Indian Hannah part 2
On March 20, 1802, Hannah Freeman passed away. She was the first to be interred in the newly constructed potters’ field due west of the Almshouse. Her wish to be buried with her people in the nearby Lenape burial ground at Northbrook was never realized.
Hannah Freeman’s nondescript burial and location soon became lost in time. In circa 1850, the original Almshouse was replaced with the Chester County Poorhouse and its continuing expansion of outbuildings for its farming and quarry operations. Then in 1900, the Chester County Insane Asylum was constructed. Its grand architecture can be seen in the numerous old Chester County postcards. The Asylum and adjacent nurse’s quarters were to encroach on the old potters field which had filled up. This necessitated the laying out of a second cemetery, further west, and the reinterment of those long-lost souls.
In 1909, The Chester County Historical Society erected the stone marker (see picture) commemorating Indian Hannah’s last resting spot and naming her as the “Last of the Lenni Lenape Indians in Chester County.” Interestingly when the marker was placed, a skeleton was uncovered. In later years, 1910 and 1915, during the construction of a waterline, additional skeletons, and body parts were unearthed and reinterred in the second cemetery.
The Mystery?
The question of where Indian Hannah is buried has been debated over the years. Certainly, she was laid to rest in the original potter’s field. But with the ensuing discoveries, it’s obvious that not all the bodies were reinterred to the second cemetery. Could Indian Hanna still rest in her original burial spot or was she reinterred in the second poorhouse cemetery? We may never know. Or will we?
My wish is that someday with new technology and archaeological investigation, Indian Hannah’s remains could be found and re-interred at Northbrook, fulfilling her last wish and solving a Chester County Mystery.
Acknowledgments –Dawn G. Marsh, A Lenape among the Quakers. Johnathan Hoppe, Of Prisoners and Potter’s Field.
Note: West Bradford Township has purchased the Embreeville property, with plans, among others, to include interpretation of the Heritage of the Embreeville site from the original Almshouse to the recent demolition of the Embreeville State Hospital. Indian Hanna will be part of that interpretation.
Mark Slouf is a board member of the Friends of Maryin’s Tavern and on the West Bradford’s Embreeville Task Force.
