Centuries-old cemetery impedes expansion at Lancaster Airport (2024)

Two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with Colonial America bustling with talk of revolution, Johannes Meister and his family were just beginning to put together a homestead in Manheim Township.

Much of the land surrounding the 230 acres Meister purchased south of what is now Millport Road looks the same today as it did then: open pastures and fields of corn gently swaying in the breeze. The sky, though, has changed.

Where once only birds and clouds disturbed the heavens above the Meister farm, aircraft now buzz overhead.

In the 1930s, the Lancaster Joint Aviation Committee bought what remained of Meister’s homestead from his descendants and built Lancaster Airport. A few dozen yards from where the air-traffic control tower stands today, a fenced-off grove of trees surrounding the graves of Meister and his family is the only evidence that they were ever there.

That burial plot has become a sticking point for the Lancaster Airport Authority, which wants to develop the land to accommodate demand for lucrative corporate hangars. Airport officials will soon go to court to try to get permission to relocate the remains and headstones.

A local group that advocates for the sanctity of family burial plots is standing in their way. It believes the Meister family remains should be allowed to rest right where they are.

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Pushback to disinterment

In 2019, a descendant of Meister contacted Grave Concern, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Lancaster County’s historical cemeteries, about a possible historic cemetery at the airport.

With the approval of an airport employee, members of Grave Concern searched the wooded area and unearthed Meister’s headstone. They spotted other headstones in groundhog holes but could not excavate them by hand.

The airport hired a cultural resources firm to investigate the area. The firm used ground penetrating radar to search for possible human remains in the site, but it did not find any burial sites.

Now, the airport authority is petitioning Lancaster County Court for permission to excavate the site — including an area where rocks had built up over time, obstructing the ground penetrating radar — and disinter any remains it finds.

Austin Beiler, director of operations and development at Lancaster Airport, said the airport contacted some of Meister’s descendants who still live in the county.

“We’re trying to do this in a way that would be reverent to the families and respectful of anything that could possibly be in this area,” Beiler said.

If the airport authority’s petition is approved, it plans to move any remains and headstones it finds to Lancaster Cemetery. The cemetery located available plots near the graves of Meister’s relatives where the remains could be reinterred.

Beiler said the airport would place a memorial near the original burial site.

Grave Concern hopes to halt the airport’s disinterment plans.

“Our main concern is (that) the eternal resting place for these people stays eternal,” said Steve Stuart, a Grave Concern board member.

Stuart cited Pennsylvania’s 1994 Historic Burial Places Preservation Act, which protects burial grounds that are at least a century old and in which no burials have taken place for at least 50 years.

The act prohibits the destruction of gravestones and memorials found in historic burial places. A court can permit these historic fragments to be removed only if it is necessary or desirable for their preservation.

“We are aware of that act at this point,” Beiler said. “We don’t see that being a roadblock.”

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Airport expansion plans

The airport received a $2 million state grant earlier this year to construct three new corporate hangars on the north side of the airport, where the Meister family burial plot is located. An airport tenant plans to build a fourth hangar in the same area.

Beiler said the hangars, currently in the design process, will be built in the next two years.

Twelve companies are on a waiting list to lease hangar space. Some of them are leasing hangar space from other airports until Lancaster Airport’s new hangars are complete, Beiler said.

Cheryl Martin, the airport’s director of finance and administration, said 52% of airport revenue comes from rentals. She estimates that hangar rentals alone make up 30% of airport revenue.

“We’re entirely built out on the southern end where our terminal is located,” Beiler said. “All of our future expansion will need to be on the north side.”

Grave Concern intends to meet with the airport authority to propose potential alternatives to disinterment that would still allow for the airport’s expansion plans.

For example, the airport could build hangars on either side of the wooded area or place the headstones inside the hangars, Stuart said.

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Descendants’ reactions

Randy Kissell, a self-described amateur genealogist who lives in North Carolina, has traced his family history to Meister, who is his sixth great-grandfather.

A few years ago, the descendant who asked Grave Concern to excavate the airport cemetery told Kissell that the nonprofit had discovered Meister’s headstone. Kissell is part of an email chain with other Meister descendants.

“I was just thrilled to find out they’d done this,” Kissell said. “It was very helpful for my genealogy.”

Venessa Buckwalter, a Lancaster County resident, determined that she is a Meister descendant through DNA testing. Meister is likely her sixth great-grandfather, though she emphasized that DNA testing is not absolutely certain.

The airport did not contact Kissell or Buckwalter about its disinterment plans. Buckwalter learned about the airport’s petition to the court by reading the LNP | LancasterOnline public notices.

Both descendants said their main concern is the preservation of headstones.

“Anything that could be done that would extricate the stones and document them — again, in a suitable manner — would be fine,” Kissell said.

Kissell would prefer the headstones be kept close to their original location, but he said he doesn’t know whether that is practical.

Buckwalter said she often passes the wooded area while driving down Millport Road.

“I just didn’t want to drive by there someday and see the whole thing having disappeared,” she said. “I would like to see (the headstones) placed where family, public, whoever would like to look at them, can see them.”

Kissell said none of the Meister descendants he’s spoken to are strongly opposed to the airport’s plans.

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The life of Johannes Meister

Meister’s headstone, written in German, lists details about his life. Kissell also combed through property records and archives to learn more about his ancestor.

Kissell emphasized that few details about Meister are absolutely certain because of how much time has passed since he was alive.

Meister was born on Nov. 6, 1734, in Langenfort, Germany, as per his headstone. Present-day Langenfort is in Hamburg.

He likely arrived in Philadelphia on Nov. 7, 1754. Two people with the same name immigrated to the U.S. in previous years, but they were younger than Meister at the time.

Meister married a woman named Anna Catharine, whose maiden name may have been Martin, in 1762. Anna Catharine was the widow of Jacob Lein, a Manheim Township landowner.

Meister purchased land from Lein’s heirs. By 1774, he owned 230 acres of farmland, which now makes up much of Lancaster Airport.

Meister may have served in the Revolutionary War, Kissell said. John Master, an Anglicized version of Meister’s name, was in active duty in a Lancaster County militia in 1782. However, this could have been Meister’s eldest son, who was named after him and was close to him in age.

The couple had seven children. Only three of them outlived Meister, who died May 1, 1815, at age 80.

His two surviving sons, Henry and Conrad, inherited the north and south part of the property, respectively. Over time, the land was passed down through the Meister family, with some acres getting sold to other farmers.

The airport documented a second cemetery, on the south side of the property, in 1935. Only the headstones of Conrad and one of his daughters were visible at the time, but Stuart thinks there were more headstones which had been knocked over or sunk into the ground.

The airport runway is now on top of this cemetery, which is no longer visible.

Henry and Conrad likely did not get along, prompting the latter to create a separate family cemetery, Kissell said. Stuart thinks Henry is buried alongside his father in the wooded area the airport plans to excavate.

READ:Gone, but not forgotten: The little cemetery plots on Lancaster County properties have a story to tell about those who are buried there

What comes next

The airport authority’s court hearing, initially slated for 10 a.m. Monday, has been postponed until after airport officials meet with members of Grave Concern.

Beiler suggested the airport authority might alter its court petition after their meeting, though he said he doesn’t know what will happen.