Lower Chanceford AMEZ Cemetery

In 1876, trustees of the Lower Chanceford A.M.E. Zion Church - Thomas Johnson, Jupiter Dorsey, Richard Lee, Elisha Berry and Harry Lee -purchased just over a half-acre of  land from Matthew Cameron "for a burial ground and erecting thereon a house for public worship."  They built a simple log church located off Fulton Road in Lower Chanceford Township. Also known as Stevenson's Chapel, the church appeared on tax rolls in the 1890s. The Young, Wilson, Berry, Dorsey, Lee, Jefferson, Fells, Wallace, Harris, Gibbons, Stevenson, Barton, Hopkins, Saulsbury, and John Wheeler families were members of the church. These families later moved to York City, but would return to their home church for services.  

In 1908, the church trustees purchased an adjoining 2 acres of land from A.J. Raffensberger. Camp meetings were held here the last two Sundays in July. An old cookstove was set up under the trees with boards on trestles to feed the people. In the fall, a Thanksgiving dinner would be held, taking the seats out of the log church and setting up trestles and tables to serve the people. The church is long gone, but the cemetery remains.

In 2015, The A.M.E. Zion Church Mid Atlantic District sold the property to a local family who had been made trustees of the property.  A small white fence marks the foundation of where the old log church once stood with new headstones of the family members of the new owners.  An old water pump surrounded by flowers stands alone in the grassy lot, along with a long hitching rail where horses would be secured during church services.  A large wooden cross still stands among the small graveyard.