George Hawkins 3 May 2022

 Extremely unusual.... stone in the Mount Moriah Cemetery, note the broken saber and neckcloth of George W Hawkins lieutenant colonel is that the 97th rectory RV killed at Hatchers Run died on 28th October 1864 36 years old. the stone reads: One of the brightest stars the galaxy of fallen heroes. His wife is Anna L Hawkins she was born in 1833 and died in 1919.

https://www.battlefields.org/.../civ.../battles/hatchers-run

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12710820/george-w-hawkins

Elizabeth (Betsy) Griscom- Ross April 2022

 Elizabeth Griscom who was born on 1 January 1752 N.J. her Father Samuel is a successful Carpenter and a Quaker he purchased 495 acres of land in the spring garden section North of the city of Philadelphia.

Elizabeth is also known as Betsy went to a friend's public School and church. She fell in love with John Ross who was the son of an Episcopalian rector at Christ Church. The two eloped in November 1773 and wed in New Jersey. Her wedding caused a split with her family and her being readout of the Quaker Meeting House.

The couple started an upholstery business in Philadelphia and you could find Betsy and her husband John at Christ Church sitting in pew 12. John was mortally wounded in an explosion while guarding ammunitions in 1776. He died on the 21st and was buried at Christ Church Cemetery

Betsy married in June of 1777 to Captain Joseph Ashburn a ceremony performed at Old Swedes Church on Swanson Street, Philadelphia PA. Joseph was captured by the British on a trip to West Indies he ended up in prison in England and died in March of 1782.

In May of 1783, Betsy married a third time to John Claypool the ceremony was performed at Christ Church. The couple had five daughters and John passed away in 1817 after years of illness.

Betsy died on 30 January 1836 and has been buried in three different locations. The free Quaker burial ground is on South 5th Street, Mount Moriah Cemetery, and now on Arch Street adjacent to the Betsy Ross house. In 1975 the American bicentennial city leaders ordered the remains of Betsy to be moved from Mount Moriah Cemetery to the Betsy Ross house. However, Cemetery workers found no remains beneath her tombstone. Bones found elsewhere in the family plot were deemed to be hers and we're reinterred at the Betsy Ross house.

Betsy's children: Clarissa Claypool, Susanna Claypool, Elizabeth Claypool, Jane Claypool, Harriet Claypool, Rachel Claypool, Susanna Claypool, and Acilla Ashburn.

https://historicphiladelphia.org/betsy-ross-house/what-to-see/

medicare.gov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_House

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1619546/mount-moriah-cemetery

https://christchurchphila.org/

George Alfred Townsend March 2022

 March 2022

GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND Happy Tombstone Tuesday

I did some traveling last week and one of the places I wanted to visit was Gathland State Park, 900 Arnoldstown Road, Jefferson MD. I wanted to see the tomb of George Alfred Townsend and visit his home which is also the home of a large stone monument dedicated to the memory of Civil war correspondents. The A. T. (Appalachian Trail) also passes through Gathland. It’s a great place to park and hike a portion of the trail. George was born on 30 January 1841 in Georgetown, Delaware. Son of Stephan and Mary Milbourne Townsend. He married Elizabeth Evans Rhodes (1842-1903)in 1865 they had 2 children. They made their home on an estate they called Gapland in Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain, Maryland. Townsend became a household name in the U.S.A. when in April of 1865, he reported on President Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford’s Theater by the stage actor John Wilkes Booth. As Booth and his co-conspirators attempted to escape capture, Gath rushed to Washington to report on this national news. From April 17 until May 17, Gath reported on Booth’s capture and death and the capture and executions of his co-conspirators. Using his political connections, Townsend was able to interview high-level military and government personnel, police detectives, and eyewitnesses. He attended the co-conspirators’ trials, heard their verdicts, and watched their executions by hanging. Overall, Gath wrote nine “Letters” to the New York World, describing and analyzing the events that followed President Lincoln’s death. Shortly after, Gath’s “Letters” were bound together and published as The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (1865). As one of the few first-hand accounts of the Lincoln assassination, Gath’s book is a rare primary source of information used by many Lincoln scholars even today. George built several buildings on his estate including a mausoleum. Over the door, there is an inscription “Good Night Gath”. George died 15 April 1914 at his daughter’s home in New York City. He and his wife are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa

The arch was completed in 1896, at fifty feet tall and forty feet wide, this monument has many architectural themes that were incorporated into the drawing stage. Looking at the monument today, you can see how Gath also incorporated his love for art and nature. In her book “George Alfred Townsend,” Ruthanna Hindes describes the monument best: “Above a Moorish arch sixteen feet high, built of Hummelstown purple stone are super-imposed three Roman arches. These are flanked on one side with a square crenelated tower, producing a bizarre and picturesque effect. Niches in different places shelter the carving of two horses’ heads, and symbolic terra cotta statuettes of Mercury, Electricity, and Poetry. Tables under the horses’ heads bear the suggestive words “Speed” and “Heed”; the heads are over the Roman arches. The three Roman arches are made of limestone from Creek Battlefield, Virginia, and each is nine feet high and six feet wide. These arches represent Description, Depiction, and Photography.” “The aforementioned tower contains a statue of Pan with the traditional pipes, and he is either half drawing or sheathing a Roman sword. Over a small turret on the opposite side of the tower is a gold vane of a pen bending a sword. At various places on the monument are quotations appropriate to the art of war correspondence. These are from a great variety of sources beginning with Old Testament verses. Perhaps the most striking feature of all are the tablets inscribed with the names of 157 correspondents and war artists who saw and described in narrative and picture almost all the events of the four years of the war.” [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12613560/george-alfred-townsend] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Alfred_Townsend] [http://allenbrowne.blogspot.com/2012/05/empty-tomb-and-lost-monument.html] [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2038](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2038) [https://southmountaincw.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/tell-it-not-to-gath-a-brief-biography-of-george-alfred-townsend/

Ripley Family

 The Ripley family at Stone Church Cemetery, Centerville, Upper Mt. Bethel Twp., Northampton co., Pa.

 Happy Tuesday

     John Ripley died 27 April 1891 He was a Patriot of the Civil war and served in Co. G 153rd Union Infantry.

    John was born in Wurttemberg, Germany and was married when he enlisted. He was wounded in action on 2 May 1863 in Chancellorsville Va. when he was struck in the right arm by a shell fragment. He was also wounded in the back by those same fragments and his arm was later amputated in a field hospital, 4 inches below his shoulder. In 1864 he began receiving a pension of $8 a month, which increased to $45 a month in 1891.

     Catherine Ripley 15 June 1839-11 Dec. 1922 she was born in Baden Germany

Fredrisa their daughter 3 March 1877-1889

Jacob their son

The stone has been recently cleaned and easier read

Source: "We Fought Desperate" By Jeffrey D. Stocker

The Old Union Cemetery, Upper Mt. Bethel Township Northampton Co., Pa. Dec 2021

The Old Union Cemetery at Stone Church  is located in Upper Mount Bethel Township  Northampton County Pennsylvania.  The Cemetery grounds are maintained by a  board of directors representing the two churches  to which this burial ground has always belonged.  These churches are  Trinity United Church of Christ you can see it  in my photo.  The Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church  which is across the street can be seen in  the cemetery pictures.      The congregations of both churches  the German Evangelical Lutheran and the German Evangelical reformed  worshiped in the same building in the village of Stone Church  also known as Centerville. Early records refer to the old Union Cemetery  as Christ Church Cemetery because the congregations of both  denominations were known as Christ reformed and Christ Lutheran.      The original Church a stone  structure was located in the middle  of the now existing Cemetery.  The Stone Church thus the name  of the present-day community  was removed when in 1832 a  new brick building was erected  and occupied today by the  Trinity UCC congregation.  The congregations both worshiped in the  new building until 1910 when Christ Evangelical Lutheran congregation  built a new church located across the street from the cemetery. There are at least 769 Graves well over 200 years old many of those Graves  have been lost to time many are written in German. The earliest burial is of  Anne-Marie Goetthardt Correll died on August 8 1794. The last known burial of  Sarah Dildine 1909.