History of Zion Hill Cemetery

History of Zion Hill Cemetery. . , Established in 1920, Zion Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of many residents of Columbia's "Tow Hill" neighborhood., Prior to 1920, Columbia Borough was maintaining a "Colored Cemetery" located across the street from Mt Bethel Cemetery at Bethel and Cherry Streets (now part of Janson's Park). The original cemetery reached capacity, requiring then establishment of a new cemetery, which was originally referred to as "The Borough's Plot at Purple's Lane". Within a year the name was changed to Zion Hill., Burials occurred from the 1920's through the 1940's. Official burial records for the cemetery have been lost, therefor it is impossible to verify if gravestones mark the actual location of their owner's grave. Also, there are numerous unmarked graves located throughout the cemetery - some being marked by crosses. Review of obituaries and death certificates have shown there are over 160 burials here., Zion Hill Cemetery remained the primary burial ground for Columbia's Black population into the 1940's. After this time the cemetery was abandoned, became overgrown and was forgotten. In the 1970's the cemetery became a point of controversy when Route 30 was being built. Numerous headstones were reportedly moved, piled alongside trees or destroyed., In 1997, for his Eagle Scout project, Stephen Maule organized a group to clean and reclaim the cemetery from overgrowth. In 2000 the Columbia Rangers began maintaining the cemetery and doing a yearly clean-up project., In 2022 the Columbia Borough and the Columbia Historic Preservation Society began a restoration project to preserve the cemetery and redesign it as a memorial park. Here we now honor the people that played a significant part in the shaping of Columbia's history and we will learn of the many contributions made by those that resided in Columbia's "Tow Hill" neighborhood., Who Was the First Burial? ,

. First Burial in Borough Plot , Jared Alexander, colored Civil War veteran, was buried this afternoon in the borough plot in Purple's Lane, his being the first body to be interred in that cemetery. The plot also contains a few bodies exhumed and taken from the old burying ground in Cherry Street., . Albert Taylor, a four-month old infant who died on the 3rd of June,1920 has an obituary stating his is "the first body to be buried in the new cemetery". After review of his death certificate it was determined he was buried in Mt Bethel Cemetery., . The burial notice dated the 12th of June 1920, for Civil War Soldier Private Jared Alexander of CO F 32nd USC Infantry states he was the "first burial in the Borough Plot". This death notice also states "the plot contains a few bodies exhumed and taken from the old burial ground". This accounts for the tombstones located in Zion Hill dated for deaths prior to the establishment of the cemetery., . "First in New Cemetery" is the title of the obituary of Taylor Makle. He died on the 14th of December, 1921 (18 months after Jared Alexander). It is believed he is the first burial after the name change of the cemetery.