PRIDGEON CEMETERY
Grandview Drive and Salem Heights Drive
Pine Township, PA
(Allegheny County)

Cemetery is located on the former Pittsburgh Bible Institute.  The mission of the institute was to train Christian missionaries. 
Administered by: Salem Heights Christian Life Center, 500 Salem Lane, Gibsonia, PA  15044-6164

Some Tombstone Photos on USGenWeb may be viewed at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/tsphotos/pridgeon-pine.htm

Posted: November 17, 2009     Last Update:  November 17, 2009
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Surname, First Name, Birthdate, Deathdate, Other (Links/Photos)
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[Rev. Charles Hamilton Pridgeon was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 7, 1863.  
   Charles was the son of Johnson Pridgeon and Rebecca McCreight Pridgeon.  Who's 
   Who in America gives his life history and accomplishments. At one time, I don't 
   know the year, Charles was known as the fifth best educated man in the United 
   States of America.  (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed 
   by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[Ella Pridgeon, daughter of Rebecca and Johnson Pridgeon.  Her proper name was Sarah Ellen Pridgeon. She 
   was born in Baltimore, Maryland on August 30, 1867.  Ella taught school in 
   Baltimore, Maryland. She was a devoted teacher and greatly loved and admired.  Ella 
   was a very talented artist. She studied art in a Catholic school in Baltimore. Many 
   of her paintings still exist.  (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, 
   contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[Johnson Pridgeon was a jeweler and designed fabulous rings and pins. He also owned a silver 
   mine in Leadville, Colorado. He had an Ingraham mantel clock in his cabin, which years 
   later (circa 1978) was donated to the Clock Museum in Bristol, Connecticut.  Johnson 
   was the husband of Rebecca McCreight.  (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, 
   contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[Dr. Lily G. H. Pridgeon, daughter of Rebecca and Johnson Pridgeon, was born in Baltimore, Maryland 
   on June 25, 1872. Her full name was Lily Gertrude Hilman Pridgeon.  She was a medical 
   doctor and practiced medicine in Baltimore, Maryland and Cannonsberg, Pennsylvania. 
   Lily was a dedicated and devoted doctor. She was an honor to her profession.  After 
   her death, in 1928, her brother, Charles, had a bronze plaque placed in the orphanage 
   he built. This plaque dedicated the building to Lily.  I remember this, as I was elected 
   to pull the cord on the curtain at the unveiling of the plaque, at the dedication service.  
   (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[This is the child of Louise and Charles Pridgeon, who died at time of birth on March 29, 1905.  
   (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[Louise Shepard Pridgeon was a celebrated opera singer.  Louise became close friends with the Booths. They were 
   founders of the Salvation Army. Louise was deeply religious; with that, Charles Pridgeon 
   felt she would be a perfect minister's wife. They were married and established many missions.
   I have a medal given to Louise, at the height of her singing career, by King Leopold of Belgium.  
   (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

[Rebecca Pridgeon was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the daughter of Rebecca McCreight and David McCreight. 
   Her mother's father was a Hamilton and was in a direct line to the throne of Scotland.  Rebecca 
   married Johnson Pridgeon and they had three children — Charles, Lily and Sara Ellen, aka Ella. 
   They were very proud that all three children had chosen such fine vocations.  Rebecca was my 
   grandmother's sister and was called Aunt Bessie. Aunt Bessie and her sister, Emma, kept the 
   Hamilton name in the family. Aunt Bessie named her son Charles Hamilton, and her sister, Emma, 
   named her daughter Grace Hamilton Wittaker. Grace married Joseph M. Thompson.  Grace was my 
   mother (recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)]

(recollections of Katharine Elaine Thompson Dow, contributed by Beverly Dow Mazzarella)
      My mother, Katharine Elaine Thompson (now Dow) was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Grace Hamilton (Wittaker) Thompson 
and Joseph M. Thompson. Grace's mother was Emma McCreight Whittaker, sister of Rebecca (Aunt Bessie). As an infant, my 
mother was being pushed in a baby carriage by her mother. As her mother walked under a coal chute, which was delivering 
coal to a basement in Baltimore, Maryland, the coal chute broke and fell on her mother - killing her. The baby carriage, 
carrying my mother, was pushed out of harms way. My mother was the youngest of 7 children. Her father (being 51 when she 
was born) was unable to take care of an infant, so he sent her to live with her maternal grandmother's sister, Rebecca 
Pridgeon (aka Aunt Bessie), in Gibsonia, PA. 

     Aunt Bessie's house was about a mile from the Bible Institute, where my mother attended school. Adjacent to the school
was the girl's orphanage. Aunt Bessie's house sat on the side of the hill. They had about 600 acres of land, some of which 
was sold off in unfavorable deals. Rev. Charles Pridgeon built the orphanage (as well as the bible institute) and dedicated 
the building to his sister, Dr. Lily, shortly after her death in 1928. He had a small summer cottage on the property, which 
he called 'the prayer cottage', as well as his parsonage in Pittsburgh.

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