Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: July 1941 Volume 4 Number 3, Pages 60–61

The Fahnestock private burial plot

Franklin L. Burns

Page 60

Not far beyond the Warren Tavern, on the northern slope of the South Valley Hills, along the south side of the Sugartown Road, is a little private burial ground, now in a state of neglect, and the sole remainder of a strange sect, the German Pietists or Sabbatarians. This plot, of about 20 by 40 feet, is surrounded by a crumbling wall of slate and limestone, and contains the marked graves of three generations of Fahnestocks.

In 1786, Casper Fahnestock, of Cocalico, arrived on foot, clad in sober garments, staff in hand, and announced to Peter Mather that he had bought the Warren Tavern from an agent of John Penn. He had paid 2,000 pounds in specie for the 337 acres and proposed to make the inn a popular resort for the German emigrant. He was born in Germany, 1724, and, as a "Mystic", followed the Jews in observing the seventh day as the Sabbath, and also in refusing pork. Six months after his arrival, his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Gleim, died and was the first and only interment for twenty-two years. Brother Jabez (Rev. Peter Miller), the Reverend Prior of the Ephrata Community, conducted the services of prayer and hymn.

Casper's religion may have been peculiar, but it included thrift and industry, for he kept everyone about him busy, including himself, his wife Maria Catherine, brother Dietrich, sons and daughters. His eldest son, Charles, presided at the bar and his daughters, Esther and Catherine, attended to the comfort of the guests, while his wife cooked the substantial Pennsylvania-Dutch way. Others worked about the inn, farm, quarry, or tanyard. Heretofore, the causeway through the swamp below the tavern had been the worst piece of road on the entire route; this he kept in good repair.

Casper was already an old man when he bought the property, though he did not give up the active management of the inn to his son, Charles, as licensee, until 1800, and died eight years later in his eighty-sixth year.

Charles Fahnestock continued the business until his death in his seventy-seventh year, 1832, followed in less than a month by his seventh and last child to be buried in the little plot on the side of the hill. Charles had joined the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, refused to sell liquor on Sunday, and the burial services were conducted by the Rev. Latta.

The only stranger admitted to the private cemetery was Thomas Bradley, an Englishman of some property in Tredyffrin and an intimate friend of the family, who died in 1826, at the age of seventy-six years. William, the surviving son of Charles, was also a member of the Presbyterian Church, and, like Deacon Enoch John of the Great Valley Baptist Church, became somewhat intolerant of the times. He turned the tavern into a temperance house, refused all business on Sunday and even cut down his orchard to prevent cider being made from the apples. Of course, he lost the trade, which was rapidly nearing the vanishing period, anyway, after the construction of the railroad.

Like most idealists, he followed the rainbow, looking for the pot of gold. He turned to sinking prospecting shafts for coal at various places on his land in the South Valley Hills; practically exhibiting his faith in an old folk lore tale which

Page 61

was periodically related in various localities with local color, though in substance the same. An Indian appeared at the Warren Tavern blacksmith shop with a gun to be repaired, so runs the local renderation (sic).

The blacksmith refused the work, saying that he had no coal, and the Indian vanished, returning with a bag of coal in a very short time, remarking briefly, "Now fix gun!" On inquiry as to where he had obtained it, he waved his hand toward the South Valley Hills, exclaiming, "Plenty coal there!"

William was next the victim of the Silkworm craze which caught some other Tredyffrin farmers. About 1833, he divided up his land and sold off portions.

LIST OF INTERMENTS

Thomas Bradley, a native of England, died August 27, 1826; aged 76 years.

Eliza Gleim (Mother of Maria Fahnestock), died October 1, 1786; aged 74 years, 6 months.

Casper Fahnestock, died September 1, 1808; aged 85 years, 7 months.

Charles Fahnestock, son of Casper and Maria, died June 16, 1832; aged 76 years, 4 months, 15 days.

Charles Fahnestock, son of Charles and Susanna, died July 22, 1820; aged 26 years, 7 months.

Edwin Fahnestock, son of Charles and Susanna, died August 15, 1814; aged 3 years, 5 months, 12 days.

Eliza Fahnestock, daughter of Charles and Susanna, died August 14, 1807; aged 3 years, 5 months, 2 days.

Hannah Fahnestock, daughter of Charles and Susanna, died August 27, 1826; aged 20 years, 3 months, 22 days.

Henry Fahnestock, son of Charles and Susanna, died December 19, 1822; aged 24 years, 2 months.

John Fahnestock, died August 22, 1809; aged 20 years, 11 months.

Maria Catherine Fahnestock, consort of Casper, died August 5, 1805; aged 71 years.

Rebecca Fahnestock, daughter of Charles and Susanna, died March 14, 1827; aged 29 years, 6 months, 10 days.

Susan Fahnestock, daughter of Charles and Susanna, died July 7, 1832; aged 35 years, 2 months, 7 days.

Susanna Fahnestock, consort of Charles, died September 17, 1814; aged 45 years, 11 months, 23 days.