Rist Family Cemetery in Connellsville Township

Thank You, Karen Souhrada!   Karen Souhrada   souhrada@rochester.rr.com

REIST Family Cemetery of Connellsville Township (earlier Bullskin Township), 
Fayette County, Pennsylvania [From Franklin Ellis' "History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 
1882", pages 400-401, the following:]

"JOHN REIST, variously spelled in Fayette County Records and elsewhere (RIST, 
RISTE, REIS, RISE, RISET, and RICE), was an early settler in the Township. He was a 
farmer, fisherman and ferryman. He was living at Broadford at the beginning of the 
18th Century, and remained there for many years. He had a small plot of land cleared and 
his log dwelling stood on the bank where is now (1882), the pumping house of the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. This afterwards was replaced with a stone house. Below 
it lay the large canoe, or dug-out on which he ferried passengers to and fro across 
the Youghiegheny River. He also had an oil-mill which was in operation as late as 1825."
[Note: From when this survey was done (assumed to be 1951)] "In 1951, this land is 
owned by Mark Fazenbaker,  Emmet F. Fazenbaker, and Wilmer N. Fazenbaker, #645 Brown 
Street, Everson, Pennsylvania, who acquired the same premises from the H. C. Frick Coke 
Company, which Company mined the coal there from.

The Reist Family Burial Plot, or private cemetery is situated on this land, adjacent 
to the public road entering the village of Broadford. When this route was improved 
and paved about the year 1914, the grading of the road damaged this small burial 
plot to the extent that the tombstones were tumbled over the embankment, and many 
of them, when the inscriptions were copied in the year 1948, were illegible due 
to the stones being covered with soil and most of them broken; however, all 
inscriptions which were legible were copied as follows:

"TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS:
RIST
   In memory of CONRAD RIST, d. 6/22/1841, aged 55 yr 9 mo 12 da.

RIST   (not legible)ORBIN
    NANCY ORBIN, daughter of J & B ORBIN, who departed this life 3/2/1846, aged 7 
years, 4 months, 24 days

The next four graves of the index are noted as 
"inscriptions illegible"
    SARAH, "rest of inscription illegible"
           "inscription illegible"

RIST
    In memory of JOHN RIST, who died 2/4/1836, aged 90 years.
    HENRY RIST, b. 4/10/1835 - d. 4/3/1839.
    In memory of MARY RIST, b. 5/1/1817 - d. 6/27/1841
    NANCY RIST, b. 8/1/1826 - d. 9/26/1842
    HENRY RIST, d. 4/11/1846, aged 56 years
    JOHN RIST, d. 6/26/1855, aged 78 years, 4 months, 1 day.
RIST/WADE
    CATHERINE RIST, wife of JOHN WADE, b. 9/8/1834 - d. 12/7/1869
    SUSANNA RIST, d. 5/28/1864, aged 63 years
ORBIN
    JOHN ORBIN, infant, died 1844

WALKER
  BARBARA WALKER, d. 10/14/1857, aged 77 years, 2 months
  JOHN WALKER, Sr., died 4/9/1857, aged 78 years.

S.W.R.
  Headstone is missing; footstone reads "S.W. R." ------[Notes:]

"We quote a letter, dated February 25, 1946, written by Burt Rist, 107 North 6th 
Street, Youngwood, Pennsylvania, regarding the Rist Farm:"
"CHRISTIAN RIST and his wife, ELIZABETH, came to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in 
1794, and purchased 243 acres of land in Tyrone Township, 40 acres which later was 
in Connellsville Township. I do not know from whom they bought the land, but when 
I was a boy I was told it had been owned by a family named HUNTER, from Virginia. 
They had slaves, and there were graves of the slaves in the orchard back of 
the house; flat stones were over the graves.

According to my records, CHRISTIAN RIST, and his wife, ELIZABETH, deeded 
this land to JOHN RIST, December 31, 1794.
  JOHN RIST was my grandfather, and his wife's name was BARBARA.
February 22, 1834, JOHN RIST made a Will, and in it he mentions the following children: 
JOHN RIST, CHRISTIAN RIST, CONRAD RIST,  HENRY RIST (my grandfather), NANCY 
RIST, JACOB RIST, BARBARA RIST.
  BARBARA RIST married JOHN WALKER, but I do not know about their family; I think 
some of them lived around there yet."

BURT RIST, b. 10/22/1871, married 6/26/1897 to ANNA E. TARR, b.7/15/1875 (no 
children; resided at Youngwood, PA).
BENJAMIN RIST, b. 3/20/1874, married (illegible) and had two children:
        JOSEPH RIST, b. 3/1/1906 (died in infancy);
        HERBERT D. RIST, b. 12/22/1908, married CATHERINE EICHER
Children; HERBERT DONLEY RIST, b. 5/17/1929; BENJAMIN F. RIST, b. 11/12/1930; DAISY 
C. RIST, b. 8/13/1932; MARY P. RIST, b. 9/3/1910;
        NELLIE I. RIST, b. 6/6/1912 - 
d. __/5/28/1912; ISADOR C. RIST, b. 5/3/1914 (died in infancy);
       HERMAN A. RIST, b. 7/12/1915 (died in infancy);
       LIDA M., b. 8/6/1919.

---end of cemetery index ------

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