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Incorporated in 1844, the Allegheny Cemetery is the sixth oldest rural cemetery in the United States. It has been expanded over the years and now encompasses 300 acres.
Allegheny Cemetery memorializes more than 124,000 people. Some of the oldest graves are of soldiers who fought in the French and Indian War. Their remains were reinterred here, moved from their original burial site at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh. Many notables from the city of Pittsburgh are buried here. The cemetery was among those profiled in the PBS documentary A Cemetery Special.
In 1834 three members of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Dr. J. Ramsey Speer, Stephen Colwell and John Chislett Sr. determined to establish a rural cemetery near Pittsburgh. Dr. Speer later visited several famous rural cemeteries, Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. In 1842 the group selected the 100-acre farm of Colonel Bayard for the site. An Act of Incorporation passed the Pennsylvania Legislature and was signed by Gov. David R. Porter on April 24, 1844.
"Mt. Barney" was selected as the site of a memorial to naval heroes in 1848, and Commodore Joshua Barney and Lt. James L. Parker were reinterred there. On Memorial Day, 1937, a new memorial was unveiled at Allegheny Cemetery, dedicated to the more than 7,000 servicemen buried here.
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