Bruce Harrison has an affinity for the Pennington African Cemetery, which is a small historic cemetery tucked away behind 417 S. Main Street at the edge of Pennington Borough.
Many of his ancestors – including his grandfather, Albert Thomas Witcher – are buried in the cemetery, which was set aside for members of Pennington’s black community in the 19th and 20th centuries.
So when Harrison needed to find a project to complete the requirements for Eagle Scout – the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America – it was natural to propose cleaning up and preserving the Pennington African Cemetery.
And that’s exactly what Harrison did.
The Hopewell Valley Central High School senior gathered up some of the younger Boy Scouts in Boy Scout Troop 44 to collect information on those who are buried in the cemetery. They also built a bench, installed a flagpole and American flag, and added landscaping.
“The number one reason for this project is that I have a strong connection with the Pennington African Cemetery. Ever since I can remember, my grandfather spent his time taking care of it,” said Harrison, who often accompanied his late grandfather to the cemetery.
“It’s a small historic cemetery, and no one really thinks about it,” Harrison said. “These people – all of them – contributed to Pennington’s history. I don’t want them to be forgotten. I feel like their history should be preserved and taken care of.”
Harrison’s Eagle Scout project is not the first one to focus on the Pennington African Cemetery.
An earlier Eagle Scout project, organized by another Boy Scout, resulted in the installation of a bench at the cemetery. Harrison and the younger Scouts built another bench and reinstalled the one that was already there.
“A lot of people go to the cemetery and they want to sit near their loved ones,” Harrison said. Descendants of some of the people who are buried there are still living in the area. The last burial took place in the 1960s.
But perhaps the most challenging aspect of Harrison’s Eagle Scout project was tracking down the names of the members of the black community who are buried in the cemetery.
Harrison said some of the headstones are still standing, but many headstones are non-existent or the inscriptions are unreadable. Where it was possible, the Scouts wrote down the information that they could read on the headstones.
To fill in the gaps, Harrison turned to the Blackwell Memorial Home, up the street on N. Main Street in Pennington Borough. The Scouts looked through the records kept by the funeral home, and wrote down the information. The records are hand-written, and sometimes the handwriting was difficult to read, he said.
“[The information in the records] was also sad. There was a lung disease going around, and it killed a lot of young people. There were people who were my age, maybe some who were older, and some young children who died,” Harrison said.
Harrison also wrote down information on the military veterans who are buried in the Pennington African Cemetery. He wrote down the veteran’s name, date, the regiment and branch of the military, and rank. There are at least 10 Civil War veterans buried there who served in the U.S. Colored Troops in the Union Army.
All of the information that Harrison and the Boy Scouts compiled for his Eagle Scout project has been recorded on www.billiongraves.com, for future generations to read. It is one way to keep their memories alive, he said.
“We don’t want them to be lost. The headstones don’t last forever. The body dies and it is buried, but a person doesn’t die until you are completely forgotten in time. If someone has memories or stories about you, you never die,” he said.
Of the Pennington African Cemetery, Harrison said, those who are buried there made their contributions and they should be remembered. “Their final resting place should be taken care of, like everyone else’s,” he said.