One grave stands out in Lancaster Cemetery: the tombstone of Augusta Harriet Bitner, who died at 21 years old in 1906.
"She's called the Walking Statue, so people say they see her walking in Lancaster Cemetery,: Cynthia Douts Roth, an Augusta Bitner historian, said when the "Legends" video was recorded. "They've also said that her eyes spark green, that she weeps for the child that is not buried with her. So the story is that Augusta trips on her wedding gown; she fell, she broke her neck, and that's been the story forever."
The facts are that Bitner was born Aug. 25, 1884, in Lancaster, growing up on Marietta Avenue and graduating from Linden Hall in Lititz in 1902. On May 3, 1905, she married Stanley Hart Tevis and moved to Philadelphia, where they had a daughter, Sylvia. A week after their first anniversary, Augusta got typhoid and died a "horrible death," Roth said.
The white Italian marble monument was special ordered from Leland and Company in New York, with ivy circling one pillar, and bearing the inscription, "The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," Augusta's favorite hymn. It also includes the cryptic question, Could love have kept her?"
"I'm not sure her parents approved of Stanley," Roth said. "The baby came seven months after they were married, so I assume they had higher expectations also for her. …She was a Bitner longer than she was a Tevis
SOURCE: "LNP", Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday, 30 October 2021, p. A4, c. 6.
"She's called the Walking Statue, so people say they see her walking in Lancaster Cemetery,: Cynthia Douts Roth, an Augusta Bitner historian, said when the "Legends" video was recorded. "They've also said that her eyes spark green, that she weeps for the child that is not buried with her. So the story is that Augusta trips on her wedding gown; she fell, she broke her neck, and that's been the story forever."
The facts are that Bitner was born Aug. 25, 1884, in Lancaster, growing up on Marietta Avenue and graduating from Linden Hall in Lititz in 1902. On May 3, 1905, she married Stanley Hart Tevis and moved to Philadelphia, where they had a daughter, Sylvia. A week after their first anniversary, Augusta got typhoid and died a "horrible death," Roth said.
The white Italian marble monument was special ordered from Leland and Company in New York, with ivy circling one pillar, and bearing the inscription, "The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," Augusta's favorite hymn. It also includes the cryptic question, Could love have kept her?"
"I'm not sure her parents approved of Stanley," Roth said. "The baby came seven months after they were married, so I assume they had higher expectations also for her. …She was a Bitner longer than she was a Tevis
SOURCE: "LNP", Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday, 30 October 2021, p. A4, c. 6.
One grave stands out in Lancaster Cemetery: the tombstone of Augusta Harriet Bitner, who died at 21 years old in 1906.
"She's called the Walking Statue, so people say they see her walking in Lancaster Cemetery,: Cynthia Douts Roth, an Augusta Bitner historian, said when the "Legends" video was recorded. "They've also said that her eyes spark green, that she weeps for the child that is not buried with her. So the story is that Augusta trips on her wedding gown; she fell, she broke her neck, and that's been the story forever."
The facts are that Bitner was born Aug. 25, 1884, in Lancaster, growing up on Marietta Avenue and graduating from Linden Hall in Lititz in 1902. On May 3, 1905, she married Stanley Hart Tevis and moved to Philadelphia, where they had a daughter, Sylvia. A week after their first anniversary, Augusta got typhoid and died a "horrible death," Roth said.
The white Italian marble monument was special ordered from Leland and Company in New York, with ivy circling one pillar, and bearing the inscription, "The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," Augusta's favorite hymn. It also includes the cryptic question, Could love have kept her?"
"I'm not sure her parents approved of Stanley," Roth said. "The baby came seven months after they were married, so I assume they had higher expectations also for her. …She was a Bitner longer than she was a Tevis
SOURCE: "LNP", Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday, 30 October 2021, p. A4, c. 6.
"She's called the Walking Statue, so people say they see her walking in Lancaster Cemetery,: Cynthia Douts Roth, an Augusta Bitner historian, said when the "Legends" video was recorded. "They've also said that her eyes spark green, that she weeps for the child that is not buried with her. So the story is that Augusta trips on her wedding gown; she fell, she broke her neck, and that's been the story forever."
The facts are that Bitner was born Aug. 25, 1884, in Lancaster, growing up on Marietta Avenue and graduating from Linden Hall in Lititz in 1902. On May 3, 1905, she married Stanley Hart Tevis and moved to Philadelphia, where they had a daughter, Sylvia. A week after their first anniversary, Augusta got typhoid and died a "horrible death," Roth said.
The white Italian marble monument was special ordered from Leland and Company in New York, with ivy circling one pillar, and bearing the inscription, "The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," Augusta's favorite hymn. It also includes the cryptic question, Could love have kept her?"
"I'm not sure her parents approved of Stanley," Roth said. "The baby came seven months after they were married, so I assume they had higher expectations also for her. …She was a Bitner longer than she was a Tevis
SOURCE: "LNP", Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday, 30 October 2021, p. A4, c. 6.
Gravesite Details
Died of typhus
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