Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1853-04-29


should pass with it,
A few years ago, one Of the largest Q
the oaks, being dead, was taken to saw
mill In the middle of one log, the sa,
came upon spike or nail, which nearl.
destroyed the saw. An examination wa
made, and it was found there were owe
one hundred growths or rings above th'
spike-indicating probable survey o.
much over 100 years ago.
| From the southeast corner of the church
building, is the burial ground, surrounded
by firm stone-wall, and warning upon
the entrance gate not to speak or conduct
irrevcrently over the sleeping dust beneath.
Here are five or six generations of kindred,
laid side by sidc-children, brothers, IA
ther, grandfather, and perhaps great-grand-
father of some man of mature age. Our
informant states that he had occasion a
few years since to dig grave, in a spot
where no one had any knowledge of any
being having been lain. He soon, howev-
er, disinterrcd the remains Of a child-bc-
meath that, were the remains of woman,
or youth of ID or 16-and below that, of
a large-sized man, whose teeth were sound
and entirc-yet no one could give him any
information concerning them, whatever
So full of the bones of onr brother man,
has this little spot become, in less than
century and half. How many tears have
here fallen. How many hopes lie buried
here. How many of the tenderest sym
pathies of our nature, have here been
crushed What holy ties have here been
broken!
Perhaps within this spot is laid
Some heart once Pregnant with celestial FIRE.
Hands that the rod Of empire might have swaycd,
Or wakei to ecstscy the living lyre!"
What prayers-what supplications, have
gone up from that house, and this yard,
to Heaven. But the suppliants have
mostly passed away, and the places that
knew them once shall know them no more
for ever" Here are names, upon tomb
stones erected by the strongest impulses,
of whom no one living perhaps has any
further knowledge than the tombstone
Here are mounds which cover precious
lust-but who knows what form was there
Stones are pointed out, of IA
miles once the " first - in all that region,
If whom no representative is now known
Many, hcwsver, are still familiar-as FL |
Ter, Rutherford, Sturgeon, Simpson, Col !.
lier, Ritchey, Espy, Mcclure, Awl, Crouch,
Bigger, Jordan, Tongue, Gray, Maclay,
Patton, Dunlap, Montgomery. Some of
the records are on sandstone, almost quite |
illegible others on redstone some on the
finest marble; and one (about IS years
,ld) on wood, still seryiceable.
One of the tombstones states that the
: Simpson family settled here about the
rear 1120." l know not whether any
;hurch or other records indicate the pre-
Use time. The first settlers w@e all Scotch
irish Presbyterians. Among their dcsccn-
iants were men at the siege of Quebec
md Paxton soldiers were in almost every
battlefield Of the Revolution Since then,
hey have spread abroad to all parts of the
-nion-Buffaloc Valley and the North
lmberland country not excepted; and eve
ywhere, they exhibit the manly physical
rames as well as retain the faith of their
ncestors Here, however, the Germans
lave silently dispossessed BY purchase most
f the original Scotch-Irish farmers.
The slaves held by these families were
'uried outside the wall, and their bones
ave occasionally been found by the farm.
RS plow or spade.
Here lies buried John Harris, the foun-
er of Harrisburg, and son of John Harris,
he original settler of and founder of Har-
is Ferry. He died in 1871, at the sup
'osed age of 60, and was said to be not
My the first white children west of the
'onewago hills, but the first person who
Introduced the plough on the Susquehanna
The dates would fix his birth at l726-six
ears after the alleged settlement of the
simpson family.
Here also lies John Elder, not only
'reaeher for 60 years, but also Colonel of
'axton Rangers. He died on his farm,
lear this yard, in 1892, aged Sc. Thom-
S Elder, Sr., President of the Harrisburg
Bank, is his son.
Here lies also VIM. Maclay, son-in- law
f John Harris, once owner Of the present
lite of the Capitol, who with Robert Nor
is represented Pennsylvania in the first
United States Senate under the present
constitution. Maclaysburg, originally
lorth west of Harrisburg, is now incorpo-
ated with it.
There arc in this neighborhood, ira
itions and "reminiscences in abundance,
wo or three Of which may be worth re-
ording,
A Masonic Lodge was instituted at an