Friends of Cooper's Farm Cemetery Association

Friends of Cooper's Farm Cemetery Association Purpose of this organization is to restore, preserve, conserve and maintain Cooper's Farm Cemetery The cemetery was established on the farm of Samuel B.

"Cooper Cemetery" was incorporated on March 5, 1867 by the Delaware General Assembly. Cooper, located about 2 miles west of the village of Willow Grove, to accommodate the neighborhood. The cemetery has also been called Coopers Farm Cemetery, Cooper Farm Cemetery and Coopers Cemetery. This distressed cemetery is located on private land almost 400' from the road in the woods. There have been no bur

ials in almost 80 years. The cemetery is overgrown and there has been extensive damage to headstones due to fallen limbs and whole trees. This group has been initiated to gain the support and elicit the help we need to clean up this cemetery and (with proper training) clean the headstones and repair as many as possible. For a list of known burials and pictures of the headstones, follow this link to Findagrave.com https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1984949/memorial-search?page=1 -93753626

The cemetery sat untouched for many years. Since September 2020, a small group of volunteers has cleared the cemetery of brush, briars, fallen trees and limbs and continues to mow it. In addition, the cemetery has been mapped and each individual gravestone has been surveyed. Many of the gravestones are damaged by being knocked over, broken and tilted/sunken. Our goal is to repair and reset the gravestones that need work and we will clean the gravestones. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has discovered 20-25 unmarked graves in the west end of the cemetery. It is our intention to somehow mark these graves. In addition, we would like to put up a new fence, as well as a sign. We are accepting donations to help us meet these goals.

03/12/2026

Happy Almost Spring!! We’re going to be working in cemetery this Sunday 15th at 9. If you would like to come out and help, please send me a message.

Shout out to Rich Ford for mowing the cemetery this morning in this heat! Thank you!!
06/25/2025

Shout out to Rich Ford for mowing the cemetery this morning in this heat! Thank you!!

Friday I had the privilege of giving Pamela Cooper Banning and her son Gordon a tour of the cemetery. They came all the ...
12/02/2024

Friday I had the privilege of giving Pamela Cooper Banning and her son Gordon a tour of the cemetery. They came all the way from Virginia just to see their ancestors’ gravestones. They are descended from Samuel B Cooper Sr and his wife Mary. Thank you to Pam for her generous donation!

Peter Servon worked on resetting a row of footstones. Thank you Pete for your hard work! It looks great!
11/07/2024

Peter Servon worked on resetting a row of footstones. Thank you Pete for your hard work! It looks great!

We did a little work in the cemetery yesterday. The nearly buried headstone of Nathan Cook proved to be quite the challe...
11/07/2024

We did a little work in the cemetery yesterday. The nearly buried headstone of Nathan Cook proved to be quite the challenge to extract from the ground. It was wedged in by tree roots that needed to be cut and removed. There was also lots of digging! Thank you to Rich & Mary for raising his stone above ground as well as his footstone. I had wrongly added him to Findagrave as Nathan Cooper when I first found his stone because Coo was all I could see due to it being buried. He is now our first and only Cook that we know of buried here.

Here are some before and after photos
10/13/2024

Here are some before and after photos

Rich Ford & I (Gail Ford) went out to the cemetery on Thursday and got quite a lot done. We had quite a few gravestones ...
10/12/2024

Rich Ford & I (Gail Ford) went out to the cemetery on Thursday and got quite a lot done. We had quite a few gravestones laying face up on the ground. Not only does this cause deterioration to the face of the stone due to rain beating directly on them, they were also in the way of the lawn mower. So Rich with a little help from me staked up the broken stones awaiting repair by Pippin Mausoleums and Monuments LLC and he reset the stones that did not need repair.

Willie Smith's gravestone had been leaning against a tree next to his footstone and James Downham's gravestone was laying face up covered with dirt. Rich reset them and they are now standing!

Mary Cooper's gravestone was originally leaning and Mary & Peter Servon and I attempted to reset it. When we dug it up, it was evident that the stone had either broken or was missing a base. Rich located the base. This is a mortise & tenon style gravestone and the tenon broke off in the mortise. Needless to say, this stone is now awaiting repair by Pippin Mausoleums and Monuments LLC.

This is perfect weather to work in the cemetery so we hoped to get back out there soon.

I tried to add photos of the other stones we worked on but it wouldn't let me add them. I'll try adding in another post.

06/18/2024

Dr. Wholey and 5 students from West Chester University came down today to mark the graves they found using ground penetrating radar. They found at least 43 unmarked graves at the west end of the cemetery and 11 unmarked graves in the south side of east end. We are sure there are more unmarked graves and WCU may come back and do more ground penetrating radar. I forgot to take pictures today.

What a difference! Check out the gravestone of Louisa Needles - before, during and after! Thank you to Pippin Mausoleums...
06/06/2024

What a difference! Check out the gravestone of Louisa Needles - before, during and after! Thank you to Pippin Mausoleums and Monuments LLC for resetting this stone.

Yesterday Peter & Mary Servon attended a cemetery preservation workshop presented by Atlas Preservation on their 48 Stat...
05/31/2024

Yesterday Peter & Mary Servon attended a cemetery preservation workshop presented by Atlas Preservation on their 48 State Tour 2024 in Newark, DE. Jon Appell conducts free cemetery preservation workshops nationwide. He has over 30 years of experience in this field. Mary & Pete please add your thoughts in the comments.

A big shout out to Rich Ford & Peter Servon for working so hard this week to grind all the stumps in the cemetery! Thank...
05/24/2024

A big shout out to Rich Ford & Peter Servon for working so hard this week to grind all the stumps in the cemetery! Thank you both for your hard work! If anyone has a dump trailer and can help us get a load of topsoil back there, please message me.

Thank you to Mary Servon and Andrea & Mark Waters for coming out to clean gravestones today. Thank you to Peter Servon f...
04/14/2024

Thank you to Mary Servon and Andrea & Mark Waters for coming out to clean gravestones today. Thank you to Peter Servon for all your work dealing with limbs, sticks and trees. Thank you to Pippin Monuments for resetting so many stones.

Address

5045 Mud Mill Road
Camden, DE
19934

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