The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: PA
Qualifying Service: Private / Patriotic Service
original upright stone, in German, contemporary with the death of the Patriot
modern flat marble stone.
Find-a-Grave cites Zachariah E. Rice
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: Michael Boyd Moore
Zachariah Rice was born in Germany on 31 July 1731.
He arrived at Penn’s Landing in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Colony, on 16 September 1751 aboard the ship Edinburgh. He migrated west from Philadelphia to Pikeland Township in Chester County of the Pennsylvania Colony. Here he bought land and settled along Pickering Creek. Zachariah, a carpenter, and millwright, constructed a home and a clover mill on his property. Today the house is a privately owned residence placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
While in Pikeland Township, he met and married Abigail Maria Appolonia Hartman (P-277932) in 1757. Abigail was the daughter of Johannes (P-176620) and Margaret Hartman of Chester County. Abigail and her parents landed in Philadelphia on 15 August 1750 aboard the Royal Union. Abigail’s father served on the Committee of Safety for Chester County.
After their marriage, Zachariah and Abigail Rice resided in the home along Pickering Creek in Pikeland Township. Together they had 21 children, 17 of whom survived. As the Revolution approached, both Zachariah and Abigail chose to serve the cause for freedom.
After the Battles of Brandywine, the Clouds, and Germantown, General George Washington needed a hospital to care for soldiers injured or made ill from service during the Philadelphia Campaign and the encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. A site in Yellow Springs, Pikeland Township, Pennsylvania Colony, was selected for the location of the hospital. The Rice homestead was located about a mile from the Yellow Springs site.
Zachariah volunteered to help and, using his skills as a carpenter and millwright, assisted in the construction of the Yellow Springs Hospital.
It was the first military hospital ever authorized by General Washington. It was a three-story stone structure roughly 106 feet long by 36 feet wide. Medical and meal services were provided on the first floor, with continuing medical care in separate wards on the second and third floors. The remains of the hospital’s foundation still, in 2022, stand in Yellow Springs.
Abigail, along with several other local women, volunteered to serve as a nurse and aide at the hospital. It was during her service at the hospital that Abigail contracted Typhus.
Her disease led to her death at home on 6 November 1789. She is buried in St. Paul’s churchyard located just up Clover Mill Road from the Rice home in Pikeland Township, Pennsylvania Colony. It is alleged that Abigail’s original tombstone, now lost, contained the epitaph, “Some women have children, some have none. Here lies a woman who had 21.” Today, the approximate site of her grave is marked by a DAR granite monument. Other Patriot graves of the Hartman family surround it.
Concurrent with Abigail’s illness and ultimate death, Zachariah was involved with issues concerning the legality of his ownership of the land on which he built his home and clover mill. Eventually, it was determined that the land was not legally his through a fraudulent land deal, and he was forced to leave the property to start over. Several other immigrant families who had bought and settled on land nearby faced the same fate.
So, Zachariah loaded up his 17 surviving children and moved his entire family westward into central Pennsylvania. He and the family settled in the area of Old Port (near Port Royal) in what is now Turbett Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, along the Juniata River. Here the family continued to grow through marriage and to spread out in nearby areas and communities.
Zachariah built and established a log church near his home in Old Port. Here he continued to prosper until his death on 19 August 1811. He is buried in Church Hill Cemetery, along Pennsylvania State Route 75, south of Port Royal, Pennsylvania. Many of his children and descendants are buried in the same cemetery. Several of the family’s tombstones, including Zachariah’s, still exist today (2022).
Zachariah’s stone is written in German.
Author: Albert E. Myers
Zachariah enlisted in the Continental Army as an engineer and carpenter, under the command of General George Washington. He helped build the Yellow Springs Hospital near his home in Chester County, which would soon be used as a field hospital for the casualties of the war.
His wife, Abigail Hartman, became a recurrent visitor to the hospital, spending much of her time ministering to the sick and wounded soldiers.
For Abigail's contributions during the war, there was a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in her name in Washington, DC. There is a plaque honoring her in the Bell Tower at Valley Forge.
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Additional Information:
Compatriot Michael Moore's (MD) patriot graves report indicated Zacharia Rice assisted in the construction of the Yellow Springs Hospital located in Yellow Springs, West Pikeland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The hospital was used to care for soldiers injured or made ill during the Philidelphia Campaign and the encampment at Valley Forge. It was the first hospital authorized by General George Washington.