Tucked along the quiet wooded roads and paths of Pasadena lie some of Anne Arundel County’s oldest cemeteries – places where time slows, and the town’s earliest stories still whisper beneath the oak trees. These burial grounds, dating back to the 1700s and 1800s, are more than resting places. They are chapters of Pasadena’s evolving history, reflecting faith, family, and the changing landscape of the community itself.
Pasadena is home to approximately 30 cemeteries – from small family plots tucked into wooded corners to historic churchyards – many of which have long since stopped accepting new burials.
One of the best-known sites, the Magothy United Methodist Church Cemetery on Mountain Road, traces its roots to the mid-18th century. The church’s original tract was acquired in 1764, when the Magothy congregation built a simple log chapel that would become a cornerstone of early Methodist worship in the area. It’s said that Bishop Francis Asbury, a towering figure in early American Methodism, preached there in 1777. Though the first building was destroyed by fire in 1886 and rebuilt a year later, the cemetery beside it endures – a quiet record of generations of worshippers who helped shape Pasadena’s spiritual foundation. Many of the weathered stones bear names that still echo in local records, connecting the present to a time when the community consisted of scattered farms and dirt lanes rather than suburban neighborhoods.
Across town, near the serene grounds of Hancock’s Resolution, another historic cemetery tells a different kind of story. The Hancock family burial ground, resting on land that dates back to a 17th-century plantation, holds just a handful of marked graves – about seventeen in total – though many more lie unmarked beneath the soil. Buried within the cemetery are members of the Hancock family, their neighbors, enslaved individuals, and even a few strangers.
The oldest marked tombstone is from 1809, according to Bill Blanchard of Hancock’s Resolution. Both Stephen Hancock, Jr. (4th generation) and his third wife, Ann Cromwell, died several months apart in 1809, Stephen going first. Their graves are the oldest legible stones at the Hancock’s Resolution burial plot.
Over at Mount Zion United Methodist Church is another of Pasadena’s historic cemeteries. One notable figure from Pasadena history who is buried here is Ann Rebecca Kess (1861-1936). Annie Kess, according to Isabel Shipley Cunningham’s Between Two Rivers: A Panoramic View of the Pasadena Peninsula, was a black midwife who lived near Lipin’s Corner and offered maternal and child health care monthly at her home, because black families in the community at the time had no place to go for medical care. Once the Magothy Health Center was founded in 1938, Kess became an integral part of the facility, serving the overall community for decades. In her 39 years of service to residents of the Pasadena peninsula, she delivered 1,500 healthy babies. She attended Mount Zion United Methodist Church up until her death in 1936, and proved to be a beloved member of the Pasadena community. In the neighboring Jacobsville Town Center, there is a through-road in her namesake, Annie Kess Drive.
As communities grew and churches began to take root, burials gradually shifted to consecrated churchyards. Many of Pasadena’s oldest congregations, such as Magothy United Methodist Church – whose tombstones date between 1835 and 1875 – still keep their historic graveyards, though the grounds are now closed to new burials.
For those curious about tracing local roots, the Anne Arundel Genealogical Society makes it surprisingly easy to locate nearly anyone’s final resting place in the county. Through its online cemetery database – covering more than 500 burial sites, from sprawling churchyards to forgotten family plots – the society offers links to resources like Find A Grave, where users can search by surname to uncover details such as cemetery names, burial dates, and even photos of headstones. Each listing provides historical context, including past cemetery names and maps, helping residents and researchers alike connect with the stories of those who helped shape Anne Arundel County’s past.
