Philip TANNER Burial Notes, Old Cemetery at Lewisville; Chester County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Terry Mossop.

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This photo of Philip Tanner's Tombstone is from at least 1946.  It appears Mary 
Tanner's is right next to it.

All the Tanners are buried together under the only tree in the graveyard there 
were 7 total, We took several close up pictures and group shots, the only bad 
news to report is that Philips stone suffered some damage due to being shot at 
by some nit-wit who wanted to make sure the puma was dead, the same thing 
happened to the David Warrey (directly in front of Philip Tanner) stone they 
shot out the indian head in the top of his. We also found the stone with the 
hand reaching for the 4 of diamonds, very interesting.

From:

Young, Stanley P. and Goldman, Edward A.
The Puma: Mysterious American Cat
New York: Dover Publications, 1946

“One of the earliest, if not the earliest, records of a puma attack, though 
still somewhat obscure, concerns that upon Philip Tanner. His tombstone, in an 
old cemetery at Lewisviile, Chester County, Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania-
Maryland border, reads, "Here lye the body of Philip Tanner who departed this 
life May 6, 1751-age 58 years." From what can be learned from the historical 
record, Philip Tanner was killed by a "panther" at the edge of woods at a spot 
called Eettys Patch, near Lewisville, about one-half mile from the cemetery. A 
crude image of a puma is cut on the tombstone. (Plate 19.)

Apparentiy in those early colonial days the stone engravers at times attempted 
to depict on the tombstone the incident causing the death of an individual. - In 
the same cemetery there exists a tombstone inscribed along with a hand reaching 
for the four or five of diamonds-leading one to believe a card game was in 
progress, or a gambling card game resulted in the demise of this latter 
individual.”