Indian Hannah’s Last Wish-and a Mystery?

Last November, the Chester County Chapter of the Daughters’s of the American Revolution commemorated the life of Hannah Freeman, aka Indian Hannah, by accepting her into their national database for Outstanding Woman in American History. The ceremony took place at the 1909 Historical Marker at Embreeville, her alleged resting place. Her iconic status as the “Last of the Lenni Lenape,” (untrue) stands in contrast to the obscure burial given her, in an unmarked grave, at the Potter’s Field of the newly constructed Chester County Almshouse.

Hannah’s life was well documented. She was a well known figure throughout the Southern Chester County Community. She farmed at her cabin in Northbrook, peddled her handmade baskets and brooms and was known as a healer for her knowledge of native medicinal plants. Indian Hannah was truly an independent woman of her time, however, as she aged, her independence became more reliant on the areas prominent Quaker families who, she worked as a domestic in exchange for room and board. Eventually Indian Hannah was looked upon by the Quakers as a Charity case and plans were made to admit her to the newly constructed Chester County Almshouse at Embreeville.

For years these same Quakers had discussed the concept of a home to care for the poor and indigent. In all probability the disposition of Indian Hanna entered their conversation. On February 27, 1798, an Act was passed to provide for the erection of a home for the employment and support of the poor and on Nov. 12, 1800 the Chester County Alms House opened its doors with Indian Hannah one of its first documented residents. She would never leave!

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 noting 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 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 re-interred to the second cemetery. Could Indian Hanna still rest in her original burial spot or was she re-interred to 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 Friend’s of Martin’s Tavern and on the West Bradford’s Embreeville Task Force.