Saving the Grave: Strangers Work to Preserve Swackhammer
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Saving the Grave: Strangers Work to Preserve Swackhammer Written by NJ Historian Abandoned and virtually forgotten for over one hundred years, the Swack Church ruins and Swackhammer Cemetery in Lebanon Township, New Jersey is receiving renewal thanks to a number of volunteers, proving that history is not only what has happened in the past, but in fact can be made in the present. With no budget, a group of volunteers, almost complete strangers, have come together to achieve a common goal, creating a renewed interest in this cemetery and church neglected by time. This page in the history of the Swack Church and Cemetery honors those who are buried there, some marked, some unknown, and creates a new type of meeting place, much like the church provided a meeting place over a hundred years ago. The Old "Swake Church'' at Mount Bethel was founded in 1844 by Reverend Lambert Swackhamer. The church was named after Jacob Swackhammer, the mason who built it. Ja...