West River Quaker Burying* Ground
*also known as “West River Quaker Burial Ground”
Scouts from Troop 815 were joined by Girl Scouts of Troop 4162, Troop 1214, and members of the Community to help with a Memorial Day weekend cleanup of the West River Burial Ground in Galesville.
This historic site dates back to 1672 and the early settlers of the area. The troop has been assisting in this effort for many years. Almost 30 showed up to help this year which has been the best turn out to date.
Scouts honored veterans by assisting with the placement of flags and a Herculean effort in grounds maintenance. When we arrived, some of the grass was 3-4 ft high and the regular grounds maintenance had not been done this spring. Rather than shy away from immense amount of work, I was very proud of everyone’s efforts as they continued to ask, “What needs to be done? Where can I help?”
A huge pile of brush was generated, over 20 bags of leaves and debris, many new planted red buds, uncovering of 1/2 dozen ‘lost’ grave markers, planting grass seed on fresh grave sites, generating a huge pile of brush and overall a tremendous difference on this 346 year old site.
Many, many thanks to everyone. The Trustees of the site are very much appreciative. I personally thank you all for your efforts and fellowship. Truly great community service. We had pizza and snacks afterwards. You can tell you have hungry, hard worked Scouts when they can consume four large pizzas in under 10 minutes ?
Contact Information
Contact To contact the Trustees:
– email wrqbg.trustees@gmail.com,
– telephone (recorded message) – leave a message via AFM’s phone – 410-573-0364, or
– regular mail:
West River Quaker Burying Ground Trustees
c/o Annapolis Friends Meeting
351 Dubois Road
Annapolis, Md. 21401
Rules, Directions, History and Archives
Rules for Use of the Burial Ground – WRQBG_burial_rules
Directions/Maps – https://ancestors.pitard.net/showmap.php?cemeteryID=40
History (Brief) – https://usgwarchives.net/md/annearundel/tsimages/westriver/quaker.html
History (Detailed) – https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/weekly_features/2009/Quaker_Sites.pdf
Archives – https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/ead/4114weri.xml
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Notice: West River Quaker Burying Ground [“WRQBG”] is a Maryland corporation, legally separate from the Friends (Quaker) Meeting of Annapolis, Inc.[“AFM”]. AFM provides this webpage for benefit of WRQBG, but further information and decisions as to WRQBG must come from WRQBG’s Board of Trustees.