Hannah Harwood

A futuristic possibility for Hannah's Headstone

The Harwoods Coming to Palmyra/Macedon

Webb Harwood was the second permanent settler of Palmyra; (the first John Swift) however, where Webb and his family settled, was where Macedon would later be established in 1823. To clarify, Webb Harwood settled in Palmyra, but the area later became what would be the Macedon township; therefore, making him the first settler of Macedon.

The Harwood family came from Adams Berkshire, Massachusetts in late spring of 1789 to the would be Macedon area. The Harwood family at the time included, Webb Harwood, Hannah Harwood, their first child and son, William Harwood; who was born in 1783, making him about four at the time of the trip, and a newborn, Olive Harwood. In 1789, Webb Harwood was about thirty-one and Hannah was twenty-nine.

Accompanying the Harwoods were three unmarried men-- Noah Porter, Bennet Batcs, and Jonathan Warner.

According to the the self driving tour of Macedon tilted, 200 Years of Macedon Town History 26 Mile Tour, Hannah Harwood was the first woman to endure the wilderness alongside her husband.

The group traveled in (month) for forty-six days. For transportation, they used an ox-team and uncovered wagon.

While the group was traveling, Hannah Harwood was recovering from childbirth with Olive, making Hannah's health "delicate" to quote a book written in 1851, titled, History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe, By O. Turner.

To paraphrase Tuner, Hannah required wine at almost all times; most likely to numb her pain and the alcohol to act as medicine.

Webb Harwood did nothing short of providing the alcohol for his wife to ease her pain on the road. Webb even asked a man named, Ebenezer Spear, [the father of Lemuel Spear, who is buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery] to travel to Canandaigua to get Hannah wine. When Ebenezer arrived to Canandaigua there was no wine to be found. Ebenezer had to travel to Scheneetady, New York to finally find some wine for Hannah. He bought six quarts of wine from a Mr. Charles Kane before walking on foot for fourteen days to deliver the wine.

Webb and Hannah Harwood built a log cabin near the first lock of the Erie canal, west of Palmyra and one half a mile from the village of Macedon. Their cabin was considered a "rise-on-the-ground" cabin according to a newspaper quote from 1927.

The Harwoods settled on a farm and stayed there until the time of death of Webb Harwood in 1824. After Webb Harwood's passing his children moved out-west. His oldest son, William Harwood settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[Image above is of an Ox-team with covered wagon similar to what the Harwoods, and the other three men rode in]

Citation for the image: "Covered wagon and ox team." Ott Historical Photograph Collection, PG 90, Clifford M. Ott Collection, University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives, http,/www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/.

Marker is in Macedon, New York, in Wayne County. Marker is on Quaker Road, ¼ mile east of O'Neil Road, on the left when traveling east.

43° 4.314′ N, 77° 17.1′ W.

Hannah Hardwood's Headstone

The Inscription

"SACRED to the memory of HANNAH. Consort of WEBB HARWOOD who died April 14th 1815 in the 56th year of her age."

The symbolism of the Urn

The urn symbol is one of the bluntest references toward death; the urn itself representing death. Quoting from The Academy of Penguin Hall, "From the 1770’s to the 1820’s, urns with willow branches carved around them were popular on gravestones in New England’s burial grounds. The urns symbolizes death and the willows symbolized grief."

Where the headstone now

In the Girl Scout Gold Award Project of 2021-2024, Hannah Harwood's headstone was found in a pile of headstones left on the property (the pile of headstones was created so the land could be easier mowed). Upon the discovery, much discussion went into what to do with such a historical part of Macedon's history. Erika and Deanne spoke about whether or not Hannah's headstone should remain on the property as the stone was in abhorrent condition and falling apart. It was Deanne that suggested bringing Hannah Harwood's stone inside a building to be preserved; either the Macedon academy or the Macedon Historical society.

In the end, it was decided to house the headstone in the Macedon Academy building where the historical society of Macedon is. There Hannah's headstone would be sheltered from the Upstate New York weather.

The headstone was carefully moved from the pile, by sliding it onto a wooden board with bases. Hannah's headstone had to be moved anyways, due to more headstones being underneath it. Inch by inch Erika and Deanne held onto different areas of the headstone to prevent it from crumbling further as they moved the headstone onto the board. After about ten minutes, the Newcombe women succeeded. The headstone was moved with minimal damage and the few small pieces that did break off where placed with the headstone.

A few days later, on August 7th 2023, Hannah Harwood's headstone was carefully moved out the Old Baptist Cemetery, into the Newcombe family car, to the Macedon historical society, where it resides now.

[Images of Hannah Harwood's Headstone before it was removed from the Old Baptist Cemetery August 7th 2023]

A futuristic possibility for Hannah's Headstone

In modern day, technology is rapidly improving, which leads to more opportunities. Now, there is an opportunity to bring together the idea of high level technology and the dead. In August of 2023, Erika, with others, felt disgruntled about removing the headstone of Hannah Harwood from the cemetery, as the stone had been there over 200 years. So after much consideration and thought, the Girl Scout came with the idea of getting a replica of Hannah's stone. Erika's idea-- 3D print a new headstone for Hannah Harwood.

Using 3D printing to preserve history is nothing new; in actuality 3D printing historical monuments has been done since the 1990's. However, those physical prints were small and simply designed compared to modern day due to 3D printing just coming to fruition.

But today in the 21st century, 3D printing can be done by almost anyone! Granted with the right amount of money.

Already 3D printing is used for creating headstones on websites such as Esty .

On Esty, under the username, Cursed By Design, they create 3D printed headstones for pets. According to the description of the product, "These headstones are 3D printed in a marble-like colour to more closely resemble the real thing and are able to be kept in the outside elements."

The 3D printed models constructed by Cursed By Design, are smaller than regular headstones, yet the concept shows that 3D printing headstones are a possibility and an option.

On the left of the computer screen, are images of the computer generation and layout of a stump headstone, the 3D model tilted, A CHILD'S TREE STUMP GRAVE MARKER and created by the username, Jerry7171.

Underneath the computer model is the tree stump grave marker printed to which it looks as real as any headstone.

Again these sizes are small than real headstones, but leaves the possibility to 3D printing Hannah Harwood's headstone a possibility.

If creating an entire new headstone from 3D printing is a bit much, then there is also the option of 3D printing missing pieces of broken headstones.

In 2018 and 2019, Egor Kraft astonished the world with his artistic show piece, figuring out an Artificial Intelligence (or AI), program to reconstruct parts of broken roman statues. He showed off his pieces at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

On the website for the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe is a public article describing how Egnor managed to repair the statues.

"An algorithm capable of self-learning is directed to replenish lost fragments of the friezes and sculptures. Based on an analysis of models, it generates models, which are then 3-D printed in various materials and used to fill the voids of the original sculptures and their copies."

There is the option of repairing and replacing missing pieces of headstones in ways of 3D printing. In short, there are creative options to further preserving the Old Baptist Cemetery.

Sources for this page (Sources are not listed in order of usage)

Source for the Ox-covered wagon photo

Link: https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/ott/items/ott1055.html

Preferred Citation: "Covered wagon and ox team." Ott Historical Photograph Collection, PG 90, Clifford M. Ott Collection, University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives, http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/.

Rights: Material determined to be in Public Domain based on date of publication. Material made available by the University of Idaho Library.

Source for the 3D printed "A CHILD'S TREE STUMP GRAVE MARKER": https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/a-child-s-tree-stump-grave-marker

Source for Figures 1-3: of Egor Kraft, Content Aware Studies © Egor Kraft: https://tripleampersand.org/copy-object-matter-3d-printed-historical-monuments/