For the past several months I have been documenting all the veterans buried in the six cemeteries served by the Tyrone American Legion and VFW. The documentation will be used to ensure enough U.S. Flags are ordered and placed on each veteran’s grave in the spring. As I walked the cemeteries row by row, I began to find veterans of all wars that did not have their medallion (Flag Holder) beside their headstone. The medallion indicates which war they served in: Revolutionary, Civil, 1812, Spanish American, Indian, World Wars I and II, Korean, Vietnam, and The War on Terror. I found that over 400 graves were missing their respective medallions.
While talking to a very good friend about being through all the local cemeteries, he mentioned that there was an old cemetery in Antis Township, but near Tyrone, that had at least one veteran in it. I had never heard about it and wanted to check it out.
Five-foot brush along the Norfolk Southern
Located beside the main line of the Norfolk Southern railroad and surrounded by fields on the other three sides, was what I thought might be the cemetery. I say “thought” because I had to fight my way through five-foot high brush, briars, and weeds; but I found a gravestone. Thirty minutes later I found a few more. The brush was so thick that finding and reading the gravestones was nearly impossible. Eventually I came across the biggest find of the day—a stone that read Mt. Zion 1807–1957. I had seen that name mentioned in the records of veterans, but did not know it was in the Tyrone area.
My friend, Gene Caber, and I spent some time clearing out the overgrowth and uncovering the stone naming and dating the grounds. We then pursued the question of ownership and any more history we could find about this site.
1957 cleanup, 1997 Eagle Scout, missing monument shaft
The first person I spoke to was Mary Bruner, the go-to person in Antis Township. She was a tremendous help. She had articles from the September 5, 1957, Altoona Mirror and the December 28, 1957, Pennsylvania Farmer describing the first attempt at resurrecting the cemetery in September 1957. At that time a group of veterans from the Tyrone American Legion and the VFW worked with the local residents of Fuoss Mills on the cleanup. Carl Ray Jr., a Tyrone WWII veteran, made a gift of a 6-foot-high 800-pound monument with the inscription “Mt. Zion 1807–1957” on it. The most recent grave was dated 1911 and no one seemed to be maintaining the cemetery.
In 1997, P.J. Bobak, from Boy Scout Troop 29 in Bellwood, renovated the cemetery as an Eagle Scout project. At that time, an article in the Altoona Mirror noted that the shaft from the monument erected in 1957 was missing. Only the base with “Mt. Zion 1807–1957” on it was there, as I had seen. Mary gave me a U.S. Flag that was supposed to be flown over the cemetery after the ceremony but a large tree had fallen, crushing the flagpole, and it was never replaced. I now have the flag—and want to see it flying from a pole there one day soon.
According to the article from the Pennsylvania Farmer, the earliest date of interment was 1802 and there are supposedly fifty-five veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 buried there. After an extensive search these numbers still have not been verified.
Tracing the church
I made visits to the Blair County Genealogical Society and the Blair County Courthouse where some discrepancy of records exists. The Tax Records office shows Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, still an active congregation in Altoona, is the present owner of this plot of land; but at the Registrar of Deeds office there is a deed showing the Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church selling a parcel of the land to the PRR in 1846 for $500.
I made contact with Deacon Jones and Pastor Moore of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Altoona, who told me they had heard of the cemetery, and thought they had a deed but had never seen the cemetery. I explained what we were doing and asked for their permission to carry on with our quest. Both were very pleased and told me to keep them in the loop.
I also contacted Milton Loyer, historian for the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church. He had verification in the 1876 Journal of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church referencing the building of the Mount Zion Church in 1841 and mentioning by name many of those now buried there. It was also mentioned in a 1980 pamphlet from the Tipton United Methodist Church that they were celebrating 100 years in their building but the church was started in 1834 as The First Methodist Episcopal Church in Mount Zion, Huntingdon (now Blair) County. “A church building was erected and a burial ground laid out near what is now known as Fuoss Mills.” It mentions the original church building being razed in 1849 for the railroad right of way and that the congregation obtained a plot of ground in Tipton.
Three Civil War graves and family ties
Meanwhile, in Soldiers of Blair County by Floyd G. Hoenstine I found the names of three men from the Civil War who are buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery: Ezra Beyer, Sanford Beyer, and Frederick Goss. I wanted to find their graves. Not knowing who owned those grounds, my friend Gene Caber and I decided to go in and start the search. The only way to properly do this was to clear the land of the brush, briars, and weeds. We felt that no one would complain about these improvements.
To date, Gene and I have invested over 26 man-hours and we are very pleased with what has been accomplished. Our first goal was to find the veterans and that has been done. Secondly, we wanted to place an American Flag at each veteran’s gravesite, and that goal has been met thanks to the Tyrone American Legion.
I returned to the Blair County Genealogical Society hoping to find information on the soldiers in Mt. Zion Cemetery and was able to trace their line of descent. I learned that a good friend of Gene’s and mine is a direct descendant of Ezra and Sanford Beyer, and a week later I learned that another friend is the direct line from Fredrick Goss. Truly, what a small world this is. That connection makes this adventure even more important to us.
Recently, I was at G&R Excavating and Demolition, Inc. of Tyrone and inquired about the possibility of getting a pipe that could be made into a flagpole. I was delighted to find they actually had an aluminum flagpole available, so Mt. Zion Cemetery now has a replacement pole ready for installation in the spring. I have also approached Boy Scout Troop 320, sponsored by the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tyrone. They have volunteered to assist us in the next spring with a massive cleanup.
The night stars are once again visible and the soil sun-warmed by day. After the dawn of the new year, people who care will return to restore order to these hallowed grounds.
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