Catherine Lefferts died while placing a loaded pistol into a nearby hanging holster. A Drover had left it on a dresser and she was moving it out of the reach of the younger children. She died immediately.
Catherine Lefferts died while placing a loaded pistol into a nearby hanging holster. A Drover had left it on a dresser and she was moving it out of the reach of the younger children. She died immediately.
Inscription
No visible grave marker can be found for Catherine Lefferts at this time. The following may or may not, have been inscribed on her gravestone.
ELEGY
What doleful tidings, in my ear they ring,
The maid I love, is she for ever gone?
Alas, 'tis true ! her funeral dirge they sing:
In rueful notes, her haplass end bemoan.
* * * * * * * *
No consolation can this world now yield,
No pleasing prospect can my cares beguile;
The bloom of flowers, nor verdure of the fields,
Her presence only, could make all things smile.
Accursed pistop, by some demon primed,
Malignant to the gem the world contained,
Wast thou by dire explosion thus ill timed,
To rob the world of excellence, ordaianed?
No more shall cath'rine rise upon my sight,
Like eastern Sol, in her own beauty's light;
No more the rose of sharon shall adorn
Ner lovely visage in the welcome morn;
All this is lost, her checks, alas ! are pale,
The Rose is now the Lily of the vale !
Covered with earth, into the silent grave,
She lies entombed, deaf to every cry;
* * * * * * * *
Then pray descend, fair Catharina's shade,
Into my dreams and visions of the night;
Put rapturous illusions in my head,
That much an angel for a world of woe;
Eternal wisdom hath conceived it best,
On her a crown of glory to bestow,
Among the saints in her Redeemer's rest.
Bergen, Teunis G., Compiled, "Genealogy of the Lefferts Family, 1650-1718." (Albany, N. Y., Joel Munsell, 1878), pp. 92-93; digital images, Internet Archive (Archive.org: Viewed 6 December 2015).
Gravesite Details
Obituary - Catherine Lefferts, Royal American Gazette [New York, New York] 22 April 1783, Vol. DLXXV, p. 3. -- Re-Interment: 16 November 1872.
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