18th-Century Presbyterian Burial Ground in Westmoreland County
North Huntingdon Township, PA
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Publicly accessible cemetery. No admission fee.
Access
Limited Access
Uneven ground; weathered headstones, some fallen. Not paved.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1782 · Revolutionary War · Colonial Frontier History · Presbyterian Heritage · Western Pennsylvania Settlement
Old Brush Creek Cemetery sits off Leger Road in North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, accessible from Route 30 between Route 993. The burial ground is among the oldest in western Pennsylvania, attached to a Presbyterian congregation established in the 1700s during the early Euro-American settlement of the region.
The 18th-century history of the site includes documentation of colonial conflict: according to the local history volume Brush Creek Tales, the German Lutheran and German Reformed congregations in the area shared a log school-church that was burned by Native Americans in 1782. This incident places the cemetery in the context of the frontier violence that characterized western Pennsylvania during and after the American Revolution. The presence of Revolutionary War soldiers among the interred reflects the region's participation in that conflict.
Many of the existing headstones are in poor condition — weathered, broken, or fallen. A volunteer effort documented the full extent of the cemetery using ground-penetrating radar, producing a GPS-mapped record of graves that extends well beyond the visible markers. CBS Pittsburgh reported on this discovery of dozens of previously unidentified burial sites at the location.
The cemetery is located in North Huntingdon Township, approximately 20 miles east of Pittsburgh. The Shadowlands entry identifies it as 'Old Bush Creek Cemetery on Leger Road' — a minor variation on the established name 'Old Brush Creek Cemetery.'
Sources
The paranormal associations with Old Brush Creek Cemetery draw on the same 1782 event that appears in the historical record: the burning of the log church-school by Native Americans during the frontier conflicts of the Revolutionary period. The Shadowlands account describes the site as haunted by the spirits of Choctaw Indians attacked by English settlers — though the Choctaw Nation was primarily based in present-day Mississippi and Alabama and is not historically documented in western Pennsylvania. The more plausible Indigenous context would involve the Lenape and Shawnee peoples who inhabited western Pennsylvania during this period and whose conflicts with colonial settlers are well-documented.
Reported phenomena cluster around shadow manifestations and the sound of footsteps moving through the grass. Several paranormal investigators have visited the site; accounts describe an atmosphere of unease, though documented evidence from those visits has been sparse.
The cemetery's genuine historical depth — unmarked graves, Revolutionary War burials, documented frontier violence — provides a substantive context for whatever the reported experiences represent. The ground has absorbed more history than its visible markers convey.
Old Brush Creek Cemetery in North Huntingdon Township preserves graves dating to the Revolutionary War era, many with weathered or fallen markers. Volunteer ground-penetrating radar surveys have revealed additional unmarked graves. Access via Leger Road off Route 30.
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