Yesterday I took a whirlwind tour through a portion of Pennsylvania on what I call a genealogical treasure hunt. Terrie and Ruger (our Yorkie) went along just to make sure I stayed out of trouble (easier said than done). Our first stop was the Fort Bedford Museum in Bedford County where one of my reference books states is where the “Horn Family Bible” was left for safe keeping. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see it, but they said they would search through their archives and give me a call when (and if) they find it. I would love to see and touch it because it contains the names of so many of my ancestors including Henry Horn who came to America as a Hessian to fight for the British during America’s war for independence. He was captured during the battle of Trenton and later released from prison giving his oath to fight for the American cause. And fight he did as a member of the famous Pulaski Legion. After the war he settled first in Virginia, then moved to Bedford County where he and his son built a church (which still stands). He had several children who had several children and so forth until Ruth Horn was born who was my grandmother . . . the last in my direct-line of ancestry with the Horn surname.
We then traveled to Franklin County and found the Shetler Family Cemetery near Willow Hill (as described in Find-a-grave.com) where two of my great-grandparents are buried. It is situated between the road and a corn field with no signs to mark its name. With incredible luck, I was able to find John Varner, my great (x4)-grandfather’s headstone, along with Maria, his wife’s headstone (my great (x4)-grandmother) shown in the picture below with the arrows pointing to them. The reason I say I was lucky is because I’ve found that many of the headstones that were placed back in the 1700s to the mid-1800s are usually unreadable, primarily due to erosion from the rain that his struck them over the years. However, if you notice in this picture, both of my great-grandparent’s headstones in this case are leaning slightly forward, preventing the rain from directly pelting their surface and thus preventing the lettering from being erased. The names and dates matched what I had for them in my records. We also tried to find another family cemetery in the Willow Hill area, but couldn’t. Luckily, while searching along Shady Pine Road and Mountain Green Road, we came across a farmer that had been to the cemetery when he was younger. He told me that we were looking in the wrong area and he gave me directions that it was along a dirt road that ran along the main power lines that came across Path Valley Road. However, he said it was in the middle of a farmer’s field and he didn’t like anyone going in there, so we made plans to come back again some day when we have more time to spend looking and possibly speak with the farmer in order to get permission to visit the cemetery. I have at least three great-grandparents buried there and I would like to at least once pay my respects to them. Next we dropped off a couple of genealogy booklets I prepared for some Helm family members of mine who live in Shippensburg , PA, a place close to my heart because I was born there. We then traveled down into Adams County to Biglerville where we located the Bender Cemetery next to the Benders Lutheran Church. I have numerous ancestors buried here including at least four of my great-grandparents, i.e., Bernhardt Gilbert and his wife Anna Bender, their son George Gilbert, and his son also named George Gilbert. Both Bernhardt and his son George fought for America during the Revolutionary War and are listed on the monument placed at the cemetery by the Gettysburg Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). More research is needed to determine if the wives of the two George Gilbert’s are buried in this cemetery as well, but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get home to Altoona before it got too late in the day. So from Adams County we made our way back to our starting point in Blair County, topping off a pleasant day of our on-going genealogy activities. Hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we did during our travels.
