Beverly Wyld wrote: > Charles, > I work at a small gift shop located on North Union Street, Middletown. > This is part of the Aaron Hoffer farm ........ before the bend right > before the creek and the road becomes Fiddler's Elbow and continues into > Hummelstown. I have been told by the shop owner and a neighbor that > comes into the shop that there is a cemetery located on the property > across the street. I have looked at the 1875 atlas and perhaps this was > a Nissley farm at one time. The shop owner has said the tombstones are > in German, they are located in the trees. Are you able to figure out the > location from my description and do you know of the cemetery? I asked > about a name and she didn't know one. I just am curious as to what the > information there is about the cemetery. I believe maybe Stewart or > Steward (quarry owners) now own the piece of land, not sure. There is a > big old limestone farmhouse similar to the Hoffer home on the property. > Thanks. > Beverly Wyld > I am aware of the Abner Cassel farm cemetery but don't think this is it. > Beverly et al: The location you describe may be in either Lower, or Swatara Townships, where over six Nissley/Nisley Mansions (farmhouses) were built in the earl to mid 1800's. Nisley's and Swartz's intermarried, with a Swartz Mansion "overlooking the Swatara Creek". "When Martin Nisley died in 1825, he was buried in the family burial plot on a high hill overlooking Elbow Farm. His, and later his wife Elizabeth's gravestone was inscribed in German, indicating that it was their primary language." Excerpts from Margaret Clark Reynolds' publication "....The Nisley Family and its Architecture in the Lower Swatara Creek Basin." She describes the mansions in detail. These writings all indicate the Nissley mansions were in Lower Swatara Township, but the Hummelstown Sun's obituary for Martin 'Big Mart' Nisley in 1892 noted that he was "a prominent citizen of Swatara Township...." Samuel Nisley's will specifically mentioned the "graveyard on said plantation (on the 1846 Elbow farm) which shall be kept in good fence at all times hereafter by my son, Martin." Big Mart Nisley was also buried in this little graveyard behind his 1846 childhood home, overlooking the beautiful Swatara Creek and the surrounding land of his forebears. E.W.S. Parthemore transcribed the tombstone inscriptions, printing then in 1895 in the Dauphin County Historical Society's minutes as a lecture given on the subject. Those transcriptions can be viewed on my Nissley web page: <http://home.att.net/~charliefies/Nissley.html> Oh, is this the burial ground you are making reference to? If so, can you get some digital pictures of what's left? -- Regards, CHARLES EARL FIES -- Fies Family Fotos <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/> FIES/FEES Family History Research Site <http://www.fies-fees.org> BABB - HARTMAN <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Babbs.html> DAUPHIN CO. CEMETERIES <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/DauphinCo.html> ERNST-GRUBER <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Ernsts.html> Forgotten Cemeteries <http://home.att.net/~charliefies/Forgotten.html> FRASCELLA -- <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Frascella.html> HARTMAN <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Hartman.html> SCHLEGEL-PETERS <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/EarlPete.html> SNYDER-JONES <http://home.att.net/~chasfies/ermafies.html> SWARTZ / SCHWARTZ <http://home.att.net/~charliefies/Swartz.html> WIELAND-YOUNG-STONER<http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Wealands.html> ZIMMERMAN - Berks Co PA<http://home.att.net/~chasfies/Zimmerman.html>