Margaret D. McCulloh – (1814 – 1853)

Margaret D. McCulloh was the 7th born child of John and Elizabeth McCulloh. She was the first of their known children to die. She passed away on September 18, 1853 at the age of 39 and is buried near her parents in the Stone Church Cemetery. Her gravestone was still legible in 2009. Margaret never married and was blinded as the result of an accident. The death entry in the Mary Ann McCulloh Lewis Bible is followed by the note “At eve it shall be light” which is a line from a poem written in 1845 titled We Journey Through a Vale of Tears. The Repository and Whig of Chambersburg published the following obituary for Margaret:

“Died: On the 18th. inst. ult., in Warren Twp., Miss Margaret McCullough, aged 30 [sic] years 7 mos. and 10 days. She was the subject of deep affliction, and with the inimitable author of “Paradise Lost,” she could say – “Thus with the year seasons return: but not to me returns the day, or the sweet approach of eve or morn or light of vernal bloom, or summer rose, or flocks or herds, or human face divine.” But she was sustained in the midst of her suffering in contemplating the time when the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped – when the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joys upon their heads and sorrows and sighings shall flee away.”

(Photo 2009)

Stone Church Graveyard-Little Cove (photo 2007)