Cyrus Griest Burial Site at Menallen Friends
A historic site in Biglerville, Pennsylvania, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Cyrus Griest Burial Site at Menallen Friends is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. HauntHunt files it with dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.
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Is Cyrus Griest Burial Site at Menallen Friends haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
The knock came at the bedroom window, never the door. In the 1930s, Alexander Griest told an interviewer what the family remembered of the Springdale farm above Quaker Valley: Edward Mathews — a Black landholder from Yellow Hill, nine miles north of Gettysburg — would guide freedom seekers over the hill in the dark, stow them in Cyrus Griest's springhouse, and tap the window to say there were guests. In the morning the women carried breakfast down. It happened about twice a month, every summer, and never in winter, when frost would have written the path in the ground for anyone to read.
The Quaker Valley
Griest was a Menallen Friend, and the Menallen Quakers — meeting in the valley since 1780 — cited Deuteronomy for the work: the verse that forbids returning an escaped servant to his master. The law disagreed; harboring a fugitive was a federal offense worth jail and a thousand-dollar fine. The farm ran openly as Springdale Nurseries, an orchard business whose card survives in the meeting's records, while the springhouse did the double duty the file records — fugitives hidden below, and above them a one-room school where Griest's daughter Maria Edith taught.
From Springdale the line ran on to William and Phebe Wright at York Springs. Cyrus and Mary Ann Griest rest together in the Menallen burying ground — the file's entry is a Quaker's gravestone on the hill above a valley that broke federal law on a scripture verse.
Two accounts on file
HISTORIC_SITE
CEMETERY
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Quaker’s grave—where Griest rests.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 12PA03, source row 262. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceCyrus Griest Burial Site at Menallen Friends is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceGriest’s work is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 12PA03, source row 262. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.