Cemetery History

Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church Cemetery was estabished by Pennsylvania Legislative Act #317 in 1854.

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The land, owned by John Chase, had been escheated to the State after he died 

without a will or heirs.

Act #317 transferred owership of his approximately three acre plot to the trustees of Payne Chapel AME Church to be used for a church and cemetery by this African American community in Canonsburg, PA.

 The earliest date-of-death recorded on a headstone is that of John Durham who died in 1858.  Samuel Cottle’s death in 1861 is the second earliest, followed by Moses Brown in 1862. The latest burial seems to be that of Kathryn McGant in 1995. There are over 600 burials but most have no headstone.

In 2000, Brian Yanosky gathered volunteers to clear debris, mow, and trim the grounds as an Eagle Scout project.  He made a map identifying 164 memorial stones. Fourty-four of them had no inscription indicating who had been buried.  In 2005 Gina Nestor listed the name and military records for 26 African American Civil War Veterans interred at Payne.  The earliest date-of-death of Civil War Veterans is for Private J. B. Sluby in 1875. The lastest date-of-death for Civil War Veterans buried at Payne was Private John Smith in 1929.

A 2023 map of the cemetery shows the location of 145 stones.  Twenty are Civil War Veterans and four are Founders of the Church.  Currently there are at least 54 stones in need of being repaired and/or reset.