REVOLUTIONARY WAR VETERAN
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This brief bio text was created by Tim Troxell, who initiated Mr. Hale's memorial:
Isaac Hale was born to Reuben and Diantha (Ward) Hale. He married Elizabeth Lewis. He was a Farmer. Isaac also served his country in the Revolutionary war. He was a member of the Army.
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The below newspaper account offers the approximate date for when Isaac was re-interred to the McKune Cemetery:

REMOVED HIS BONES.
Isaac Hale, The Pioneer Settler and Hunter
The widening of the Erie yard, just west of the railroad bridges at Susquehanna on the land recently purchased by the company of B. F. McKune, necessitated the removal of the remains of Isaac Hale, who once owned the farm and was buried upon it in a spot selected by himself 50 years ago last [next] Spring. Hale was the [a] first settler in this locality and was the father-in-law of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

The coffin which enclosed the remains was, as well as the bones which it contained, found to be in a good state of preservation although having been buried for such a long time. They were re-interred in the McKune cemetery nearby. Mr. B. F. McKune, who, when a boy four years of age, witnessed the burial of Hale, was present at the resurrection. -- Susquehanna Journal. Published: THE EVENING GAZETTE, Port Jervis, NY. Tuesday, Oct. 23, 1888
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Background:
Isaac Hale, son of Reuben Hale & Diantha Ward, was born Mar. 21, 1763, at New Haven, CT. As a small boy his maternal grandfather, Arah Ward (who had a grist mill, and married to Phebe Towner 1717-1784) took Isaac to Vermont sometime after his mother, Diantha, passed away and his father, Reuben, after remarrying, removed to Hartland in 1771. Isaac's paternal grandparents were Samuel Hale aka Heald & Judith Hodge (b. 1697).

When Isaac was 12 years old occurred the first skirmish on the Lexington Green in Massachusetts. In 1777, his 59 year-old grandfather Ward was killed at Addision, VT, while fighting against General Burgoyne and a large Native American force that had mostly come from the Susquehanna Valley in northern PA after 1,200 American soldiers burned their villages and massacred their families.

When Hale was seventeen, he enlisted, along with his uncle David, to fight under Colonel Ebenezer Allen's command as they sought to prevent Canadian military raids into the Mohawk Valley. Hale's brief tour of duty ended eight days after his enlistment when the younger soldiers marched back home without seeing action and the 17 year-old private was released from service.

After Hale returned home from military service, he inherited his grandfather's estate with directives for Isaac to care for his grandmother, Phebe Ward. Despite the presence of his uncles, Hale inherited both the property and responsibilities of a son. His new role possibly displayed how he had become a "Ward" rather than a "Hale" in both outlook and position.

In 1784, his grandmother Ward was still living. It was then that Hale deeded the property earmarked for her care to his uncle David Ward, and Isaac removed to CT. He may have reconnected with his Ward relatives, they being his uncles and aunts Jesse & Eunice Ward Cady and Daniel & Tryal Ward Curtis, since he later named two of his children Jesse and Tryal. He may have visited his father, Reuben Hale, or older brother, Reuben Hale Jr., both veterans of the recent war, or with his sisters Naomi and Antha (Diantha).

Four of Isaac's children were named after his Ward relatives, an additional three were named after his wife's Lewis family. The only child of Isaac and Elizabeth that did not inherit the name of a family member was their daughter Emma.

Following Isaac's military service, and the death of his grandmother, Isaac explored the regions of Ouaquago, NY and communities known today as Windsor, NY (Broome County); Lanesboro, Susquehanna, Oakland, Hickory Grove and Great Bend, PA (Susquehanna County).

After completing this task, he returned to Vermont to marry Elizabeth Lewis on Sep. 20, 1790, in Wells, VT. [One of Elizabeth's ancestors, John Howland, left England on the MAYFLOWER at age 28.

Elizabeth was a sister of Nathaniel Lewis who married about the same time to Sarah Cole. Afterwards Isaac Hale and Nathaniel Lewis, with Elizabeth and Sarah, a yoke of steers and a cart with their goods, traveled over 220 miles from Wells, Rutland County, VT, to their new home in northeastern Pennsylvania. Isaac Hale and Nathaniel Lewis lived near each other for a time on the north side of the Susquehanna River.

Isaac's household was of the Methodist faith. When circuit preachers arrived for their sermon offerings, Isaac's home was one of a few where the clergymen were welcomed to dine and offered accommodations.

Isaac was known for his hunting skills, and made his living by procuring game. Isaac was also a man of forethought and generosity. He would hunt elk along the Starrucca Creek in the fall; make troughs from birch or maple to hold their meat when cut up; carry salt on his back, salt the meat, cover it with bark held down with heavy stones, and then leave it until the snow came, when he could easily bring it down. The fruit of his labor was sometimes exchanged for assistance on his farm, but often found its way unheralded to the tables of others.

For many years at Mr. Hale's door stood a stump mortar and a heavy wooden pestle, worked by a spring pole. His sons would grind enough meal for their supper. The hand mill afterward took the place of the mortar and pestle which could grind half a bushel in a day.

The children of Isaac and Elizabeth were all born in Susquehanna County, PA. Their birthplace was later renamed and is known today as Oakland Township. A few years following the marriage of their daughter Emma with Joseph Smith, nearly all of their children removed to live in Illinois.

The will of Isaac Hale instructed that his body be buried on his own land back of the garden near the line between his property and that of Joseph McKune, Sr.

Isaac expressed, via his deed, that he not be interred within the burying ground, known today as the McKune Cemetery. When the New York and Erie Railroad was built in 1848, at Oakland, PA, it crossed over a portion of the Hale farm property. Apparently they were able to build the railroad so it bypassed Isaac's grave. In 1888 when the Erie Railroad widened their rail yard and road, Isaac's grave was opened and his coffin was removed, then interred within the McKune Cemetery alongside his wife, Elizabeth.

Modern technology confirms that two bodies are at rest and in alignment with today's headstone placement for Isaac and two more bodies in alignment with today's current placement of Elizabeth's headstone. The restorative efforts of Isaac and Elizabeth's headstones resulted in a wider base for each stone necessitating the need to place them differently.

It is not known when his current headstone was created, nor who carved it. It is known that his will stipulated "Wm. R. Wells" be paid $1.25 for his coffin. The below epitaph, carved on his headstone, was based on the mock epitaph once written by Benjamin Franklin, as a young man in 1728, of which Franklin published on his Pennsylvania Gazette.

"The body of Isaac Hale, the hunter, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms, yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will, as he believed, appear in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended."

--- Pennsylvania, Veteran Burial Card
Name: Isaac Hale
Birth Date: 31 Mar. 1783 [1763, recorded with incorrect birth year]
Death Date: 11 Jan. 1839
Age: 55 [75]
Military Branch: Army
Veteran of Which War: Revolutionary War
Cemetery Name: McKune Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Oakland Township, PA
Headstone: Marble

--- US Sons of the American Revolution Membership Application
Name: Isaac Hale
SAR Membership: 25191
Birth Date: 21 Mar. 1763
Birth Place: Waterbury, CT
Father: incorrectly recorded as Gideon Hale. Reuben Hale was the father of Isaac Hale.
Mother: incorrectly recorded as Sarah Watts. Diantha Ward was the mother of Isaac Hale.
Children: Emma Hale

--- When it became a common practice to mark the graves of veterans, in August 1929, Mrs. Homer Johnson, of the D. A. R. Susquehanna County Historical society, placed a D. A. R. flag holder/marker for a Revolutionary soldier at the grave of Isaac Hale, in the McKune cemetery. The marker stayed in place for several decades; however, at the time of creating this text, Isaac's original veteran marker remains missing. It is unknown who might have his marker nor why it was taken.

Regarding Isaac's removal to Susquehanna County, PA....
The first settlers in the county (then Luzerne), included Ozias Strong, and Messrs. Buck, Leonard and Comstock. Isaac Hale arrived 4 to 5 years later. The county was settled by 151 Revolutionary veterans of which Isaac was one. When these earliest settlers arrived hundreds of white inhabitants existed there, however, they were with penurious circumstances and starving.

The early settlers soon realized those who succeeded with a harvest found the locals begged incessantly for food. They spared their grain, food, and game to relieve distress of their neighbors until they had none left for themselves. And many followed this practice throughout the county. When food was not to be had they existed on what could be considered edible to remain alive.

When Isaac arrived, a few years later, at about age 28 years, he too followed those practices, sharing his own food supply, however he was not devastated from the begging experienced by the earliest settlers.

From the 1798 Tax listing, residing in Willingboro Township, Luzerne County, PA, the 150 acre property of Charles Francis, adjacent to Nathaniel Lewis, was occupied by Isaac Hale, on which stood a cabin 15' x 30', no barn, valued at $26

By 1800 the dispute ensued with settlers over claims to their land purchased in Pennsylvania via the Connecticut based "Susquehanna Company." The established settlers again had to purchase their land, but this time payable to the state of Pennsylvania. Isaac's land purchase was directly to Pennsylvania and did not ensue the additional hardships as did his nearby land owners. A large number of land owners refused to again pay for their land and moved, primarily to NY State, as was the case for Ozias Strong, Moses Comstock, and the Corbett's who established New Milford.

Typically when a settler first arrived, he constructed a crude one-room hut, a cabin of logs with a large stone chimney for the fireplace. Spaces between the logs were chinked with moss to keep the cold out. The floors, doors and rustic furniture were made of boards split from logs. To protect the animals, a shelter and an enclosure were constructed. Almost every home possessed a spinning wheel on which flax, raised in their garden, and wool from their sheep were spun into yarn. Before gristmills were established within traveling distance, it was necessary to grind grains by hand into flour.

Potatoes and meat and gravy usually was the customary meal. Since wild game was plentiful, there could be considerable variety of both fresh and salted meat. (Salt cost $5.00 a bushel) Berries, fresh, dried, or preserved were the common fruits of the day. Chestnuts, butternuts, beechnuts and hickory nuts were gathered. Hops were used as a leavening agent to raise dough in the making of bread. Candles, made of tallow, and the glow of the fireplace were the sources of light at night. Soap was made from hardwood ashes and fat. Cooking was done over the open fire of their fireplace. A big iron pot, a frying pan, a griddle and a tea-kettle, along with a dish pan, constituted their usual supply of cooking utensils. An oven for baking typically was built outdoors should their in house fireplace not have oven compartments.

If those early settlers pursued to build an actual home they resided within the original cabin until the main home was habitable. The cabin then became an out building, possibly modified as an ice house.

As the region grew in population, more demand for navigable roads ensued. Messrs. Bennett, Parmeter, Strong, Leonard, Asa Adams, and Isaac Hale (the last in what is now Oakland), viewed the lay out for two roads.
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The below text conveys description for a couple of Mr. Hale's hunting experiences.

Following the 1856 news published in local Susquehanna County newspapers, re: Samuel Brush's hunt of the "Brush Panther (years later known as the Nittany Lion with Penn State University), the following published in the TRI-STATES UNION, Port Jervis, NY, Thurs., Jan. 29, 1857, front page, top:

DEPOSIT UNION DEMOCRAT, Deposit, NY:
"PANTHERS"

A few anecdotes in relation to those denizens of the forest, that were found inhabiting this mountain region, when our fathers came here in 1790, may not be uninteresting to our readers. They were suggested by reading the following which we clip from the New York Daily Tribune of the 25th ult. Some of it we think will be news to the older portion of our citizens, particularly that "it is not known that but one Panther was ever before seen in that vicinity." But to the extract:

"Discovery and Killing of a Panther. — Mr. Samuel Brush of Oakland, PA, shot a large Panther in the woods of New Milford Township, about two weeks ago. He measured from the nose to the tip of his tail 7 feet 4 inches, and weighed 147 pounds. It is not known that but one Panther was ever before seen and that vicinity, and that was shot 21 years ago by Mr. Alan Treadwell within 2 miles of where this was killed."

This panther was killed by Mr. Brush about two miles to Susquehanna Depot about 17 miles from here; and we venture the assertion that more than 50 Panthers have been killed within a circuit of 20 miles of that place. Mr. Isaac Hale, the father-in-law of Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, killed four within less than 1 mile of there, 3 of them in one day. He was hunting deer and when near this place saw a young Panther about half grown standing on a fallen tree.

Raising his rifle he fired, when the creature spring from the tree with a scream and fell dead. Stepping behind a tree, he loaded his gun as quick as he could, and had just got it loaded when another Panther about the size of the former jumped upon the tree but a few feet from where the other stood, when he shot, this he shot, but not with so deadly a name as the first, for it, though mortally wounded, sprang from the tree at the crack of his gun, uttering the most terrific screams which it kept up for some time.

Stepping again behind the tree, he loaded as fast as he could but before he got the ball down, he could hear another animal coming towards him, making terrible sounds, and he had just got his gun loaded when one of the largest size Panthers came up to the body of the first of which he shot and stopped. She put her nose down to the dead carcass and when she raised her head up Hale fired and shot her through the head, killing her instantly; this was the mother of the other two.

On another occasion he was hunting on the brow of the Hill back of Susquehanna Depot, near a ledge of rocks, when hearing a tremendous thrashing among the leaves behind below the ledge, he passed to the edge as soon as possible, but just as he got there, all was still, looking over he saw a large Panther sitting upon the body of a noble buck, licking his chops, which were covered with blood; raising his rifle, he shot it through the head, killing it instantly. — On going to the bodies he found that the panther had sprang (probably from a tree) upon the deer's back and had gnawed the cords and veins of the neck off.
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