ELIZABETH MASSER THORN

Elizabeth Masser and Peter Thorn emigrated from Germany and were married on September 1, 1855; coincidentally, the same day the cornerstone was laid for the Evergreen Cemetery Gatehouse. The Thorns became the first family to live in the Gatehouse when Peter was appointed superintendent of the cemetery in 1856. After Peter joined the Union Army, Elizabeth assumed his duties and served as caretaker from 1862-1865. With the help of her elderly father, amid the heat and stench, Elizabeth buried ninety-one soldiers in the weeks following the Battle of Gettysburg. While six months pregnant, she dug the graves in one of the rockiest regions of the cemetery.