Tucked away a few blocks south of Route 462 in Wrightsville, Mount Pisgah Cemetery holds history on its grounds. The cemetery marks the final resting place of 50 veterans, with a dozen dating back to the Civil War. Historically, it was a Black cemetery, receiving the bodies that were forbidden burial in the neighboring white cemeteries during segregation.

Growing up in the Wrightsville area, Phil Lehman knew of the cemetery along Mulberry Street, but he didn't know much about it. "It was always called the 'Black cemetery,'" he said. When he became involved with the Wrightsville Cemetery Association, a 501(c)(3) organization, years ago, he learned its official name. "Mount Pisgah" comes from a reference in the Bible to the mountain Moses climbed to view the Promised Land.

"I want people to know about this place," said Lehman. "We're trying to educate people about what's here."

Along with Civil War veterans, the cemetery contains the graves of three Spanish-American War veterans, as well as veterans from World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

"People should know what this place is about and the history here," said Lehman, a veteran who served with the Navy Seabees.

While the Wrightsville Cemetery Association maintains and operates the cemetery - which still has plots available - Lancaster resident Warren Taylor is the caretaker. His father, Warren C. Taylor, was a World War II veteran and his grandfather James Taylor served in the Spanish-American War. Both are buried on-site. After absorbing the cost of cemetery maintenance for years, Warren approached the Wrightsville Borough Council in 2019 and asked it to take over the cemetery upkeep. Soon, the Wrightsville Cemetery Association, which owns and maintains the Fairview Cemetery in Wrightsville, stepped in, with Warren still playing an active role with the site. Numerous individuals and organizations help with the cemetery as well, including members of the Riverside Masonic Lodge 503 in Wrightsville, who have begun the time-intensive work of cleaning stones under the direction of Duane Raber. The Rotary Club of Eastern York helped raise funds to replace the roof on a small shed on the property that stores the lawn equipment to maintain the grounds, and two students from Eastern York High School currently mow the grass in the warmer months.

This past December, members of the Wrightsville Cemetery Association, American Legion Post 469 and others participated in Wreaths Across America at the cemetery.

To help tell the cemetery's story, Maxine Cook and Brandi Berry from Lincoln University are working on a website that should be up and running in the near future, and additional support for the cemetery is being provided by the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery in York and staff members from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology who have relatives buried on the site.

Lehman hopes more people in the community will support the cemetery with financial donations to maintain the grounds and restore the grave markers. "We're hoping to find some of the stones that are most likely buried in the ground," he said. "That's what happens over time, especially to the flat markers. We're also hoping to continue cleaning up the stones, because some of them are so old, you can hardly read them, but the people buried here deserve to be remembered."

To learn more or to support the cemetery, contact Lehman at 717-992-2042 or cbphil71@gmail.com.