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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- ? ), son of Joseph and Mary (Matthews) Hall Sr. He was two decades older than she, and could neither rear nor write.

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 also was named Elizabeth (1811- ? ). He 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 S. Hall, Mary Hall I, Susanna Morrison and Mark Hall.

Evidence further suggests that our Elizabeth and Joseph went on to produce six additional children -- 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

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

During the Civil War, three of Joseph's sons enlisted in the Union Army. David was assigned to the David 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry, while Henry and William were placed within the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry. The family was plunged into grief when two of the sons did not return home. David was captured and died as a prisoner of war at the Confederacy's Belle Isle camp in Richmond, VA. William passed away in a field hospital at Brandy Station, VA. Neither son's burial site is known.

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.

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

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's fate is not yet known, but will be included here once discovered.

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, appearing 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..

Road leading to the sulphur springs near Wharton Furnace

~ Stepson Samuel Hall ~

Stepson Samuel Hall (1838- ? ) was born in about 1838.

At the age of 22, in 1860, he resided with his parents at Wharton Furnace, Fayette County and earned a living as a day laborer at the Furnace, a hot blast charcoal facility producing ingots of iron.

Did he join the Union Army during the Civil War? Research is underway to determine if he served in the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery and drew a military pension after the war [Invalid App. No. 690.439 - Cert. No. 841.711].

He may -- or may not -- be the the same Samuel Hall who married Sara W. ( ? - ? ) and, as a widower, died of acute heart failure at the age of 86 on March 8, 1924, in Henry Clay Township, Fayette County, with burial in the M.N. Thomas Cemetery in Markleysburg. On the official Pennsylvania certificate of death for this man, the space for the names of his parents was left blank, and no obituary has yet been found in the local newspaper, the Connellsville Daily Courier. 

But this identity is conjecture and all of it needs to be confirmed precisely. [Find-a-Grave]

~ Step-daughter Mary Hall I ~

Step-daughter Mary Hall I (1850- ? ) was born in about 1850 and grew up in Maple Summit.

~ 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. 

Nothing more about her life has been found.