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Maple Summit Cemetery

Elizabeth (Rowan) Hall was born on April 19, 1831, in Maple Summit, Springfield Township, Fayette County, PA, the daughter of James and Catherine (Harbaugh) Rowan.

Her features included dark hair and blue eyes. Unmarried at the age of 19, in 1850, Elizabeth resided with her parents in Youghiogheny Township, Fayette County. Then again in 1860, still single at age 29, she remained in her parents' household in Stewart Township, Fayette County.

Evidence suggests that during the Civil War years between 1862 and 1866, when she would have been in her early 30s, she was united in wedlock with widower Joseph Hall Jr. (1811-1888?), the son of Joseph and Mary (Matthews) Hall Sr. 

Joseph was two decades older than his bride and could neither read nor write. His father is considered one of three siblings who launched the Hall lineage in the southern Somerset County area, having hailed from England, Ireland or Scotland. Today the headcount of Halls descending from this family is enormous.

Joseph's nephew John K. Hall, a Civil War veteran and son of Garrett Hall, also married into the Harbaugh/Minerd family, entering into wedlock with Lucinda Minerd, daughter of Charles and Adaline (Harbaugh) Minerd.

Joseph's first wife was Elizabeth "Betsy" Linderman (1811-1860). The pair had entered into marriage in December 1834, by the hand of John Lenhart, and together bore a brood of 10 children. No written record of Joseph's first marriage date was kept.

Grief blanketed the family at the death of Joseph's first wife on Oct. 1, 1860, at the age of about 49. Her place of interment is not known.

Joseph thus brought 10 stepchildren into the marriage with our Elizabeth -- -- among them Abigail Hall, David L. Hall, Samuel Hall, Hilah Jane "Hiley" Hull Baker, Henry Hall, William Hall, Winfield Scott Hall, Mary Hall I, Susanna Morrison and Mark Hall.

Evidence further suggests that our Elizabeth and Joseph went on to produce six additional offspring -- James R. Hall, Sabina Catherine Knopsnyder, Levi Hall, Josiah Hall, Mary Hall II and one unknown.

Thus there were 16 children in the combined family, with a span of 45 years in between the ages of the eldest and youngest. Elizabeth herself was only three years older than her eldest stepdaughter.

When the federal census enumeration was made in 1850, Joseph and his first family lived in Henry Clay Township, Fayette County, with him eking out a living as a farmer. By 1860, the Halls dwelled at Wharton Furnace in Fayette County, where Joseph worked with his sons David and Samuel as day laborers. Their next door neighbors at the Furnace that year included Andrew Jackson and Minerva (Minerd) Inks and James and Sarah (Walters) Minerd Sr. 

Wharton Furnace ruins, early 1900s

Road leading to Wharton Furnace

Our Elizabeth came into the picture in the mid-1860s.

During the Civil War, four of Joseph's sons enlisted in the Union Army. David was assigned to the 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and Samuel in the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, while Henry and William were placed within the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry. This created a significant hardship on the family, taking away precious manpower and placing a a heavy reliance on the sons' army salaries sent home as income. With their homeplace in Somerset County in 1864, the value of the Halls' real estate was zero, and of their personal estate was just $20.

The family was plunged into grief when two of the sons lost their lives in the service. David was captured and died as a prisoner of war at the Confederacy's Belle Isle camp in Richmond, VA. William contracted the measles at Brandy Station, VA and was furloughed home to Wharton Township. His stepmother Elizabeth tried to help nurse him back to health but to no avail. He died June 27, 1864 or Oct. 10, 1864. (Sources differ.) Neither son's burial site is known.

Joseph developed an illness of rheumatism in 1864 which only grew worse over time. He once estimated that he was worth about $200, and never more than that over the next 20-plus years. Family friend John Burnworth of Stewart Township said he believed that Joseph's annual income in the years after the war were about $25 to $30.

Rare "X" signature of Elizabeth and cousin Mattie (Knight) Jennings (top) and Joseph, 1887 (below)  - National Archives

By 1870, Joseph and our Elizabeth had relocated to a farm at Maple Summit, Stewart Township, Fayette County. The United States Census of 1870 shows the family as next-door neighbors to Elizabeth's parents, in whose home also lived Elizabeth's 81-year-old step-grandmother Martha (Minerd) Imel Harbaugh and cousin Lucinda Minerd. They apparently did not own their farm as the family is not shown in a detailed Stewart Township map in the 1876 Atlas of Fayette County.

Census records for 1880 list the Halls remaining on a farm near Maple Summit, and making their home near Elizabeth's parents and married brother Allen H. and Joanna "Annie" (Linderman) Rowan.

Joseph suffered in his later years with rheumatism, which grew worse and caused him to be totally disabled as of 1881, at the age of 76. He once said that he "never had any medical aid that he didn't believe in Dr.'s, that he used liniment for his ailment."

On Nov. 3, 1886, he filed a declaration to receive a father's pension as compensation for the wartime loss of their son William. [Father's Application No. 346.670] His son-in-law Jonathan Baker witnessed the declaration document. Among those stepping forward to sign affidavits of support were his longtime neighbors, Jacob and Martha (Hall) Linderman, who wrote that she had "often been in their house and talking over the ages of their children." Lemuel Kemp and Jesse Hyatt, both of Stewart Township, testified in writing that they had known Joseph for many years and that "he has been afflicted with rheumatism to such an extent to totaly disable him from manual labor." S.K. Shipley of Stewart Township gave an affidavit saying that he recalled that the soldier "gave all his earnings to his father."

Joseph died between Dec. 17, 1887, when he wrote to the U.S. Pension Commissioner, and July 2, 1888, when Elizabeth signed an official paper stating she was his widow. More details of his fate will be included here once discovered.

First-born Elizabeth's name in a family record by Allen Edward Harbaugh Courtesy Rev. Dr. William Bradford Harbaugh

Elizabeth's letter, 1905 National Archives

The widowed Elizabeth pursued a different course of action in trying to secure a military pension. Records of the Treasury Department show that on Jan. 21, 1895, a payment was made to the family covering William's arrears of pay up to June 26, 1864 and a $240 bounty.

Elizabeth wrote to the Pension Commissioner from her home at Nicolay on July 11, 1905 and Aug. 14, 1905, and again on June 22, 1906 and Oct. 11, 1906, now in nearby Bidwell, PA, asking to be rewarded a nurse's pension for treating her stepson William all those years ago. 

At the age of 75, Elizabeth suffered a stroke and died quickly in the Knopsnyder home near Markleton in Black Township, Somerset County on March 5, 1907. A physician later wrote that "the death of the above named Person was caused by paralysis the left side of the body being paralyzed. there was no Doctor in attendance. The above information given by Son in law the undersigned who was Present and at whose home she died." Son Levi of Victoria, Fayette County, was the informant on her death certificate. Burial was in the Maple Summit Cemetery.

Her name and birth details were inscribed in pen and ink details in a manuscript genealogy notebook kept her first cousin, Allen Edward Harbaugh, the famed "Mountain Poet" of Mill Run, seen on this page.

~ Step-daughter Abigail Hall ~

Step-daughter Abigail Hall (1834- ? ) was born in about 1834. 

At the age of 16, in September 1850, she lived at home with her parents in Henry Clay Township, Fayette County.

Nothing more about her is known. If she married, her husband's name has not been identified.

~ Step-daughter Mary Hall I ~

Step-daughter Mary Hall I (1850- ? ) was born on Jan. 20, 1850 or 1851 and spent her early years in Maple Summit, also known as "Nicolay." 

Her story is lost to history.

~ Daughter Mary Hall II ~

Daughter Mary Hall II (1879- ? ) was born in about 1879 in Maple Summit, Fayette County, PA. She was 29 years younger than an older sister also named "Mary Hall."

She is shown in the family in the 1880 federal census, when she was one year old. 

In 1887, when named in an affidavit signed by her father, she was age 14 and residing in Ohiopyle. 

Nothing more about her life has been found.