St. John's Cemetery

St. John's Cemetery. . , This property is one of the earliest developed sites in Hagerstown. St. John's Episcopal Church stood here from the 1780s until around 1830, when a new church was constructed on South Jonathan Street (Summit Avenue). When that church burned in the early 1870s, a third church was constructed on South Prospect Street which stands today. The earliest marked graves in this cemetery date to the 1780s. Civil War notables buried here include:, Isaac Nesbitt (1804-1866) - Nesbitt was the Clerk of the Washington County Circuit Court and a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. He was one of the local leaders who negotiated and dealt with General McCausland when the Confederates ransomed Hagerstown in July, 1864., Captain Alexander H. Nesbitt (ca. 1834-1863) - The son of Isaac, Captain Nesbitt commanded Company 1, 1st Maryland Cavalry, USA. He died of natural causes in March, 1863, and his marker attests to his service in the Union army., Jesse Barnes Wharton (ca. 1834-1862) - A former lieutenant in the U.S. Army who served in the Utah Campaign of 1858-59, Wharton was arrested by the Lincoln Administration as an alleged spy and confined in Old Capitol Prison in Washington. On April 20, 1862, he violated prison rules by standing at the window of his cell, at which time he taunted the guards by launching into a tirade against the Federal Government. After warnings to stop, he dared the guards to shoot him. Private Ambrose Baker obliged, shooting and killing Wharton., Claggett Dorsey Fitzhugh (1834-1917) -Wharton's brother-in-law, Fitzhugh worked at a furnace at Mont Alto, Pennsylvania and has been described as a "slave catcher." In October 1859, he and another man captured John E. Cook (one of John Brown's raiders escaping from Harpers Ferry) near Mont Alto. This is ironic since Fitzhugh was a close relative of abolitionist Gerrit Smith; one of Brown's financial backers: Fitzhugh served in the Confederate cavalry and was captured at Sharpsburg. In 1864, he and 599 fellow Confederate officers were placed in front of Union artillery works at Charleston, SC as "human shields" to deter Confederate bombardment. In Civil War lore, the group became known as "The Immortal 600.", (captions) , When the St. John's property appeared on a map of the City published in 1850, the church had already been demolished, and the area to the south was still used as a burying ground for the Lutheran and Methodist communities. The lands across Mulberry Street became the grounds of Kee Mar College two years later. City of Hagerstown, The graves of Jesse Wharton (left) and Claggett D. Fitzhugh (right) City of Hagerstown . This historical marker was erected by Maryland Heritage Area. It is in Hagerstown in Washington County Maryland