Where Is the Fassett Family Cemetery in Wyoming County Pa
Flanking a modern marker depicting the grave site of Overfield Cemetery'due south oldest known inhabitant, Capt. Prince Alden, are Board of Trustees members (above, from left) Wayne Sherwood, Gail James, and Ben Cole.
Photos and story past Rick Hiduk
(Also published in Living Susquehanna/Wyoming County Magazine)
Above the railroad tracks forth the Susquehanna River in Meshoppen Township, Wyoming Canton, a pair of cemeteries is flanked by hay fields along Sherwood Road be hind the Wyoming County Fairgrounds. To the west is the Overfield Cemetery, its oldest stones abutting those of St. Joachim's Cemeter y , where burials started more than a century later .
One thousand embers of the Overfield Cemetery Lath of Trustees accept taken upon themselves the task of maintaining this historic graveyard, whose inhabitants represent not only the beginning of the communities that flourished in western Wyoming County over the past two centuries merely also the immigration of some of the first colonists to the surface area.
" Nosotros desire to leave it in practiced shape then that a younger generation wants to take it over," said lath chairman Ben Cole, whose Cole and Loomis ancestors fill many plots. The land on which the Overfield Cemetery sits, Cole noted, was purchased near the kickoff of the 18th century from the Overfield, Fassett and VanGorden families, and many other families with roots in the area have connections to its 800-plus known plots.
Revolutionary War veteran Capt. Prince Alden, keen-grandson of famous Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden, was interred there in 1804, as was his wife, Mary. The Aldens were true patriots, and many of them joined the armed services to aid the burgeoning nation in any new conflicts she faced. They are in good company among many veterans for whom the Overfield Cemetery is a final resting place.
Helm John A. Tompkins descended from a long line of men with the same or like names, starting in England, then Plymouth and Connecticut before their inflow in what would eventually become Pennsylvania. His ancestors were likewise loyal to the colonies, even at a time in New England when the family's neighbors were fleeing to Canada to avoid conflict. John A., built-in in 1838, was enlisted in the 107th Regiment of Company F, a band of Pennsylvania boys who fought the Confederate Army in Virginia. As many of his swain soldiers died in army camp of disease every bit perished on the battlefields. John died at home in 1878.
James A. Gay, born 1844, was the son of John and Julia Gay. He enlisted after that Tompkins in the Civil War and was taken into the 210th Regiment formed in Harrisburg in September of 1864. He was killed in action at Hatches Run, VA, on Feb. 6, 1865 and cached there. He was re-interred at the Overfield Cemetery a month later on.
In that location existed an era of relative peace betwixt the second war with the British and the Civil War, and that's where the story of many of today'due south local relatives begins. Other names that visitors will run into on numerous headstones include Sterling, Bunnell, Sturdevant, Vosburg, and, of course, Overfield.
The Sterlings were among the most prolific, co-ordinate to local historian, Marge Walters. Earlier Meshoppen was bestowed its anglicized Indian proper noun, it was known in 1820 as Sterlingville. Later a brief period as Meshoppen, the Sterlingville name reigned again from 1861 to 1866. Meshoppen has been the official name since and so.
Samuel Sterling emigrated from Connecticut to Exeter before moving to Falls, then Wyalusing and eventually purchasing a big tract of country in Black Walnut Bottom. He married Mary Gregory, and they had 10 children.
" Of the 10 children, Daniel and his sister, Harriet, fabricated the Sterling/Overfield connectedness," Vocalizer explained. Daniel had three wives, as the offset ii died shortly later childbirth. Harriet married Nicholas Overfield, son of Paul and Hannah Depew. Hannah was a child survivor of the Indian uprising in Wyoming Valley in 1778. Legend has it that the lives of her siblings and mother were spared by an Indian whom her mother had in one case nursed dorsum to wellness.
Peacetime never seems to last, of course, and many man and women interred there from the belatedly 1800s through the side by side century were also veterans. Henry Baker fought with Gen. Grant through the finish of the Civil War. Lee Allen is listed as the first Meshoppen casualty of World War I. Globe War II veterans included Martin Harrison Cortright, who died of pneumonia in Europe, and Frederick Fassett, who was killed in action in a foxhole betwixt Nancy, France and Frankfurt, Germany afterward receiving two purple hearts for wounds received.
George Kennard, whose family unit name once dotted Meshoppen, fought in the Civil War under Gen. McClellan at the Battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oak earlier returning to Meshoppen to build the hotel that diameter his name. His girl, Frances Kennard, attended Drexel Library School and returned to directly library activities locally, and the Kennard Memorial Library in Meshoppen was defended in her honor.
Mostly retired, the Overfield Cemetery Trustees note that they are the descendants of Low-era families. Their parents were very conservative with money, and they passed that frugality downward to their children. T hree of eight board members who met at the Overfield Cemetery on a recent hum id summer afternoon suggested it is t hat sense of thrift has allowed the Trustees to proceed upwards with costs for mowing, clearing old trees felled by storms, and repaving the roadways between the plots.
I n the past twelvemonth, the U-shape d route t hrough the cemetery has been repaved, much expressionless woods was removed, and numerous onetime stones were straightened. Righting the centuries old markers was a labor of love and respect for b oard secretary Wayne Sherwood, whose ancestors there include the McMickens, Dunlaps and Carters. His gramps, Arthur Carter, served as its sexton for Lath of Trustees in the 1950s. Sherwood maintains many of the cemetery's old record s .
" We feel responsible to continue it in shape so the next two generations don't have to start from scratch," said trustee Gail James, whose great-bang-up-great grandfather George Capwell is buried there, equally well equally a number of her Smales ancestors.
J ames is an avid historian who visits and photographs grave sites around the region and conducts a lot of research online. While still quite spry at fourscore, she is non lone in her business concern for the long-term maintenance of Overfield and so many local cemeteries like it. "We're torn," she conceded . "Is it our responsibility or the families'?"
The Trustees contract with various companies and individuals for mowing, grave digging and tree removal. There are still burial plots available for buy at the Overfield Cemeter y, and many families enter perpetual care agreements with the lath .
T hose interested in supporting the efforts of the Overfield Cemetery Lath of Trustees in any way may contact board treasurer W. Kenneth Price at 570-836-3834.
The Alden/Mowry stone, mark the plot in which directly descendants of Plymouth Stone settlers John and Priscilla Alden were interred. Prince, George, and Ezekiel were veterans of the Revolutionary War, State of war of 1812, and Civil War, respectively. Prince's son, Bricklayer Fitch, survived the Revolutionary War, erected the beginning grist mill on Meshoppen Creek before 1800 and died here in 1812.
Trees initially planted for aesthetics become obstacles and then disruptions in cemeteries, as this ane did to the final resting place of Elias Mowry, son of Charles and Sarah Titus Mowry.
Source: http://www.endlessmtnlifestyles.com/overfield-cemetery-marks-communitys-earliest-settlers/
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