Carved by A. Pool

Finding a gravestone signed by the carver is always a treat. The gravestone for Phebe Tucker (d. 1848) is signed A. Pool, and although I have found a number of gravestones carved in this style, this is the first one that I have seen (well, that I recall) that is signed by Pool.

[Note to self: Must organize gravestone photos by cemetery, by surname, and by carver.]

PHEBE, WIFE,
of
STILLMAN
TUCKER, DIED AP,
24, 1848,
AGED, 32, YEARS.
Fare well ye friends whose tender care
Has long engaged my love,
Your fond embrace I now exchange,
For better friends above.

Cheerful I leave this vale of tears,
Where panes and sorrows grow,
Welcome the day that ends my toil,
And evry scene of woe.

Wait one minute. I have seen that epitaph before. It was the subject of one of my earliest blog posts. Did A. Pool carve the gravestone for Minerva Janes? Same gravestone style; same epitaph.

And is it a coincidence that another gravestone in the same style is for Joseph Pool?

I am now officially on the lookout for A. Pool gravestones.

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Blendon Central Cemetery, Franklin County, Ohio

Epitaph: And all our sighs be hushed in peace

Siblings William Radley Arrison (d. 1844) and Amelia Isabella Arrison (d. 1844) died within days of each other. They are buried side by side in a Franklin County, Ohio cemetery.

William Radley,
son of
Alexander & Jane Arrison
died Dec. 3, 1844;
aged 5 ys. 7 ds.

Amelia Isabella,
daughter of
Alexander & Jane Arrison
died Dec. 8, 1844;
ae, 2Ys. 4 mo. & 6ds.

Their epitaph is the poem (with a gender change) “On Two Little Sisters” by Maria James, who wrote her poetry in the early 19th century as “a young woman in service to” a prominent family in Rhinebeck, New York. [1] Here is the original:

Sleep, little sisters, side by side,—
No chance, no change can now divide;
Together in the dust you lie,
Together tread the courts on high.
If once the eye of faith could see
Your full, complete felicity,
How would our sad repinings cease,
And all our sighs be hush’d in peace.

[1] James, Marie. Wales, and Other Poems. New York: John S. Taylor, 1839.

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Blendon Central Cemetery, Franklin County, Ohio

A mother buried alone

The tablet gravestone for Martha Nelson (d. 1794) stands in a tiny country cemetery in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, weathered but still readable—if you take time to look closely.

Here Lies
Interr’d the Remains of
MARTHA NELSON
wife of
ROBERT NELSON
who Departed this Life
the 26 day of February
Anno Domni [sic] 1794
Aged about 63 years

Click image to enlarge

But where is Robert Nelson? Why is he not buried next to Martha?

After a bit of online research, I learned why Robert Nelson is not buried here:

Robert Nelson’s house being of unusual size was the rendezvous and the store house for the supplies of all the patriots of that valley during the period of the Revolution and the troublesome times that preceded it. As Cedar Springs was not far distant from Valley Forge, Robert Nelson sent large supplies of food and clothing from his own stores to the suffering soldiers. His four sons were of this devoted army, David, Andrew and John as officers, and James as a private, were encamped at Valley Forge during all of the terrible winter of 1778–9. Robert Nelson’s great zeal, sympathy and devotion to the cause of liberty resulted in the final sacrifice and loss of his beautiful estate of Cedar Springs from which he had raised great sums of money in gold.

His wife, Martha Patterson, died at Cedar Springs, February 26, 1794. Owing to the death of his wife, the sacrifice of his estate, his failing powers, Robert Nelson left Juniata Valley in 1800. His sons David and John had two years before located lands in the new territory beyond the Ohio—David in Ohio and John near Bowling Green, Ky. Robert Nelson went to visit his sons and died while visiting his son John in Bowling Green at the age of 80, in September, 1804. He was buried in Bowling Green. [1]

What a coincidence that Martha Nelson’s son David is buried not far from my home in Ohio!

[1] Foster, Harriet MacIntyre. (1908). Lieutenant David Nelson. The “Old Northwest” Genealogical Quarterly, 11 (2), 77–93.

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Glebe Cemetery, Juaniata County, Pennsylvania

“An aged woman”

Glebe Cemetery, a tiny country cemetery in central Pennsylvania, was established in 1773. One of the old gravestones marks the grave of Isabella Curren (d. 1790).

Note to my descendants: Please do not write “an aged woman” on my gravestone, even if it is true.

Here Lies
Intr,d the Remains of
Isabella Curren, wife of
William Curren, who
Departed this Life the 7
of Dec^r Anno Domini 1790
an Aged woman
Her age unknown

Glebe Cemetery, Juniata County, Pennsylvania

Thomas Wilson, here or nearby

The graves of Thomas Wilson (d. 1796) and Mary Ann Moore Wilson (d. 1807) are no longer marked, if they ever were, but a cenotaph, perhaps placed by their grandson, is still in place. My fear that it would be difficult to find was unfounded: It is surrounded by a simple fence and impossible to miss at the back of the small cemetery.

HERE OR NEARBY LIE
THE REMAINS OF
THOMAS WILSON
AND HIS WIFE
MARY ANN MOORE
GRANDPARENTS OF
WILLIAM W. WILSON

Thomas [Wilson] was a justice of the peace in Cumberland County, and one of the men who helped drive out squatter trespassers on the unpurchased lands of the Indians in 1750. He took up a large tract where Port Royal borough is situated. One tract was warranted February 3, 1755, and had two hundred and forty-two acres; the other, June 9, 1763, had one hundred and six acres. The lower tract he called “Armagh” [after his old home in Ireland] and the other “Addition,” surveyed, April 26, 1765, by William Maclay. George Armstrong’s land bounded above on the river. Wilson moved on his lands in 1771, and assumed prominence in the early settlement. He was called “Thomas Wilson, Creek,” to distinguish him from the one at the mountain. His son, George, sheriff of Mifflin County in 1791, and his grandson, Sheriff W. W. Wilson, of Mifflintown, recently deceased, were men well known in their day. [1]

Click image to enlarge

Port Royal, PA

Thomas and Mary Ann Wilson are my 4th-great grandparents. The last parcel of the original Wilson land was a farm that had been in the family for six generations until it was sold in 2002.






[1] Ellis, F. and A. N. Hungerford, ed. History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886.

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Glebe Cemetery, Juniata County, Pennsylvania