UPDATE ON THE WILLIAM BARBER GRAVESITE

Following the discovery of the first-known photo of Chief Engraver William Barber in late February, I was happy to see a lot of excitement in the collecting community about the photo and the 5th Chief Engraver himself. One of my favorites was the write-up from Heath MacAlpine about his visit to William Barber’s gravesite in 2012, along with those of several other mint engravers, as described in the March 17 edition of The E-Sylum.

When I was in the midst of discovery of all of the new information on both William and Charles Barber (after meeting their descendants and having the privilege of examining all of their historic documents and amazing artifacts), I developed a greater level of appreciation of both Barbers, as men. One of the things I also did last year was to seek out and discover their gravesites.

Like Heath had mentioned, while researching William Barber’s final resting place, I was disheartened to hear of the fate of Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. I actually found and watched a short YouTube video of Heath from his 2012 visit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8_p0Bt2PyQ), showing the overgrown cemetery, and the generally poor shape of the area of William Barber’s gravesite. However, according to the Facebook page of the volunteer group, Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, it looked like these tireless volunteers were working hard to restore and maintain the cemetery, one section at a time.

I used Find-a-Grave and located the section of the cemetery where William Barber and his wife and two daughters reside, and using Google Maps, I was able to trace a route through the vast cemetery to the correct section. Happily, last year, I found this section is restored and maintained now, and I found William and his wife, Anna Maria, quite easily. I brought three other members of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) and Barber Coin Collectors’ Society (BCCS) to pay our respects to William Barber. I have since updated the Find-a-Grave listing of William Barber to include the newly-discovered photos of him and his wife, Anna Maria.

Section 140 of Mount Moriah Cemetery, with William Barber’s gravesite marked

LSCC/BCCS members visit the gravesite of William Barber

Later that day, we ventured to Charles Barber’s final resting place, a little north of town in Mount Peace Cemetery, still active and fully maintained. The cemetery staff was very helpful and actually drove us out to Charles’ gravesite, just off one of the side roads.

Detailed maps to the gravesites of Christian Gobrecht and William Barber can be found on the website of the Liberty Seated Collector’s Club (www.lsccweb.org), and specifically the pages www.lsccweb.org/ChristianGobrecht.shtml and  www.lsccweb.org/WilliamBarber.shtml.

A detailed map to the gravesite of Charles E. Barber can be found on the website of the Barber Coin Collectors’ Society (www.barbercoins.org), specifically the page, www.barbercoins.org/CharlesBarber.shtml).

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE WILLIAM BARBER GRAVESITE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n11a13.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web