/5f tf.'Z F 159 .MS D2 Copy 2 Keroluttonary Solbiers' (Brakes IN LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP Zriontgomcry County, Pennsylvania And the Surrounding Townships of Roxborough and Blockley, In Philadelphia County; Haverford and Radnor, in Delaware County; and Upper Merlon and White Marsh, In Montgomery County. Pt^BPRI^ED OflOBl^ THE AOSPICHS Op IBerion Chapter, Daughters of the flmeriean Hevolution RJiO POBliISHHD fiY JKps. John p. Oevelin, Regent 21ISONXG02VSBRV COUNTV, PK. 1S06 (UnjM^ Officers of Merion Chapter 1906 n 5=1 Regent Mrs. John F. Develin Vice-Regetits Miss Mary E. Harding Mrs. Edward H. Harding Mrs. S. T. Jones Recording Secretary Mrs. Beulah H. Whilldin Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Peter J. Hughes Registrar Miss Henrietta C. K. Ydndt Treasurer Miss Ellen J. Heston Historian Miss Margaret B. Harvey Board of Management Mrs. J. P. RowBOTHAM Mrs. Wesley H. Hoot Mrs. George J. DeArmond Miss Virginia Marshall Mrs. John F. L,eak Revolutionary Soldiers' Graves. Merion Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, started the work of locating Revolutionary soldiers' graves in the spring of 1896. The general public can have no conception of the immense difficulties encountered. All of the old burying-grounds in Lower Menon were visited and the antiquated tombstones carefully exam- ined. In some cases, the nearly effaced inscriptions had to be scratched with sticks, or rubbed with paper, before they could be decii)hered. Wherever a man's name could be found, with dates showing that he lived during the Revolutionary period, or was of a proper age to have served during the Revolutionary war, that name and those dates were faithfully copied. Next came the work of consulting old burial records. But, unfortunately, these were few. After laborious research, very little in addition was gleaned to what had already been gathered from the tombstones. Now came the tremendous task of deciding how many of these men, whose names had been gathered, actually did serve in the Revolutionary war. Their names might be in the Pennsylvania Archives, but these records were themselves incomplete. Still, with all difficulties, the names of seventy-seven Lower Merion patriots were discovered. Following is the first list, as published in the Bryn Mawr Home News, May 19, 1896. The same list is mentioned in the "First Re- port of the Daughters of the American Revolution to the Smith- sonian Institution, 1890 to 1897" (see page 73). Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Lower Merion. In St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Ardmore, Col. Philip Lowry, Casper Weest, John Brooks, John P. Miller, Martin Miller, John Smith, John Goodman, William Smith, Joseph Grover, William Wagner, David Young, Llewellyn Young, Peter Ott, Peter Ott (2nd), Peter Trexler, George Horn, George Horn (2nd), Daniel McElroy, John Horn, Ludwick Knoll, Martin Wise, Adam Grow, Jacob Waggoner, Jacob Latch, Michael Fimple. In the same cemetery are interred the following-named soldiers of the War of 1812: Col. Conrad Krickbaum, Col. Wm. Pechin, Adam Litzenberg, John Fimple, John Latch, John Stadelman. In the Lower Merion Baptist Cemetery, Bryn Mawr, are inter- red the following-named Revolutionary soldiers : Samuel Davis, William Thomas, Joseph Wilson, John Wilson, James Wilson, John Elliott, John Young, Jacob Morris, John Cornog. In the Lower Merion Friends' Burying Ground, near the Gen- eral Wayne : Lieut. -Col. Algernon Roberts, Thomas Roberts, Joseph Roberts, John Roberts, William Roberts, Jacob Hoffman, John Wells, John Price, Isaac Davis, Lieutenant Thomas Wynn, Daniel Williams. In the Bicking Family Graveyard, Mill Creek : Frederick Bick- ing, Jno. M. Kuhn. Harriton Family Cemetery : Major William Cochran. Here was first interred Charles Thomson, Secretary of Continental Con- gress, who gave the ground now occupied by Lower Merion Baptist Church and Cemetery. West Laurel Hill Cemetery. The bodies from the German Re- formed Church Burying Ground ; from the First Unitarian, and from the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, were removed to this beautiful place. In the plot of the German Reformed Church were re-interred the following-named Revolutionary soldiers : Col. Archibald Steele, Captain Andrew Long, Charles Gerhart, William Long, Jacob Ed- denburne, Valentine Smith, James Irwin, John Stotsenburg, John Stroop, Jacob Koorer, John Coleman. First Unitarian Plot: Henry Peale, Thomas Harper, George Murray, John Redman, Caleb Foulke, John Spencer, John Wright, W. Wright, Joseph Barnet, William Turner, Robert Campbell. Church of the Epiphany : William Brown, Robert Ellis, Henry Murray, Edward Moore, John Montgomery. Merion Chapter also located the graves of the following-named Revolutionary soldiers : In the Blockley Baptist Cemetery : John Suplee. William Shel- drake, John Graham. In the Rose Family Burying Ground, Fortieth and Ludlow Streets, West Philadelphia : William Rose. Charles Robinson. Woodlands Cemetery. West Philadelphia : Col. Edward Heston. (See West Philadelphia Telephone, May i6. 1896.) In the Bryn Mawr Home News for May 28, 1897, appeared another list of Revolutionary soldiers buried in Lower Merion. The following names had been added : In St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Ardmore : John Fiss, William Fiss. Soldiers of 1812: Jacob Stadelman. Simon Litzenberg. Merion Chapter has, in addition, identified the graves of several Revolutionary soldiers in the Leech Family Burying Ground, near what is now Fifty-first Street and Greenway Avenue, Philadelphia. Among these are the last resting places of John Leech, William Leech, Jacob Hofifman, and David Sheldrake. This last was the father of William Sheldrake, buried in Blockley Baptist Cemetery. See "I-'ourth Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to the Smithsonian Institution." page 417. Since these first lists were published, the Third Series of Penn- sylvania Archives appeared, which gave additional Revolutionary records, and the names of the taxables in all the old Pennsylvania Charles Thomson, Secretary of Continental Congress, was at first interred in the Harriton Family Cemetery, on his own ground and among his wife's kindred. It was his own wish to lie in this beautiful, sequestered spot. When Laurel Hill Cemetery was opened his nephew and other professed admirers removed the patriot's remains surreptitiously, and re-interred them in the new burial ground. The Harriton property was then in possession of the Mor- ris family, relatives of Mrs. Charles Thomson. To remove Secre- tary Thomson's body was trespass, as to reach the family burying ground it was necessary to cross private property ; but, as the Morris family were Quakers, they felt bound to follow out the doctrine of non-resistance. Hence, they never demanded the return of the stolen body. But Mr. George Vaux, of Philadelphia, whose wife was a Morris, is of the opinion that the robbers did not succeed in finding the right body. The graves believed by him to be occupied by the remains of Charles Thomson and his wife are marked with rough stones, and the memorial tablet has never been taken out of the en- closing wall. It is but just to say that the greater part of the arduous labor of identifying Revolutionary soldiers' graves was inaugurated and carried out by Miss Margaret B. Harvey, who has been Historian of Merion Chapter from the time of its organization in 1895. This Chapter has made it a special work to popularize the Colonial and Revolutionary history of Lower Merion and vicinity. DORA HARVEY DEVELIN, (Mrs. John F.) Regent. Winter address — Hamilton Court, West Philadelphia, Pa. Summer address — Fernwood, Pa. APPENDIX. Since the above was written, the graves of the following-named Revolutionary patriots have been located : Blockley Baptist Cemetery : John Little, William Donaldson, John Gamber, Peter Worrell, John Tyson, Benjamin Town, Benja- min Miller, Thomas Wyatt, William McClure. Lower Merion Friends' Burying Ground : Richard Jones, Ed- ward George. St. Paul's Lutheran, Ardmore: Henry Colflesh. Radnor Friends' : Mordecai Morgan. 11 LIBRrtRY OF CONGRESS 'l1l'1ll1'lll''ll!IVfP'f!ili 014 365 250 6 || LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 365 250 6 ^;