Ancient cemetery to get some tender care
Milford. Fran Stoveken plans to spruce up The Quicktown Cemetery, which was established circa 1826, and located just a block or so from the historic Charles Pierce House in Milford.
Milford /
| 28 Sep 2020 | 11:53
The Quicktown Cemetery in Milford (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
Old tombstone with new flag (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
Fran Stoveken’s tree service recently cut down a tree in the cemetery (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
A bit of bone resting among the graves (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
Old graves at The Quicktown Cemetery (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
The Sequoia Tree Service truck in the parking lot next to the cemetery. The tree service is run by Fran Stoveken, who recently cut down a tree in the cemetery. (Photo by Frances Ruth Harris)
Fran Stoveken plans to spruce up The Quicktown Cemetery, the circa 1826 cemetery that he owns, and where the long-ago ancestors of some local residents might be resting.
Stoveken also owns and operates Sequoia Tree Service, located adjacent to the cemetery, on the old Milford Road in Westfall Township, just a block or so from the historic Charles Pierce House owned by the National Park Service. It’s also known also as the Westbrook Farm Burying Ground.
A reader who works across the street saw work going on there and called the Courier, upset at the prospect that the cemetery was being damaged. But just the opposite is happening.
Stoveken took down a tree down in the cemetery and hopes to encircle it with a wrought iron fence. Don Quick, a former Milford supervisor, told Stoveken he thought some of his relatives might be buried there, as “the Quick family sold all the land Grey Towers is on to Pinchot,” Stoveken said.
The Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford was once home to the family of Gifford Pinchot, who served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, the first head of the U.S. Forest Service, and the 28th governor of Pennsylvania
Stoveken said the National Park Service recently conducted seismic tests at the cemetery to determine if it would be possible to put a utility pipe underneath
An exposed bone rests atop the graves, a bit of something to ponder as we enter the season where our thoughts naturally turn to graveyard mysteries.
Editor’s note: The original story was in error regarding the name of the cemetery. It is the Quicktown, not Quicktime, Cemetery. The Courier regrets the error.