Somehow the stonecutter managed to run out of room twice while cutting the name “Templeton” into this stone for a young wife who died at the age of twenty-eight. (“Consort” simply means “wife”; it was strongly believed among rural folk in the early nineteenth century that “consort” was a much more elegant word.) This Gothic style of tombstone became popular at about this time; there are several examples in the cemetery.
David Reed was one of the early settlers in the Canonsburg area, according to the cemetery’s Web site; we know that he was here by at least 1779. He hosted George Washington at his house, which was awfully considerate of him, considering that Washington had come to take his house away. George was a big-time real-estate speculator, and he had claimed huge tracts of land in what was, to him, Augusta County, Virginia. (The area south of the Ohio River was still fitfully disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania until after 1800.) The Reeds and many other settlers had moved here on the strength of other claims to the same land, and politely told Washington they would await the decision of the court. Courts ultimately ruled in favor of Washington, but the settlers moved only a short distance, close enough to walk to their little log church and be buried in its churchyard.
Ann’s tombstone is well preserved; David’s is damaged, but enough of the inscription remains to tell us that he died in December of 1829, fifty years after his first appearance in the records as an elder of the church.
A typical zinc pillar with every panel filled to capacity with inscriptions. Father Pitt guesses that it was bought in about 1899 (the date of the death of Harvey Neill Reed), but the family took the opportunity to remember many other Reeds perhaps otherwise unrepresented by monuments, going all the way back to 1839. A Reed family was among the first settlers of the Canonsburg area, and some of those early settlers have tombstones very near this plot; these Reeds are probably related.
A good and mostly well-preserved early-settler tombstone. It would have been erected in 1825 when Matthew died, to judge by the fact that the inscription seems to have been made all at once. The spelling “Agness” is unusual, but many early settlers were illiterate, and the stonecutters were only barely literate. An update: Father Pitt has changed his mind here: the spelling Agness is not unusual, but rather the standard spelling of the name in western Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He has found at least three other tombstones of the era with the same spelling
If you enlarge the picture, you can still trace the faint lines the stonecutter scratched in the stone to guide his lettering.
SACRED to the memory of Agness Bowland Who departed this life 9th of Augt. 1797 in 46 year of her age
—
And in memory of Matthew Bowland Who departed this life Febry. 13th 1825 in the 82d year of his age.
A tombstone from 1817 remembering a father and daughter. Since they have different surnames, it seems likely that the daughter married; but perhaps her husband had no money for a tombstone, and it was not until her father died (he outlived her by eight years) that she had any memorial.
Old Pa Pitt was not able to read the last part of the inscription, but here is what he could read:
In memory of John Reed Esq. who Departed this life April 14th 1817 in the 73d year of his Age——and Cathrine McLean his daug[hter] who died in the 25th year of her Age 1807 they liv’d in peace with the world in love with their [neighbors?] death…
Note the spelling of “Cathrine.” Reeds were among the very earliest settlers in the Canonsburg area; this is probably a branch of that family.
The stonecutter was the craftsman we identify as the Master of the Curly G, who had a wide-ranging practice: stones of his also show up in Robinson Run Cemetery and Union Cemetery (Robinson Township).
