All Saints' Monie Church Cemetery

Transcribed by: Jamie Grangier

Every day the sun shines through the gothic arched stained glass windows, glides across the wainscoted walls, to the Victorian pews topped by club finials, and rises to the blue vaulted ceiling which is dressed in golden stars, as God fills All Saints Monie with His awesome presence. The presence of God has been embedded with every consecration, sermon, christening, wedding, and funeral that has taken place.

I volunteered to transcribe this cemetery because All Saints Monie holds a special place in my heart, as it does many other people. I have grown up listening to the many stories my great-grandparents have told me about my ancestors, many of which are buried at All Saints Monie. My parents were married in the sanctuary, and when the organ played, some of the golden stars fell from the ceiling from the vibrations.

I feel close to the relatives I never knew, as I walk through the rows of graves. It touches my heart to see the graves of young children, some marked only by field stones, and others with engraved gravestones containing heartfelt epitaphs. The hard times these people must have faced when so many young children died of sickness, is just unimaginable to us today. At each grave I paused for a moment, trying to imagine the lives these people led. As I read the epitaphs, a warmness came over my heart as I could imagine the love these people must have had in their lives.

The oldest grave belongs to William Stoughton, Esq., who was born in 1692 and died on March 12, 1759. The cemetery at All Saints Monie, located on Venton Road in Somerset Country, is kept in fair condition. I have documented as much information from the gravestones as I could determine, and in brackets I have added additional information from other resources about the relationship between the people.

Source of Information:
Touart, Paul Baker. Somerset An Architectural History. Maryland Historical Trust, 1990.

ALL SAINTS CHURCH, MONIE (#70)

According to tradition a second Somerset Parish Church, a frame structure on brick foundations, was built about 1710, inland from the Manokin River three miles northeast of the first church site, near the head of Little Monie Creek. This building stood on a fifty acre tract of land granted in August 1723 to Captain John Jones and Thomas Dashiell under the patent name of "Somerset." The property was described as lying in a neck of land between the head of Little Monie Creek and Manokin River, on the head of a tract called Hab Nab. By his will of March 17, 1755, Thomas Dashiell Sr. gave and bequeathed "all that tract of land called Somerset whereon Monny [sic] Church now stands to the use of the said Church and Parish forever."

(Torrence 1966: 180-182).

In his sermon preached at the consecration of the New Monie Church, May 5, 1881, Reverend Edmund D. Cooper said:

Old Monie was built in 1710 of the heart of pine and endured for 169 years. It was twice enlarged and three times repaired but was never formally consecrated until 1845 by Bishop Whittingham.

(Maryland Diocesan Archives, The Meeting Place... 1881:17)

On that occasion it was given the name All Saints Church. On July 31, 1879, a severe windstorm totally demolished the building. One parishioner documented the devastating effect of the loss in a letter to Rt. Rev. William Rollinson Whittingham, August 13, 1879:

Dear Bishop:

Before the Dioces [sic] was divided, I was one of your flock. Permit me now to introduce Mrs. S. L. Waters who writes in behalf of the Church:

We have had the misfortune to see our dear old church "All Saints" Monie, Somerset Parish, laid in ruins by the late Storm July 29th and while we view with aching hearts and moistened eyes the wreck; see Organ, chancel, chandilers that cracked beneath that sacred roof and deeply mourn our loss; we feel our inability to go forward and do what are hearts and willing hands prompt us - to rebuild this "Temple of the Lord."

You My dear Bishop (for once I so called you) were familiar with this dear old church and surroundings. The Rectors and church members. It was true I saw you administer the rite of confirmation often to numbers and also consecrate the church when the Rev. Mister was Rector followed by a long train of ministers, many who have departed this life.

I now write to ask that you will lend us your aid in re-constructing our church. I know we are a separate diocese and the Chesapeake flows between us but the church is one foundation where a drop of her blood is found there is love, great strength and unity.

I would also be glad if you would name our loss to Bishop Pinkney who before my day was Rector of this Church and Parish who knew my parents so well. Colonel Arnold Elzey Jones and Mrs. Anne W. Jones.

This dear old Church endeared by so [illegible] ties and early associations was built in 1712. it was here my ancestors the Elzeys knelt, worshipped, contributing largely every year hundreds of pounds and dedicating their sons and daughters to the Church. The Massive Communion Scroll now in use was also presented by them to the Church. My Aunt Mrs. E. Riggin a true friend of yours attended this church in her youth and also gave largely when called upon.

If I have tried your time and patience dear Bishop I ask forgiveness; but shall be grateful for any aid you may undertake.

With great Respect,

Yrs &c. Hon. S. L. Waters and Mrs. S. L. Waters, Somerset County, MD

--(MD Diocesan Archives, Whittingham)

Through the efforts of Rev. John Oliver Barton, church members constructed a new church building on the old foundation which Bishop Lay of Easton consecrated in 1881. Standing today, that building is a single story, rectangular church with five bays across by one room deep. A continuous common bond brick foundation supports the plain weatherboard frame building; a steeply pitched asphalt shingle roof covers it. Its entrance is a gabled vestibule. Paired Gothic arch colored glass windows mark the bays. The untouched interior has a vaulted blue ceiling originally painted with small stars. Tie beams span the distance between the side walls with decorative Victorian braces at the ends. The interior is furnished with Victorian pews on either side of a center aisle, horizontal board wainscoted walls, Victorian altar furniture and period lighting (MHT: Touart; 1990: 325-6). The cemetery northwest of the church has eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century markers.

All Saints remains the Parish Church of Somerset, though an Act of the Maryland Assembly designated and legalized the Chapel of Ease in Princess Anne (St. Andrew’s) at the place for the regular annual meetings of the congregation; the election of the vestry and the transaction of parish affairs take place at these meetings. All Saints Church is significant as the surviving remnant of the late seventeenth-century Manokin River congregation. Usually the parish church’s material was brick, but in Somerset County All Saints at Monie, the parish church, was wood on a brick foundation. The Chapel of Ease, alter named St. Andrew’s, was a brick building.

This passage was taken directly word by word from: Jopling, Carol F. Churches of Somerset County Maryland. Annapolis Publishing Company/Annapolis Maryland, 2000.