In an out-of-the-way corner of Highland Park, in Pittsburgh, behind the uppermost reaches of the zoo, there's a monument that marks the site of an old cemetery for settlers. It's essentially fifty unmarked graves sharing a single headstone on which only the two most prominent personages are named. On side of the monument reads:
"Sacred to the memory of those noble Christian pioneers who moulded the character of this community in its struggling and formative period. This monument marks the center of a burial ground located on the former homestead of Alexander Negley, where are interred about fifty early settlers of the East Liberty Valley."
It seems strange to refer to East Liberty as a valley, when it is one of the city's very few plateaus. The opposite side of the monument reads:
"In memory of Alexander Negley, born in Germany 1734, of Swiss ancestry, came to Eastern Pennsylvania 1739, served in the war of the Revolution, settled on site of Highland Park 1778, died Nov. 3, 1809, and his wife Mary Ann Burkstresser, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1741, died June 17, 1829, both interred here.
Erected by their granddaughter, Sarah Jane Negley Mellon"
Your speaking my language: oddities in the woods, cemeteries, early settlers. I just love the colonial history and the settlement of our country.
ReplyDeleteYou ought to google "Old Stone Tavern" and take a look at all that. It still exists at the bottom of Greentree Road in the West End area of the city. There are some pictures of the interior and what I think is a map sketched on the wall.