Tucked away at the edge of Robinson Township on Beacon Road lies a picturesque gem called Petrie Cemetery. It was founded as a German Lutheran cemetery in the 19th century when it was completely surrounded by farms, including the McCain, Schorr and Petrie farms. Today it is as manicured and serene as ever, although the township has never stopped growing up around it.
Quiet yes, but oh, the memories it holds.
Of Petrie’s roughly 200 graves, one of the most famous is that of John Degelman, born in Germany in 1807, a veteran of the American Civil War and a well-known haberdasher in his day. The author of his tombstone epitaph is unknown, but countless observers over the years have remarked on its tongue-in-cheek wisdom.
Remember me as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be
Prepare for death and follow me
I wonder how many members of the large Petrie family stopped to read those words over the decades. At least 11 family members lie in the cemetery today. Most of the Petrie men buried there farmed the land, including John (1861-1946), Phillip (1860-1935) and William (1861-1946).
Philip (1824-1906) added regularly to the family’s land ‘holdings and created a lucrative oil business there. In addition to the Petrie men and their wives, three of the Petrie graves gently cradle infants who died in 1871 (twins) and 1874.
Another moving story from the cemetery concerns Pvt. William Schawolt, a native of Moon Run who was killed in France in 1918 at the Battle of the Argonne. So many men were killed in this one battle (26,000) that their remains were buried in temporary graves until the end of the war.
After Schawolt’s body had spent more than two years in American Cemetery #1232 in France, it finally came home aboard the Funeral Ship Sommes, where he and the other dead soldiers were respectfully listed as “passengers.” Eventually, when the funeral procession slowly wound through Moon Run to Petrie Cemetery, a myriad of mourners sadly waved American Flags in Schawolt’s honor.
Petrie Cemetery is more than a resting place for the dead; it is a poignant record of a community’s life, where humor and grief, private lives and public events meet. In its quiet way, it preserves not just names, but the enduring memories of lifetimes.
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