Vandegrift Cemetery, Bensalem

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Located in:
Bensalem

Street address:
Bristol Pike (Rt. 13) & Cornwells Ave., Bensalem, PA 19020

GPS location:
Latitude: 40.07690
Longitude: -74.95217

Ownership
unknown

Burial summary
Number of burials: 326 +-
First burial: 1775
Last burial: ongoing

Contact information:


Web address:
Unknown

Original burial records:
Location unknown

Other references:
A list of gravestone inscriptions is in the BCGS database.

The Bensalem Historical Society has information on this cemetery.

A headstone transcription can be found at usgwarchives.

This cemetery is on Findagrave.

Entries in our database were taken from "A Compilation of Bensalem Cemeteries" by Sally VanSant Sondesky, donated to BCGS by the author. Click here to view the entire document.

Click here to view or download a map showing the location of all of the Bensalem cemeteries.


Comments
This cemetery was established about 1775. About 20 years before this Indian trail was turned into the Kings Highway which eventually became Frankford Avenue (in Bucks County it is Bristol Pike or Rt. 13.) In the late 1700s, it probably made sense to put a cemetery next to the newly completed Kings Highway, because this was all undeveloped Indian land. Today, it is most unusual, off to the side of a major road with no seeming affiliation with any church. Its 296 interments are from a church, yet there is no church nearby. One Hundred Three of the folks buried here are Vandegrifts. Another nine are VanSants. Although there are only a few VanSants buried here, there were many marriages between the two families dating back to the early 1700's. Around the time when both families migrated from New Utrecht in the New Netherlands to Bucks County and points farther south. Therefore, a large number of Vandegrifts may carry VanSant blood. This small area is a reminder of Bensalem's early settlers. Early burial records have been lost, but you can still read the names on some of the gravestones. The cemetery is well tended.


Thanks to volunteer Peg Felter for gathering information on this cemetery



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