Sherry Emershaw, portraying Amy Harding, and Mark Kahn, portraying Rev. Joshua Entwhistle, as they play a wreath at the grave of Benjamin and Stuckley Harding during a ceremony in 2025, who was killed by the Indians on June, 30, 1778.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
Mark Kahn, portraying Rev. Joshua Entwhistle, prays over the gravesite of Benjamin and Stuckley Harding in a ceremony in 2025. The Jenkins-Harding Cemetery lies along Wyoming Avenue in West Pittston.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
WEST PITTSTON — In just five short years, the West Pittston Historical Society (WPHS) brought to light one of the oldest and most historically significant burial grounds in the Wyoming Valley — the Jenkins-Harding Cemetery located on Wyoming Avenue and Linden St.
The Fifth Annual First to Fall program, sponsored by WPHS, honors local Revolutionary War patriots at the cemetery each year.
Mary Portelli, WPHS president, announced the event would take place on Sunday, June 28, with the program starting at 2 p.m., featuring the members of the 24th Connecticut Militia Re-enactors.
“This year’s event will feature re-enactors playing the parts of those involved in the events of June 1778 just prior to the Battle of Wyoming,” Portelli said. “They will also perform a memorial service to the Harding brothers.”
The Jenkins-Harding Cemetery is closely intertwined with the earliest settlement of the region, the Revolutionary War, and the tragic events leading up to the Battle of Wyoming.
The cemetery was established in 1778, when Judge John Jenkins, one of the earliest Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley, set aside approximately half an acre of his property as a public burial ground.
The cemetery’s first interments occurred on July 2, 1778, when brothers Benjamin and Stuckley Harding were buried after being ambushed and killed by Native American warriors while working on their farm on June 30.
Their deaths happened just days before the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778, making them among the first casualties in the tragic events surrounding what became known as the Wyoming Massacre.
Benjamin and Stuckley’s graves remain among the cemetery’s most important historical markers.
The cemetery has the distinction of being one of the oldest surviving cemeteries in Luzerne County, the burial place of some of the first settlers of Wyoming Valley, the resting place of victims at the Battle of Wyoming, and a landmark directly connected to Fort Jenkins and the Revolutionary War on Pennsylvania’s frontier.
The WPHS will offer a raffle during First to Fall of an original painting by local artist R.J. Tomascik depicting the cemetery and burial site on the day brothers were buried in 1778. The raffle will be held in September.
Portelli said this family-friendly event is free to the public and encourages everyone to arrive early and bring a camera for photos.
As a reminder, Linden St. will be closed during the rain-or-shine event.
For information on First to Fall or other West Pittston Historical Society news and events, visit westpittstonhistory.org or the society’s Facebook page.
