Mercersburg Historical Society

Four Historical Markers

By Joan C. McCulloh

In 1915 and 1916 the Woman’s Club, now the Women’s Club, envisioned, funded, had manufactured, and installed four historical markers commemorating the lives and accomplishments of Hugh Mercer, James Buchanan, William Findlay, and the Irwin sisters Jane and Elizabeth.

The minutes of the Woman’s Club at a special meeting on May 18, 1915, first mentioned the club’s plans to have these markers fabricated and installed. At that meeting Mrs. Christian Fendrick explained plans for a Hugh Mercer marker, “an iron plate similar to the markers on the Gettysburg battlefield,” that would cost about forty-one dollars. Also at that meeting the club “gave the committee authority to have the Mercer marker made and erected and also to erect, in the future, any other markers to noted people who lived in Mercersburg.”

Utilizing money realized from the sale of Old Mercersburg that the club had published in 1912, the club over a year had markers made to recognize the importance of High Mercer, physician, veterinarian, French and Indian War officer, and Revolutionary war general who died in January 1777 as a result of wounds received at the Battle of Princeton, James Buchanan, William Findlay, and the Irwin sisters Jane and Elizabeth.

The Mercersburg Journal reported on July 23, 1915, that the club had installed the Hugh Mercer marker and quoted the inscription on the marker. The newspaper noted: “ A massive plate, mounted on a heavy iron post forms the memorial tablet; it has been placed on the pike between Oellig’s and Foreman’s,” along the north side of route 16 east of the intersection with Oellig’s Road as Hugh Mercer from about 1748 until 1755 had lived between Mercersburg and Upton. Later minutes of the Woman’s Club noted that the president of the Waynesburg, Greencastle, Mercersburg Turnpike Road Co., a Mr. Minnich, had written a letter granting a permit for the placing of the Mercer marker along the road. Later that fall the Journal said that a marker noting James Buchanan’s birthplace had been installed at Foltz, now Cove Gap. The newspaper stated: “As in the case of the Mercer marker, the work was done by the Woman’s Club in part with proceeds from Old Mercersburg.” The minutes of the Woman’s Club on October 5, 1915,state that the two markers had been installed and that a third marker, one identifying the importance of William Findlay, “will be placed in the town of Mercersburg” in the near future and that “the generosity of Mr. William Findlay Brown of Philadelphia” would make possible the completion of a tablet similar to the ones commissioned earlier. This marker was installed at the corners of North Main and North Park Streets.state that the two markers had been installed and that a third marker, one identifying the importance of William Findlay, “will be placed in the town of Mercersburg” in the near future and that “the generosity of Mr. William Findlay Brown of Philadelphia” would make possible the completion of a tablet similar to the ones commissioned earlier. This marker was installed at the corners of North Main and North Park Streets.

William Findlay, not so well known as Mercer and Buchanan, was of importance He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and suggested that the state capital be moved to Harrisburg, was treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1817 and served until 1820, and later served as a member of the United States Senate. During 1826, while he was serving in the Senate, two of his brothers served in the House of Representatives, James from Ohio and John from Western Pennsylvania.

By September 1916 the Club had commissioned and installed the manufacture of the same type of marker to honor the Irwin sisters, daughters of Archibald Irwin II, Jane Irwin Harrison, daughter-in-law of President William Henry Harrison, who served as hostess in the White House during President Harrison’s brief tenure of office in 1841, and Elizabeth Irwin Harrison, mother of President Benjamin Harrison. Monetary contributions for this marker came from various members of the Harrison family: granddaughters of Elizabeth Irwin Harrison and daughters of President Benjamin Harrison, Elizabeth Harrison and Mrs. Mary H. McKee; great granddaughter of Elizabeth Irwin Harrison, Katherine Harrison; daughter of Elizabeth Irwin Harrison and sister of President Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Anna Harrison Morris; niece of the Irwin sisters, Mrs. Mary M. Wolcott; and a grandson of Jane Irwin Harrison, J. Scott Harrison IV. This marker is placed at the intersection of route 16 and Anderson Road three and one-half miles east of Mercersburg near the Irwin home.

These four markers were manufactured by the Chambersburg Engineering Company under the supervision of H. E. Derbyshire, superintendent, who prepared the models, with the final work being done by W. H. Freet, foreman of the company, who, according to the Mercersburg Journal, “has been singularly successful in producing, in each instance, a handsome marker.” The Mercer, Findlay, and Harrison markers all with the name of W. Freet stand where they were originally placed; however, a James Buchanan marker with the text of the inscription written by the Woman’s Cub and published in the Mercersburg Journal in 1915 but without noting the name of W. Freet as its creator, is now on the campus of Mercersburg Academy adjacent to the Buchanan cabin. The Mercer, Findlay, and Irwin markers have remained in the care of the Women’s Club.

Although hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people pass by the markers each day without knowing what those markers explain, the markers are reminders of people important to our collective past.

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