 10, lines 36-38, page 11, lines 1-2; “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDBH-M8N : 18 February 2021), Edward Brown, 28 Jul 1892, citing cn 2889, Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, FHL microfilm 1,901,919; Parrington et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Charles Brown Site, 10.
[20] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 2.
[21] Baldwin, “Invisible” Strands in African Methodism, 111-112.
[22] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ward 4, Western Division, page 142, line 31; 1870 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Inhabitants, Second Enumeration, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ward 7, Electoral District 19, page 494A, line 14; “Colored Conference,” Delaware Gazette & State Journal [Wilmington, Delaware], 30 April 1891, 3.
[23] Isaac Costa, compiler, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory for 1874 (Philadelphia: James Gopsill, 1874), 955; Isaac Costa, compiler, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory for 1877 (Philadelphia: James Gopsill, 1877), 1041; “The Conference at Newark,” Wilmington Daily Commercial [Wilmington, Delaware], 3 May 1876, 3
[24] “Camp at Swarthmore,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 26 July 1875, 2.
[25] “Conference,” Chester Daily Times, 27 April 1878, 3.
[26] 1880 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ward 22, Enumeration District 454, page 15, line 42; 1880 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ward 22, Enumeration District 446, page 20, line 33.
[27] 1880 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Chester City, Enumeration District 23, page 32, line 14; 1900 U.S. Census, Schedule No. 1.—Population, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Chester City, Ward 1, Enumeration District 143, page 13A, line 47; “Colored Conference,” Daily Republican [Wilmington, Delaware], 1 May 1882, 1; “Property Transfers,” Every Evening [Wilmington, Delaware], 20 October 1896, 3; Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 4.
[28] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 582.
[29] Parrington et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Charles Brown Site, 9-11, 13-14.
[30] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 4; Entry for “Damon A. Purnell,” died 9 April 1911, in “Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1967,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from Pennsylvania (State), Death Certificates, 1906–1963, Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons), Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission); “Lebanon A. Purnell,” Company B, 6th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry, in “U.S., Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1863-1865,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from National Archives at Washington, D.C., Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops, 2nd through 7th Colored Infantry including 3d Tennessee Volunteers (African Descent), 6th Louisiana Infantry (African Descent), and 7th Louisiana Infantry (African Descent), Microfilm Serial: M1820, Microfilm Roll: 83.
[31] Entry for “Rev. Charles H. Nichols,” died 15 December 1919, in “Delaware, U.S., Death Records, 1861-1933,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware, Delaware Vital Records, 1800-1933, Series Number: Death Certificates – 15; “Charles H. Nichols,” Company A, 3rd Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry, in “U.S., Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1863-1865,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from National Archives at Washington, D.C., Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops, 2nd through 7th Colored Infantry including 3d Tennessee Volunteers (African Descent), 6th Louisiana Infantry (African Descent), and 7th Louisiana Infantry (African Descent), Microfilm Serial: M1820, Microfilm Roll: 24.
[32] “U. A. M. E. Conference Appointments,” Evening Journal [Wilmington, Delaware], 30 April 1889, 3; “Colored Conference,” Delaware Gazette & State Journal, 30 April 1891, 3.
[33] “Colored Conference,” Delaware Gazette & State Journal, 30 April 1891, 3.
[34] “Local News,” Morton Chronicle [Morton, Pennsylvania], 26 November 1891, 3.
[35] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 3.
[36] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 3.
[37] “Dedication To-Morrow,” Chester Times (Chester, Pennsylvania), 30 September 1898, 1.
[38] “Suburban News,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 July 1893, 13; Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 3.
[39] “Assailant of Woman in Upper Providence Regarded Demented,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 16 August 1908, 4a.
[40] “Archie Smith,” obituary, Chester Times, 25 May 1951, 2; Find a Grave, online database, page for June Copper, Find a Grave Memorial no. 185131665, https://www.findagrave.com.
[41] Robert F. O’Neill, “Seclusion is only a memory for a tiny black enclave,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 June 1994, MD1-MD2.
[42] Clarissa Smith, “Negro Heroes Rest in Marple Plot,” Delaware County Daily Times, 7 April 1961, 6.
[43] Elizabeth C. Lodge, Marple’s Heritage 1684- (Philadelphia: T. A. McElwee (printer), 1969), 19.
[44] Delaware County Planning Department, Report of the Findings of the Delaware County Historic Resources Survey for Marple Township, (Prepared by and for the Delaware County Planning Department, 1983), 12.
[45] Maura C. Ciccarelli, “The notables and oddballs down under,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 October 1984, 2-M, 3-M, 4-M.
[46] Joseph S. Kennedy, “A long tradition of black military service,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 February 1990, 30-M, 31-M; Robert F. O’Neill, “A search for hidden Delco history,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 November 1997, B1, B3; Chani Katzen, Philadelphia Inquirer, 25 February 2001, MD2.
[47] Kristin E. Holmes, “Paying A Cemetery Respects,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 June 2015, B1-B2.
[48] Pennsylvania General Assembly, House, Designating May 4, 2019, as “Forgotten Cemetery Day” in Pennsylvania, HR 278, 2019 sess., introduced in House 30 April 2019, https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2019&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=R&billNbr=0278&pn=1616.
[49] Batipps, “History of Trinity U. A. M. E. Church,” 3.