Dillon Family of Buchanan Valley, Pennsylvania Charles H. Glatfelter Professor Emeritus of History Gettysburg College 36 Apple Avenue Gettysburg, PA 17325 SCOTCHMAN'S GRAVEYARD In his work entitled Collections and Recollections In the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons second volume. 1892 1895. p. 458). John T. Reily wrote about the settlement of Buchanan Valley in Franklin Township. Adams county, Some of what he stated can be corroborated by other and credible sources, but not everything. Although he had access to some primary, probably original, sources, and although he interviewed persons who may have lived in the valley all their lives, he never took the time necessary to understand fully what testimony the primary sources actually yielded or to check carefully whether the information given to him in interviews was accurate. Reily wrote that "there is an old graveyard on the place now known as the “Noel” place." The people of the valley called it the Scotchman's graveyard. He went on to explain that Francis Kincannon "took up the land from the government about 1769." A warrant for this land, he stated, had been issued in 1709. Reily concluded that the tracl was either Kincannon's "private burying ground or land given bv him for burying purposes for the settlers.' According to-his account. Reily visited the graveyard and found only rough slate stones, all of which, with but one-exception, without lettering. There was a recent stone for a child of George Sterner, but it was already "quite defaced." In spite of the leek of lettered stones on which to draw, people in the vicinity gave him the names of al least ten persons who had been buried there in years past. In the twentieth century several Adams countians tried to locate and then name all of the county's cemeteries, more then one hundred in number, In the 1950s persons engaged bv the Historical Society of York County visited all the cemeteries they could find in both York and Adams counties and copied the inscriptions. None of these persons were successful in locating a burial ground in Franklin Township. Adams County, which would fit John T. Reily's description of Scotchman's graveyard. Among the collections of the Historical Society of York County are three snapshots which appear to be of a graveyard. See copy. On the back of two, in the handwriting of Edith Sheads Ditchbum. are the words: 1954 Scotchman's Graveyard. Franklin Twp. Adams Co. Although she was a key volunteer of the Adams County Historical Society both before and after 1954. there are no such photographs in its collection. The undersigned, working closely with Arthur Weaner. decided not to make a careful on-site inspection of where we believe this graveyard was located. Finding nothing in the files of the Adams County Historical Society and learning nothing from several personal inquiries, we decided to locate the tract on which John T. Reily stated the graveyard was located, and then stop at that point. After all, if we found everything there is to know about Adams County nothing would be left for future generations to look for. A careful reading of the Reily account yields the following. First, the graveyard was believed to be on land claimed bv Francis Kincannon about 1767 or 1769. Second, at some point the Kincannon land was given the name Carlow Third, at some later point it was owned bv Francis Noel Jr. Fourth. William Clapsaddle was living on the place (Reily does not sav he owned it) when he was gathering this information. A search of the Adams county land records in Harrisburg and Gettysburg results in the following information. 11 should be read in conjunction with the ten exhibits of Arthur Weiner's report, dated July 25.2002. First, on October 8, 1767 the Penn proprietors issued to Francis Kincannon West Side Application 4478 (a claim similar to a warrant) for 100 acres located "at the foot of Pinev Mountain at the head of Blacklev's run bounded the upper Laurel swamp McClure's Place South and McCrakens east in Menallan Township York county." See copy Reily's contention that there had been a warrant in 1709 is utter nonsense. Second, on June 2. 1768 Surveyor Archibald McClean. using the application of the previous October as his authority, laid off for Nicholas Trosbough (actually Strausbaugh) a tract of 52 acres 146 perches, which was called Wild Cat Swamp. It was actually in Cumberland Township, not Menallen. and on five of its six sides adjoined what was called "vacant mountain land." Copied Survey C-145. p. 248. Pennsylvania State Archives. Third.no patent deed, or clear title, was Issued for this land until May 9,1811. The grantor was the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which during the American Revolution took Title to virtually all of the land for which the Penn family had not already granted deeds. The grantee was Andrew Noel. The patent deed, which was for 114 acres 90 perches of land and included most (but not all) of the 52 acres 146 perches of Wild Cat Swamp, assigned the name Carlow to the tract. It recited that the rights of Francis Kincannon to the land "by virtue of sundry conveyances became vested in the said Andrew Noel." Unfortunately for us, the patent does not give either the dates of or the parties to these "sundry conveyances." On the day after the deed for Carlow. the Commonwealth granted to Noel a patent deed for 250 acres 85 perches of adjacent land. It was not unusual about this time for tract names to appear in surveys or patent deeds. See Exhibits C-F. Fourth, tax records and recorded deeds establish that about 550 acres of Andrew Noel's land, the ones contained in the two patent deeds in 1811. passed to his son and namesake in 1817. It was then held by a third Andrew Noel and Levi Irvin from 1857 until 1845, when it was divided between them. The Noel part eventually came into possession of John A. Noel, who lost it in a sheriffs sale in 1890. William Clapsaddle rented the property for some years before buying it in 1901. Reily claimed that a Francis Noel Jr. owned it before Clapsaddle. but the available records do not bear this out. The Adams county court changed the boundary between Menallen and Franklin townships in 1858. After that the Carlow tract was in the latter. See Exhibits G-J. Several comments flow from the Information above. First, the record shows clearly that Francis Kincannon. who was living in the area as early as 1758. disposed of his rights to Wild Cat Swamp almost as soon as he obtained them in October 1767. John T. Reily could hardly have been expected to know this, but Kincannon left the Buchanan Valley as early as late 1767 or early 1768. He spent the rest of his life in Augusta (now Washington) county. Virginia, where he died in 1795. If Reily and the residents of the valley he talked to believed that Francis Kincannon, who was almost certainly Scotch-Irish and Presbyterian, was buried in Scotchman's graveyard, they were sadly mistaken. Second, the Andrew Noel who obtained the patent deed for Carlow in 1811 was for many years one of the largest landholders in what was then Menallen Township. The first tax list on which he appears was for the year 1778. He may have been living there even earlier. There are no Menallen lists between 1771 (when he was not a taxable) and 1778. In 1795 Noel purchased the first of nine warrants for land in Menallen and Franklin townships. Between 1805 and 1811 he obtained patent deeds for 1,780 acres, most of which was located south of the Carlow tract. Andrew Noel made his will in October 1816, naming his eleven children.lt was probated on March 51. 1817. There is no stone to mark his grave. Tradition has it that Roman Catholic masses were held in his house until St. Ignatius Loyola church was established about the time he died. Third, while it is sometimes possible to trace a parcel of land from the first survey made by a deputy surveyor in the 1700s to a recent survey or a deed, and find that most of the courses and distances on both records match, this is often not the case. Fields may have been sold off or by common consent; lines may have been altered for other reasons. In the case of timber and mountain land in sparsely populated areas, such as Buchanan Valley was for many years, surveyors may not always have been able to find the earlier adjoining lines. Also, there are many examples of deeds which have incorrect courses and distances which are repeated in one later deed after another. Fourth, it is possible that Scotchman's graveyard may have been used by early families in the valley before the Catholics living there took steps to help organize a church. The Adams Centinel for October 2. 1816 gave notice that eight days later "the Corner Stone of a Roman Catholic Church will be laid, near Lowstetter's Mill. In the South Mountain." On November 15 of that year Jacob and Nancy Sterner sold to Rev. Francis Neale a tract of 125 acres 155 perches, part of a larger tract for which they had recently secured a patent deed. The church was soon completed. It was located about a mile south of Andrew Noel's Carlow tract. As early as 1880 John T. Reilv had assumed the role of historian. In that year he published a History and Directory of the Boroughs of Adams County. In his section on the Mountain church, as St. Ignatius was sometimes called, he stated that "there was an old Catholic graveyard on the tract long before the church was built." The early history of the land which Jacob Sterner sold to the church in 1816 suggests strongly that this was not the case. Its previous owners. Valentine Berger and George Shatter, were not known to have been Catholics. One may wonder whether the old graveyard Reily was referring to was Scotchman's graveyard. In his 1892-1895 Collections and Recollections, John T. Reily stated that Andrew Noel was the first person buried in the St. Ignatius cemetery, but he knew of no tombstone to mark the grave. He gave Noel's date of death as 1821. but he had clearly died before his will was probated on March 31, 1817. When representatives of the Historical Society of York County read the inscriptions in St. Ignatius cemetery in 1957. the earliest death dates they noted were one in 1851 and one in 1856. The first burials may well have been made as early as 1817. There may have been no stones placed over the graves or stones placed there may have disappeared long before 1957. The conclusion which Arthur Weaner and the undersigned reached as a result of our investigations into the known credible sources is that Scotchman's graveyard was located somewhere on the tract named Carlow and patented to Andrew Noel in 1811. August 15.2002 Charles H. Glatfelter Below is another short history of Scotchman's Cemetery. CLAPSADDLE CEMETERY Franklin Township, Adams County Pennsylvania This cemetery, located in the Buchanan Valley, could not be definitely located when Mr. and Mrs. George D. Ditchburn and John D. Kilbourne and Alice E. Starner visited in this locality 9 April 1953. There are people by the name of Noel supposed to be buried in this graveyard. There were a lot of native stones in a place that could have been a graveyard but none of these stones bore inscriptions of any kind. In John T. Reily's Collections and Recollections In the Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons. Second Volume, page 439, is recorded the following: ...Land of Francis Kincannon, 1767, named "Carlow," afterwards owned by Francis Noel,Jr, and where William Clapsaddle resides at present. Another tract of land owned by Andrew Noel,Jr., in 1800, was named "Lurgan." A tract of land owned by Andrew Noel,Sr., (Alias Nail) was called "Stonehall," now owned by Theodore Kimple, Sr. There is a tract owned by Hon. Francis Cole called "Armagh." There is an old graveyard on the place now known as the "Noel" place. It was known by the people of the Valley as the "Scotchman Graveyard”. Francis Kincannon took up the land from the government about 1769, (a warrant was issued in 1709,) and I infer from this that it was his private burying ground or land given by him for burying purposes for the settlers. The tombstones are rough slate stones with no carved names on: there was but one and that was of recent date, a child of George Sterner, but it is quite defaced. Some of the names of people buried there I have obtained from some of the old inhabitants: John DeLone (a native of France,) and grandfather of Mrs. Peter Adams, a lady of 76 years; also of Mrs Daniel Knouse, a widowj Dennis McGuire, William Williams (colored), one of the Kecklers, one of the first settlers, and twin children of Daniel Wingert now living in the Valley; Margaret (Saltzgiver) Keckler, Elizabeth Young Keckler. This ground was blessed but I cannot find out by whom.