Tombstone Tuesday

13 December 2018

Emily VanViet Loder

Emily VanVliet Loder, she was born a middle child to a large family of farmers John & Susan Labar VanVliet on 27 Nov 1834 Stoud Township, Monroe Co, Pa. The family surname has been spelled a number of ways, VanFleet, VanFleit and has origins in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. You can find her mother and father buried under the surname VanFleit, Both of her parent families come from early settlers of Stroud Township. She married Alexander Loder (1828-1903) in 1851. Alexanders family were early settlers in Warren Co., NJ They had children, Achilles, Laura (Horace Bush M.D.), Vinton and William. They owned and worked on a farm until her husband bought property in East Stroudsburg and built a store on the corner of crystal and Analomink Street

Emily d. 14 April 1920 according to her death certificate. Her cemetery stone has her death date 14 April 1921. She and her husband are both buried at Stroudsburg Cemetery.

Michael Ransberry

Michael Ransberry born 10 July 1807 in Berwick, Pa. He was the son of Henry and Sarah Bowman Ransberry. His family moved when he was about 4 to the Solladay/High Bridge farm owned by his uncle John, owned large amounts of land in Stroud and Smithfield Township.

He apprenticed as a tanner with John Brown of Smithfield Township, and worked in his trade until he returned home to help his father on the farm. He married Katherine Overpeck ( 1815-1846) in 1835. He married Sarah Rowe (1840-1913)

He moved and built a house on Courtland Street, East Stroudsburg, where he died 31 Jan 1883. He and his wives are buried in the Ransberry Family Cemetery, Analomink, Pa. The cemetery and property around it was part of the original family homestead.

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2251827/ransberry-family-cemetery/photo

President Andrew Johnson

President Andrew Johnson, Don and I traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains in Oct 2015. We took a side trip on the way home to visit Greenville, Tennessee. The home town of Andrew & Eliza McCardle Johnson. https://www.nps.gov/anjo/index.htm. We thought we would be there 2 hours, we enjoyed it enough we spent the day. We knew nothing about the former president but learned a lot while there. The National park service has done an amazing job at preservation.
Andrew born 29 Dec 1808 in Raleigh, N.C. was the son of Jacob & Mary Polly McDonough. He was self-educated and was apprenticed as a tailor. Starting from humble beginnings he becomes the 17^th president of the United States upon the death of Abraham Lincoln 15 Apr. 1865. He married 16 year old Eliza McCardle (1810-1876). The Johnsons were married for almost 50 years and had five children: Martha (1828), Charles (1830), Mary (1832), Robert (1834), and Andrew Jr. (1852). She supported her husband in his political career, but avoided public appearances. During the American Civil War, Confederate authorities ordered her to evacuate her home in Greeneville; she took refuge in Nashville.A few months later after her husband became president, she joined him in the White House, but she was not able to serve as First Lady due to her poor health from tuberculosis. She remained confined to her bedroom there, leaving the social chores to her daughter Martha Johnson Patterson.

Andrew died on 31 July 1875, he and Eliza and their family are buried at Monument Hill Cemetery or Andrew Jackson National Cemetery, Greenville Tnn. The land the cemetery is on was owned by the Johnsons.leanr more about the cemetery; https://www.nps.gov/anjo/cemeteryhist.htm

see photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/w3MHCETpveBQBL8m6

03 December 2018

Thomas Washington Rhodes

Thomas Washington Rhodes. I enjoy all the research I do on all the people I share on Tombs stone Tuesday. I was so impressed with Thomas Rhodes. He is someone, I would have loved to have met. Thomas was born 10 Aug. 1811 to Adam (1777-1845) & Catherine Besecker (1778-1861) Rhodes. They were early pioneers of Northampton Co. The surname was originally spelled ROTH and is present-day spelled RHODES. He was a carpenter and lived and apprenticed under George Keller. He went into the millwright business and owned several lumber mills in Pa and NJ.

I wanted a better understanding of what a Millwright really did, (A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman who installs, dismantles, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills and fulling mills powered by water or wind, mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts. Since both of these structures originated from antiquity, millwrighting could be considered, arguably, as one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer.)

He retires from the Millwright business and becomes what I would consider a contractor and builds, Stroudsburg Bank, the Woolen Mills, and the Lutheran Church. He becomes a director of the bank and the mill. He married for the first time 14 Jan 1836 Mary Ann Heller (1818-1853) they have children; Sydenham, Charles, Marion, Ellen Edward, George & Martha. His second wife Catherine Keller (1822-1904) he marries on 5 July 1853. Their children; George, Martha, Stewart, Erwin, Mary, Jennie, Emma, Millard. He becomes the manager of the Monroe Mutual Fire Insurance Company, he and his family are members of the Lutheran church of Stroudsburg. He dies 25 Jan 1891. I know this is Tombstone Tuesday but Thomas tombstone is missing. I am pretty sure he is buried next to his first wife at the

Keller Church Cemetery, Cherry Valley, Stroud Twp. http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?574,335323

Judge Samuel S. Dreher

Honorable Judge Samuel S. Dreher he was born 10 April 1824 to the Michael H. & Elizabeth Smith Dreher (also a judge) he was the oldest of 9 children. Both his mother and father families come from very early settlers in Monroe Co. His grandfather George was a tailor and had a hotel. He studied law under the Hon. M.M. Dimmick and after being admitted to the bar became partners with Mr. Dimmick. He was elected to president judge in 1870 and served the 22 Judicial District, which composed of Wayne, Pike, Monroe & Carbon counties. In 1874 the district was cut in two and he served the new 22 which consisted of Monroe & Carbon Co. On 21 Dec. 1848 he married Sallie Phillips (1826-1915)of Stroudsburg. They had a family of five; Anna, Oscar, Lizzie, Howard, Addie. Samuel died 26 Jun 1893 and is buried with his wife in the Stroudsburg, Cemetery, Dreher Ave.

William Place Sr.

William Place Sr. he was born in (1804- 19 June 1886) in Monroe co., Pa to Martin and Mary Overfield Place. Martin & Mary where esteemed residents of Middle Smithfield Township. William moved to the Egypt Mills/Bushkill area of Pike County and had a large amount of land he farmed and later he and his wife Susanna operated the hotel known as Maple Grove. He married Susanna Custard (1808-aft 1880). She was from Pike County and the daughter of William and Elizabeth VanCampen Custard. William and Susanna had a busy family life and had children; Elizabeth, Mary, Jacob H., Oliver (1839-1908), Susanna, William, Sarah (1841-1919 VanAucken) & baby Sophenia. Their son Jacob H. went into the family business and owned the Mountain View House @ Maple Grove. I’m not sure if that is the Maple Grove House or another boarding home. William, Susanna and their daughter Sarah are all buried at the Swartswood/Valley View Cemetery, outside of Bushkill in Lehman Township, Pike County, Pa.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39712017
directions: Located about.3.25 miles north of Bushkill in Lehman Township on a hill just west of Route 209.

Cemetery is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Pennsylvania side, just south of Tom's Creek Picnic area. Watch for the sign for Mile Marker 4. There is semi-circle gravel parking area directly opposite Valley View Campsite entrance. Park and walk back along the North entrance drive then take the footpath into the woods. This path opens up to a woods road, take right fork and follow to the top of the bluff. The cemetery overlooks Rt 209 and a large corn field.

Major General George H. Thomas

Ed Mcginnis gave me a tour of The Oakwood Cemetery while visiting him and his wife Sandra during Thanksgiving weekend. While listening and looking at their map I was taking random photos of things that interested me. I knew nothing about George Thomas history when I took the photo of his tomb. I started to research him and realized, he’s one of those military guys no one talks about but has had an amazing and successful military career. A lover if nature and a real hater of war, basically a nomad, staying only 5 months at a time in one place or another threw his whole life. I enjoyed learning about his life and career. Known as “The Rock of Chickamauga.” he held the Union line against the Confederate forces, earning him the nickname, Major General George H Thomas, born on 3 July 1816 Newsoms, Southampton Co. Virginia to John and Elizabeth Thomas.

Promoted to Full Colonel on 03 May 1861. Promoted to Full Brig-General on 03 Aug 1861. Commissioned an officer in Company S, Regular Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment on 25 Apr 1861. Mustered out on 03 Aug 1861. Transferred to Company S, Regular Army 5th Cavalry Regiment on 03 Aug 1861. Commissioned an officer in the U.S. Volunteers General Staff Infantry Regiment on 03 Aug 1861. Promoted to Full Major-Gen on 25 Apr 1862. Promoted to Full Brig-General on 27 Oct 1863. Mustered out on 27 Oct 1863. Mustered out on 27 Oct 1863. Commissioned an officer in the Regular Army General Staff Infantry Regiment on 27 Oct 1863. Promoted to Full Major-Gen on 15 Dec 1864.

He was set to go to law school when a friend secured him a place at West Point in 1836. When Virginia seceded from the Union, George remained with the Union, engaging in many battles on his home soil. His family never forgave him. They turned his portrait to the wall, never spoke to him again, and refused to come to his funeral. He and his wife, Frances Lucretia Kellogg (1821-1889) who he married in N.Y. 20 Nov. 1852 had no children, its said that the Army of the Cumberland, numbered in the tens of thousands called him father and wept for him in grief when he died 28 March 1870, San Francisco, Ca. He is buried with his wife at Oakwood Cemetery, Troy NY. The funeral was the largest in New York history. Over 10,000 mourners, including President Ulysses S. Grant.

Also buried their Rice Cook Bull a Union Army Soldier in the Civil War and author of the book, Soldiering: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull, 123rd New York Volunteer Infantry. Still in print today, it is considered by many historians to be one of the finest first-hand accounts of an enlisted man's experiences in the Civil War. But we will save him for another Tuesday.