Unity Cemetery, set among shady groves with panoramic views of the Laurel Mountains, has served as a peaceful burial place for people of all denominations. A land grant dated March 1, 1774, and signed by John Penn, William Penn's grandson, established a burial ground and meeting place for the Presbyterian Congregation at Unity. Near the historic Forbes Road, this original purchase totaled about sixty acres, for which Robert Hanna, Joseph Irwin, William Lochry, and Samuel Sloan paid one penny sterling per acre, the equivalent of $2.40. Today the cemetery encompasses over 234 acres. Until the 1860's, there was no official caretaker or sexton, and when loved ones died, friends and relatives opened graves on the family plot while funeral attendees remained until the last shovel of dirt was placed on the grave. Because many early graves were unmarked, the date of the first burial is unknown, but the first recorded burial was Moses Watson, a Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1782. Those buried here include John Proctor, who had been a colonel in Forbes Army in 1758, served as the first sheriff of Westmoreland County when it was formed in 1773, and organized the first regiment of militia at Hannastown in 1775 under the Rattlesnake Flag bearing the warning, "Don't Tread on Me"; William Findley, a Revolutionary War captain, member of Pennsylvania's first legislature, and member of the convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States; Benjamin Beatty, a Revolutionary War soldier who crossed the Delaware with George Washington on December 24-25, 1776; and Archibold Mellon, an immigrant from Castletown, Ireland, who settled in Westmoreland County and, with his wife Elizabeth Armour, was a great-grandparent of Andrew Mellon. Veterans buried here include 32 from the Revolutionary War, 6 from the War of 1812, 2 from the Mexican War, 144 from the Civil War, 11 from the Spanish-American War, and an ever increasing number who served in the wars of the 20th century. When the Unity Congregation was dissolved in 1920, the property and church were transferred to the Unity Cemetery Association, whose fifth president, Ralph R. Sloan, Jr., descended from founder Samuel Sloan.