Elizabeth Thorn
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Short description|American cemetery caretaker (1832–1907)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizabeth Thorn
| birth_name = Elizabeth Möser
| birth_date = {{birth date|1832|12|28}}
| birth_place = Grand Duchy of Hesse
| death_date = {{death date and age|1907|10|17|1832|12|28}}
| death_place = Pennsylvania, US
| monuments = Gettysburg Women's Memorial
| occupation = Cemetery caretaker
| employer = Evergreen Cemetery
| known_for = Burying 100 fallen soldiers after the Battle of Gettysburg
}}
Elizabeth Möser Thorn (December 28, 1832 – October 17, 1907) was an American cemetery caretaker who served as the caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery in Adams County, Pennsylvania, while her husband was serving in the Union Army. While pregnant, Thorn buried approximately one hundred soldiers who had died at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.{{Cite web |last=Loski |first=Diana |title=Elizabeth Thorn: "Those Were Hard Days" |url=https://www.thegettysburgexperience.com/elizabeththorn |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722124725/https://www.thegettysburgexperience.com/elizabeththorn |archive-date=July 22, 2022 |access-date=July 22, 2022 |website=The Gettysburg Experience}}{{Cite book |last=Hertzog |first=Kate |url=http://archive.org/details/morethanpetticoa0000hert |title=More than Petticoats: Remarkable Pennsylvania Women |publisher=Morris Book Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7627-3637-9 |location=Guildford, CT |pages=69–78 |language=en |via=Internet Archive}}
Early life
File:Peter Thorn and wife Elizabeth Thorn (1832–1907), Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.tif
Born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in 1832, Elizabeth and her parents, John and Catherine Möser, immigrated to the United States in 1854. Little was known about her early life. After settling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, she married another German immigrant, Peter Thorn, in September 1855. Her husband became the first caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery in February 1856, earning $150 a year and living with his family in the gatehouse rent-free in exchange for digging graves and maintaining the grounds. He enlisted in the Union's 138th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment on August 16, 1862, leaving his wife in charge of the cemetery. She had three young sons and was six months pregnant when war swept over Gettysburg on July 1–3, 1863.{{Cite book |last=Creighton |first=Margaret S. |url=http://archive.org/details/colorsofcourageg00crei |title=The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Hidden History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle |publisher=Basic Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-465-01456-9 |location=New York |language=en |via=Internet Archive}}
Battle of Gettysburg
File:799 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA - Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse.jpg
Thorn was forced to feed hungry Confederate cavalry and later prepared dinner for Generals Oliver Otis Howard, Daniel Sickles and Henry Slocum. She also pointed out strategic roadways to a Union officer. Forced to flee as the battle approached her home, she returned on July 7 to find that General Howard had turned her home into his headquarters as well as into a field hospital thronging with wounded soldiers. The building had been heavily damaged, and goods worth $295 had been stolen or destroyed.Christina Lynn Ericson (1996), "[https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/25223/Ericson,%20C.L..pdf The World Will Little Note Nor Long Remember": Women and Gender in the Battle of Gettysburg]," MA thesis, University of Maryland.
Although six months pregnant amid the summer heat, Thorn went to work tending the wounded and burying the dead. She and her elderly father buried forty bodies within two weeks of the battle and ultimately buried approximately one hundred fallen soldiers, long before the Gettysburg National Cemetery was dedicated on November 19, 1863. Estimates for the burials range from a low of 91 to around 100 to a high of 105.{{Cite web |last=Thorn |first=Elizabeth |date=July 2, 1938 |title=Woman, Keeper of Cemetery in 1863, Describes Battle |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fQcmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3fwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=951,2585125 |access-date=August 1, 2022 |website=Gettysburg Times}} She earned no additional wages for this labor. In later years, Evergreen Cemetery president David McConaughy would deny knowledge of her heroic efforts.
On November 1, Thorn gave birth to a daughter who she named Rose Meade Thorn in honor of General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. Thorn's health declined, and her child, who had been sickly, died at the age of 14. Thorn remained cemetery caretaker until her husband returned safely from the war in 1865.
Death and legacy
Peter Thorn resigned as caretaker in 1874 and died in January 1907 at age 82. Elizabeth died on October 17, 1907, at age 74. Both are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Not until late in life did Elizabeth Thorn begin to receive public recognition for her grave-digging contributions on the battlefield. Her recollections appeared in the Gettysburg Compiler (July 26, 1905) and The Gettysburg Times (July 2, 1938). Her papers are held by the Adams County Historical Society.
Thorn is the subject of the Gettysburg Women's Memorial, which stands fifty feet south of the cemetery gatehouse. The memorial features a bronze statue of a weary and heavily pregnant Thorn, leaning on a shovel and wiping her brow. Created by sculptor Ron Tunison, the memorial was dedicated in 2002.
References
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External links
- [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fQcmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3fwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=951%2C2585125 Elizabeth Thorn's recollections] – Gettysburg Times, July 2, 1938
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorn, Elizabeth}}
Category:People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Category:People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War
Category:People from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Category:Women in the American Civil War
Category:Hessian emigrants to the United States
Category:Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)