The "The Story Of Cabbage Hill: Dinah McIntire ... One Amazing Woman" Story

Preface:  My stories on Cabbage Hill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania continue today with the story of a rather unique woman who lived in Cabbage Hill for years.  Once again, a big "Thank You" goes out to Mr. Jim Gerhart who too is a resident of Cabbage Hill and has written about Dinah on the Facebook site known as "Cabbage Hill of Yesteryear." 

It was an ordinary day.  Walking through the historical cemetery of St. James Episcopal Church in downtown Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania.  

St. James Episcopal Church Churchyard.

There are 266 tombstones in and around the cemetery according to Klein and Diller's book, Saint James Church 1744 to 1944.  But, I am only looking for just one...the tombstone of Dinah McIntire who died 200 years ago in Lancaster, in May of 1819.  She was 113 at the time of her death.  

Churchyard as it appeared in 1929.

The more I searched, the more I feared I wouldn't find a tombstone with her name.  Many of the old granite stones no longer had readable names and I feared she might be one of them.  I left the churchyard not seeing her name, but after returning home and opening my book by Klein and Diller, I realized that she may have been one of those that never had a tombstone, since over 500 people have been buried in St. James Churchyard since it first opened in 1744.  Both my parents are buried in the churchyard and my wife and I will make the churchyard our final resting place sometime in the future.  So, perhaps Dinah McIntire's body was buried under a spot where I had walked today during my search, but has no tombstone.  As far as Dinah is concerned, she was a well known fortuneteller who worked at the White Swan Tavern which was on the square in downtown Lancaster.  She was a remarkable person, since she had something primarily reserved for prominent male citizens in the city; an obituary in the local newspaper, the  Lancaster Journal.  

The area where Dinah lived in Cabbage Hill.  Gearhart photo.

She also had a note in St. James minister Rev. Joseph Clarkson journal about her burial in the Church- yard.  She was one of a very few women of her time who owned property in Lancaster.  But, what was even more remarkable about this amazing woman was that she was an African American slave for much of her life.  She was born about 1706 and grew up in a slave family in a town known as Princess Anne which is in Somerset County, Maryland.  She raised four children while living in Maryland and only came to Lancaster when Matthias Slough, a Colonel in the Revolutionary War Army, bought her and brought her to work in his White Swan Tavern.  

The White Swan Tavern can be seen in this photograph.
About a quarter way in from the left you can see what
appears to be a sign with a white swan on it.  I assume
this is the White Swan Tavern.  Click on image to enlarge.

When she died she owned at least two, possibly three, properties on the northeast side of Cabbage Hill.  Two of the lots that she owned were taxed as part of the 1798 Federal Direct Tax which was based on the amount of land owned and the number of window panes that were in the houses.  Dinah outlived all her children, so in 1816 when she prepared a will, she left all her properties and possessions to Jacob Getz who attended St. James with her and who befriended her to the extent that she named him her executor and sole heir.  The properties were in what is now known as Cabbage Hill, but at the time was known as Bethelstown.  So, where did Dinah live when she was alive.  An article in the News Journal of Lancaster on June 9, 1898 tells of a small frame cabin that was allegedly the home of Dinah that was condemned and had become an eyesore; thus it was torn down.  

This map shows the two lots that Dinal McIntire owned from at least
1798 to 1819 when she died.  The lots are near the intersection of
West Strawberry and West Vine, where Dinah is supposed to have
lived.  The map is fro 1875, so the features shown are not the same
as they were when Dinah was living there.

The home was said to be near the highest point in the area of Lancaster where she lived.  The final chapter of Dinah's life tells of her time as a slave for Matthias Slough.  Slavery was becoming unpopular and Mr. Slough owned eleven slaves at one time.  It was said that Dinah McIntire may have been freed circa 1780, since it was known that she owned property at that time.  Could Slough have rewarded her with property for her many years of service to him?  Did his conscience bother him enough to buy land for her?  These are answers to several questions we may never learn about Dinah McIntire, but she certainly was one spunky woman who was part of Cabbage Hill history at one time.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.