East Rochester Garden Club to be honored at Quaker Ridge ceremony

The West Township Memorial Association and West Township Trustees will honor members of the East Rochester Garden Club during a ceremony June 7 recognizing the group's restoration efforts at Quaker Ridge Cemetery.

The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Quaker Ridge Cemetery, located at 11925 Lippincott Road, East Rochester.

According to memorial association officer Shirley Whiteleather-Fox, members of the East Rochester Garden Club recently completed restoration work on the Robert and Catherine Jones Hanna monument, a historic family burial site that includes a grove of trees, a large marble monument, marble edging, a garden area and several nearby family graves.

Whiteleather-Fox said the area had become overgrown with poison ivy and required extensive cleanup and restoration. The project included resetting marble edging and restoring the appearance of the site. Additional improvements at the cemetery have included tree trimming, removal of dead trees, plantings and paving work.

The monument honors Robert Hanna, who was born in Ireland on March 2, 1753, immigrated to America in 1763 and later settled in what became Carroll County.

Hanna served on the Secret Provincial Committee on the Constitutional Rights of the Colonies, a body that helped lead to the First Continental Congress and ultimately the Declaration of Independence. Hanna died July 16, 1837, and is buried at Quaker Ridge Cemetery.

Brief presentations on the Hanna family and the area's early Quaker settlement will be shared during the ceremony.

The cemetery traces its roots to 1810, when the property was home to a Friends meeting house and school. The first burial at the cemetery was Nathan Pim, a Quaker schoolmaster, in 1816.

While the original meeting house and school no longer stand, the cemetery remains active and continues to serve the community.

The event is open to the public.

Quaker Ridge Cemetery is governed by the West Township Trustees.