Rowland Pennsylvania

Bethel Lutheran church in Rowland PA was originally the Methodist-Episcopal Church until 1923. This is the little white church on Church Street that overlooks the Lackawaxen and the Delaware and Hudson Coal Canal Towpath. Across the street from this church is the stone house that the William Westfall family was reported to have owned.

The day that Madeleine and I stopped by was in June of 2019. The organist was practicing and invited us to look around. He told us a little about the church and the neighborhood. He directed us to the Rowland Cemetery that is situated further along the street back in the woods. It was not the same cemetery we had visited on our earlier trip to this picturesque area in 1994. According to the Pike county list of Cemeteries there is the “Rowland Cemetery” and “The Old Graveyard near Rowland on River Bank opposite the Church.” I believe the one we had previously visited was “The Old Graveyard”.

This is where previously we had found Vina (Milvina) Chamberlain’s Funeral Home marker (see photo). According to the obituary for Jane E. Chamberlain this is also where she was buried.

I was a little disappointed not to revisit “The Old Graveyard near Rowlands”. It must be completely overgrown now. It seems I never take enough pictures. I guess I still need to make one more trip back to the area just to get those photo’s of the rural areas that supported the Westfalls for several generations. They are not the farms I am familiar with, such as the open  wide expanses of the plains and valleys, but more rolling hills and lovely green expanses of woods along a narrow river or canal. Were they more like truck farms, or were they actually farming the timber? The Westfalls were listed as farmers but they also payed taxes on a sawmill on their property as shown in the 1840 tax assessment records

Jane’s brother William Westfall, who’s home was pointed out to us, was not only a state assemblyman he was a Justice of the Peace and county Treasurer.Some of the records that Madeleine extracted from the records office included Williams signed oath of office along with bonds. Click on image to enlarge.

 

Next I will be covering our drive up to Forestburg in Sullivan County New York. Where the Fergusons lived prior to and during the Civil War. It was from there that Margaret Helen and John Lyle met and married . But that is another story.