Mt. Olivet Cemetery’s Deep Roots Grow Community
By Marc Charisse, Ph.D.
Death was a part of everyday life when Mt. Olivet Cemetery was founded in 1859.
And those in charge of Hanover’s nondenominational cemetery today would like to see it again become a center of community, bringing together the past and the present, the living and dead, to celebrate life’s eternal lessons.
“Feel free to come visit, even if you don’t have people here,” says cemetery board vice president Olivia Rebert-Blake. “It’s 60 acres of peace and quiet.”
In the years before the Civil War, many towns were running out of space in churchyards. Across the country, rural cemeteries were built in a Transcendentalist-inspired return to nature. There were, of course, hygienic reasons to remove the dead from crowded towns. But the philosophical reasons were even more important, historian Garry Wills insists.
“The new cemetery would be a place of frequent resort for the living, who would commune with nature as a way of finding life in death,” Wills writes. “The associations of a rural site would instill healing truths, of natural death and rebirth, in the cycle of the seasons.”
In that spirit, a new Hanover cemetery was founded on land donated by the McAllister and Rudisill families south of town, but still within walking distance. The living could visit loved ones in a natural setting ideal for family gatherings and even Sunday picnics.
A volunteer board was appointed to administer the cemetery, and many, including Hanover’s founder, Richard McAllister, were reburied there. Named for the Mount of Olives—where Jesus is expected to return at the Resurrection—the cemetery offers inspiring views of church steeples in the town below rising to the thick forests of the hills beyond.
Hanover-area native Rebert-Blake joined the board nearly three years ago with the goal to return this place of eternity to a center of community life in the here and now. Death can be an uncomfortable subject these days, but the cemetery remains a place of beauty and history—a peaceful spot where the living can come and feel the presence of those who came before.
And even have a family picnic.
A collapsed marble picnic bench built in the 19th century for family gathering still adorns one plot.
Rebert-Blake invites the community to walk Mt. Olivet’s three miles of roads, repaired last year with a J. William Warehime Foundation grant. And there are community events—a recent veterans tribute, a blessing of pets and a mausoleum open house, for example. There have even been a couple of weddings at the cemetery chapel, Rebert-Blake says.
Still, many locals don’t realize Mt. Olivet is open to the community, and many even mistakenly believe the cemetery has long been full, she says.
These days, in addition to traditional burials, the cemetery offers an eco-friendly “Treemation,” where ashes are buried in a biodegradable urn with a tree planted over it. Veterans are offered free burial plots, and there is even a two-for-one coupon on Mt. Olivet’s website.
Work preserving the past continues as well, under the supervision of the cemetery’s general manager, Travis Cook.
A stone mason has been hired to restore damaged graves, and last year the Daughters of the American Revolution marked graves of patriots who fought for independence. Grand Army of the Republic markers have been recast, and the graves of about 90 percent of Civil War veterans are marked, estimates Cook.
Cook was running a local hardware store when Rebert-Blake offered him the job. There’s still some sales involved, but it’s more about preserving history and creating community.
“It brings people peace,” he says of the cemetery. “It doesn’t matter what your name is—everybody is equal here.”
On the tree-lined south side of the cemetery lies ground not suitable for in-ground graves that will be turned into a Remembrance Park. Footpaths will wind through the plantings, Treemation trees and columbarium. It is already a favorite place for rabbits, fox and deer.
Rebert-Blake says the deer sometimes visit graves and eat the flowers left by visitors. But she doesn’t mind.
“People think their loved one is alone,” she observes. “But they’re not.”
Trove of Local History
Mt. Olivet Cemetery, 725 Baltimore St., is open to visitors from sunrise to sunset seven days a week. Here are a just a few of the interred folks to keep an eye out for on your visit:
Col. Richard McAllister
Hanover founder and Revolutionary War veteran
Mary Shaw Leader
Journalist who reported on President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
John Luther Long
Lawyer, playwright and novelist whose short story “Madame Butterfly” inspired the famous opera
John and William Hoffacker
John was killed at the 1863 Battle of Hanover and his brother William died in 1865 after being wounded at Spotsylvania, Virginia.
Mt. Olivet residents include town founders, community leaders and “Snacktown” families whose names are still familiar. Names like Eichelberger, Forney, Gitt, Myers, Sheppard, Rice, Snyder, Warehime, Utz and so many more. How many can you identify?
https://www.mtolivetcemeteryassociation.org
Marc Charisse, Ph.D. is the former editor of The Evening Sun in Hanover. Dr. Charisse has a Ph.D. in communications and journalism history. These days, he performs magic and conducts local history and ghost tours.
