FIRST CAPTAIN OF THE
RIFLE BATTALIONS
AND SON OF COLONEL THOMAS CRESAP
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
OCT. 18, A. D. 1775.
His father had been a friend and neighbor of Washington in Virginia, and he himself was a brilliant Indian fighter on the frontier of his native State. It was the men under his command who, unordered, exterminated the family of Logan, the Indian chief, "the friend of the white man." Many a boy, who in school declaimed, unthinkingly, "Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one!" grown to manhood, cannot but look with interest on the grave of Logan's foe. Tradition has been kind to Cresap's memory, insisting that his heart broke over the accusation of responsibility for the death of Logan's family.
There is another slab, close by the grave of Captain Cresap, which tells:
"HERE LIETH YE BODY OF SUSANNAH
NEAN, WIFE OF ELIAS NEAN, BORN
IN YE CITY OF ROCHELLE, IN FRANCE,
IN YE YEAR 1660, WHO DEPARTED
THIS LIFE 25 DAY OF DECEMBER,
1720, AGE 60 YEARS." "HERE LIETH
ENTERRED YE BODY OF ELIAS NEAN,
CATECHIST IN NEW YORK, BORN IN
SOUBISE, IN YE PROVINCE OF CAENTONGE
IN FRANCE IN YE YEAR 1662,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 8 DAY OF
SEPTEMBER 1722 AGED 60 YEARS."
"THIS INSCRIPTION WAS RESTORED BY
ORDER OF THEIR DESCENDANT OF THE
6TH GENERATION, ELIZABETH CHAMPLIN
PERRY, WIDOW OF THE LATE
COM'R O. H. PERRY, OF THE U. S.
NAVY, MAY, ANNO DOMINI, 1846."
But the stone does not tell that the Huguenot refugee was for many years a vestryman of Trinity Church, and that among his descendants are the Belmonts and a dozen distinguished families. Before coming to America, Elias Nean was condemned to the galleys in France because he refused to renounce the reformed religion.
Where Gov De Lancy Was buried