Union Cemetery honors 893 interred veterans

BELLEFONTE — For the third year in a row, the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte hosted a ceremony to celebrate Veterans Day early, honoring the nearly 900 veterans buried there.

The ceremony was held on Sunday, Nov. 8 near the once-defunct McCoy Fountain, which lights up green at night in honor of Veterans Day, and is located beside former Pennsylvania Governor James Addams Beaver’s grave site.

Organized by the cemetery’s 10-member board, the event included a performance of Taps by members of the Penn State University Blue Band’s trumpet section, the university’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) members serving as the color guard and an “Amazing Grace” performance by two local bagpipe players.

Additionally, the Nittany American Legion Post 245’s rifle squad performed a three-volley salute, and six local speakers took to the podium to speak about the cemetery, the many veterans and notable figures buried in it and Veterans Day itself.

Kerry Benninghoff speaks at the Union Cemetery Veterans Day ceremony. Pic #1 – Penn State Blue Band trumpeters perform taps at the Union Cemetery Veterans Day ceremony. Jacob Michael/For The Centre County Gazette The speakers included Pastor Renee Ford of the Woody Crest United Methodist Church; State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte; Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem; Centre County Veterans Affairs Director Brian Queary; U.S. Marine Corps veteran Daron Aukerman; and Pastor Andy Morgan of Bellefonte’s Faith Church.

“There are a lot of veterans buried in that cemetery and they deserve to be honored properly,” Brenda Reichert, a member of the cemetery’s board, told the Gazette Monday. “And so we do this for them, and for all other veterans. It was a nice service, and I’m glad everybody came.”

In total, 893 veterans — including 302 Civil War veterans alone — are buried in the cemetery, which held its first burial in 1808 before being chartered and officially opened in 1856.

According to the Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association, some of the most notable names laid to rest there include Penn State’s first President Evan Pugh; former United States Senator Andrew Gregg, former Governors Andrew Gregg Curtin, James Addams Beaver and Daniel Hartman Hastings (and their wives), Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor winner George Harris, black soldiers of the Union’s famous “Army of the James” during the Civil War — which held the largest concentration of black troops during the war — and many more.

“I am very blessed to organize this program because we can never ever do enough for veterans,” Reichert wrote in an email to The Gazette Tuesday. “They all need us, we need to support them, we need to be there for them, we need to honor them and we need to respect them, because every one of them put their lives on the line for us.”

Moving forward, Reichert and the rest of the board plan on hosting another Veterans Day event next year on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2027, with the time to be announced closer to the date.

The event included a performance of taps by members of the Penn State University Blue Band’s trumpet section. Jacob Michael/For The Centre County Gazette

Union Cemetery honors 893 interred veterans

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