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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 4 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: July 1941 Volume 4 Number 3, Pages 67–73 The Valley Friends' Cemetery in Tredyffrin - Part 1 "It is my will to give, grant and confirm unto them of my Persuasion the Grave yard that is upon my land for the use of Friends forever, Bounded upon Road and nine Perches square every way." Thus reads a clause in the last will and testament of Lewis Walker, made on the "fourteenth day of the Tenth Month called December, 1728", and in 1898 the same was inscribed upon a white marble monumental block one foot high erected by the descendants of Lewis and Mary Morris Walker in memory of their first American ancestors. It was not known for certainty exactly where the bodies of the first settlers rested, but it was assumed that two mounds of unusual length were his own and that of his serving man. Lewis Walker was reputed to have been six feet four inches in height. It being against the principles of the primitive Friends to enclose their dead in coffins, only a winding sheet was used, and the overseers strongly disapproved the vanity of tombstones; therefore, the earlier interments are unmarked. This graveyard is a level plot enclosed by a neat stonewall on a natural elevation in the eastern part of the Great Valley, and within recent years the original grant has been augmented by purchase of additional ground on the north. Death, the great leveler, for more than two centuries found no artificial elevation of one above another in this cemetery, for the stones rise but a foot above the sward in orderly rows and without ostentation in inscription; however, there has been a slight deviation in recent years, yielding to the spirit of the times. Among the most numerous earlier marked burials, the Walkers, Roberts, Thomas, and Richards of Tredyffrin, the Stephens and Moore of Upper Merion, and the Pugh family of Radnor, stand out prominently. Mathew Roberts, son of John Roberts, one of the earliest settlers of Lower Merion, had removed to the "Swamp Vres" farm bequeathed him by his father about 1717. His son Jonathan became a member of the Colonial Assembly, was elected to Congress in 1790, and was the father of Jonathan Roberts of the U. S. Senate. It is stated that when Isaac Potts preached the funeral sermon of Sarah Jerman Walker, who died 3/12/1792, over a thousand persons were in attendance. Jacob Rogers, Sr., who died 10th month, 31st, 1851, aged 83 years, used to preach on First day. On week days he was to be found at the little log smithy across the creek from the Stephens house. One of his ancestors is mentioned in Fox's Book of Martyrs and a descendant was long the village blacksmith at Berwyn. Here is the unmarked grave of Edward Woodman, the father of the author of "Valley Forge", and the marked grave of Priscella Walker Streets who compiled the 443 pages of "Lewis Walker of Chester Valley and His Descendants", and that of her husband, Dr. Thomas Hale Streets of the U. S. Marines. The original log meetinghouse built in the southeastern corner of the graveyard was used as a military hospital during the encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge, 1777-1778, and it is probable that the dead were buried close by. Tradition also intimates that more than the American officer, slain in dueling during that time, found rest in this quiet yard. The Quakers testified in all sincerity against war, but, during the Civil strife, the younger male element went forth to battle for what they thought right, as the many G. A. R. flags in the Valley Friends' Cemetery testify. The latter part of the last century and the beginning of the present has seen the erection here of the perishable marble stones in memory of the departed, and now many of the inscriptions have already become almost obliterated through erosion. Therefore, though there may be some dates in the appended list open to question and might well have been followed by a question mark, it is hoped that the labor of our volunteers to preserve these records on stone, particularly those of the disproportionately large number of hardy octogenarians, may not have been in vain.
LIST OF INTERMENTS ABRAHAM, Sarah Waters. wife of Mathew Roberts, afterwards to Enoch Abraham.
BARRETT, Annie. dau. Adam & Elizabeth, born 12/20/1839 - died 1/25/1905. BARTHOLOMEW, Edward. 12/8/1799 - 10/15/1875. BAUGH, Amelia, d. 8 mo./1843; aged. 68 years. BEAN, J. Paul. 5/8/1899 - 11/28/1938.
BEIDLER, Abie Lincoln, son Abraham & Sarah W., d. 1/11/1864; aged 2/8/5. BEVAN, Serena B. d. 3/13/1852; aged 32 years. BISBING, Elizabeth S. 3/14/1808 - 8/23/1878; (footstone "Aunt").
BROOKS, Annie E. wife Cadw., 5/4/1848 - 2/17/1877.
BROWN, John. (obliterated). BUNTING, J. Murry. 1863 - 1932.
BUSHBY, Mary Hite, mother of Eliza K. Roberts; aged 52 years.
CALEY, Annie L. wife Cyrus H., 1844 - 1909; (G. A. R. flag). CAMPBELL, Polly. d. 4 mo./1857; aged 86 years.
CARVER, Anna. 10/22/1814 - 10/7/1883.
CLEAVER, Annie J. 4/9/1826 - 12/16/1900.
CONARD, Dennis, d. 3/1/1851; 76th year.
Eliza A. 8/9/1824 - 1/29/1897.
CORNOG, Dennis, (obliterated).
CORSON, Helen Rebecca, dau. Francis E. & Rebecca Hughes, 10/12/1882 - 4/5/1901.
COWGILL, Eliza. 5/17/1787 - 3/11/1883.
DAVIS, Elizabeth C. dau. Thomas & Catherine, d. 12/10/1846; aged 5 years, 9 months, 26 days. EVANS, Sarah West. 1854 - 1928.
FISHER, Abraham. 7/29/1804 - 5/12/1890. FORCE, Minerva. 12/4/1797 - 11/29/1880. FOULKE, Daniel, d. 1/1/1919; aged 77 years.
FREDERICK, Anna H. 1840 - 1903.
FRORER, Henry. 1866 - 1900. GARNER, Annie E. 10/29/1853 - 12/23/1935. GEHRET, Ida M. 1858 - 1913. GIBSON, Dorothy Stephens. 1904 - 1935.
GLASS, Alexander. 1846 - 1917.
HAHN, Addison May. 9/29/1847 - 10/30/1893.
HALLOWELL, William. infant son of John & Rachel, 1857.
HAMILTON, Elizabeth, d. 1/15/1887; 83rd year.
HAVARD, David. 6/24/1815 - 4/25/1898.
HILLES, Benjamin L. 12/8/1843 - 4/26/1910.
HOEFER, Elizabeth G. 1882 - 1936. HOOPES, Mary R. wife Caleb, d. 8/30/1897; 72nd year.
HUGHES, Frank. 1/30/1857 - 3/9/1939. JAEGER, Kurt H. 1893 - 1935.
KENDALL, Athalia L. T. 1865 - 1936. KIRK, Martha M. 7/23/1830 - 6/13/1886; ("Thou art gone my darling.")
LYLE, Benjamin, d, 6/15/1843; aged 65 years, 9 mo., 15 days. MANNING, Wm. Co. K., Pa. Res. Inf.; (G. A. R. flag).
MASSET, George W. son Isaac R. & Margaret C. 2/23/1854 - 3/29/1856. C. A. M __________. MERILLAT, Robert E. 5/5/1841 - 12/5/1845.
METZ, Abraham. 1835 - 1928; (G. A. R. flag).
MOORE, Catherine A. Stephens. wife Jesse, Sr., d. 4/11/1870; aged 64 years, 6 mo., 19 days. MYERS, Margaret Vogdes. 5/7/1860 - 10/18/1937. PACKER, Altamonta Vogdes. wife Harry H., 1858 - 1914. PATTERSON, Martha C. d. 2 mo., 1872; aged 82 years.
POTTS, Ezekiel. 2/18/1819 - 5/4/1882,
PUGH, Ann C. 9/15/1801 - 9/14/1868.
RADCLIFF, Cyrus C. d. 10/5/1851, in his 16th year.
RAMBO, Clara V. 10/31/1849 - 6/27/1935.
RAMSEY, Ellen D. d. 9/25/1916; aged 66 years. RENNARD, Catherine Anne. 1904 - 1904.
RICHARDS, Anna R. 1850 - 1912.
ROBERTS, Allen D. son Isaac W, & Anna D., d. 8/7/1887; aged 15 years, 4 mo,, 15 days. (To Be Continued) - Part 2 |
