Huston Township Cemetery Sparks Interest

A long narrow strip of dark soil in the middle of what is now a corn field in Huston Township is causing a stir of different sorts for two men.

For Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genealogical Society, the Dilling Cemetery located on what is now the Brent and Betsy Baker farm, a stone’s throw from the Smithfield Church, is the latest in a growing list of undiscovered or forgotten small graveyards. For Allen Edwards, it is the beginning of a multi-year restoration project.

“These small family-owned cemeteries are something you used to see on many farms,” said Snyder as he paced along the 30-foot long by 12-foot wide plot littered with a few fallen headstones.

Snyder started a campaign to document as many of the old sites as possible a couple of years ago when he realized his interest was shared by residents in almost every community in Blair County.

To date, he has documented 27 graveyards in North Woodbury Township, and while the numbers are smaller for neighboring Huston Township, the number for Blair County is 232 “and growing.”

For Edwards the effort is more personal. His research is turning up a close link to the Dilling family, one of the first and most successful lineages in Morrisons Cove.

He marvels at one of the headstones with the words “Catherine D. Dilling,” who died at age 76 years, 6 months and 19 days.

“Look at that,” he said as he pointed to smaller engraving under Catherine’s name. “Life’s Labor is Done.”

Casper — likely a junior — Virginia and Suzannah, all Dillings, are likely buried at the site, Snyder said.

Using dowsing rods, similar to those peach, willow or witch hazel sticks used by dowsers to locate underground water sources, Snyder determined that there are eight people buried in the Dilling site. Relying on a few old records found of the site, he originally believed there were four or five.

Using a pendulum he ascertained the genders as four male and four female.

The Dilling cemetery is the second one Snyder has used divining to determine the number and gender of the graves.

Six of those just located by Snyder are believed to be members of the Dilling family while a male and a female are people by the name of Rodman who were employed by the Dillings.

While all of the graves at one point had headstones of some composition marking the names and site of burial, just a few, likely cut from marble or granite, exist at the site today.

The cemetery was documented about 90 years ago, Snyder said.

A Claysburg area man by the name of Archie Claar was hired as part of the federal government’s project to survey and document cemeteries in Bedford County and in Blair as far as east Altoona, Snyder said.

Records show Claar’s work started in the early 1930s and ended in 1947.

The original Dilling farmhouse has been razed and replaced by one several yards away but as he looked over the horizon, Edwards said it made sense to him that the cemetery would be situated where it is.

“Where the house was located, they could look out the back and see the cemetery,” he said.

With the blessing of the Bakers, Edwards plans to bring the cemetery back to its original state, as much as possible.

He hopes to mark the graves and use parts of the old, Victorian style iron fencing still on the property. He plans to incorporate some more modern materials to define the boundary lines of the site.

As he approaches his 70s, Edwards is hopeful he can attract the interest of a local Boy Scout troop looking for a public works project.

“This isn’t something that is going to happen overnight” he said.

Snyder encourages anyone with information about this cemetery or others in Blair County contact him at the society at (814) 696-3492.

Edwards can be reached at (814) 832-3574.