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LOCAL DAR CHAPTER NAMED FOR
GENERAL EDWARD HAND ["Ottawa Daily Republican," 23 Mar 1914, page 1, column 2]
General Edward Hand Chapter of Ottawa which entertains the state DAR convention this week was named in honor of the great grandfather of Mrs. Jeptha Davis of this city. General Edward hand, who was on of the principal figures in the Revolutionary war and served from the beginning of the struggle in 1776 to the culmination in 1784. He was a close friend of General George Washington and Mrs. Davis has a letter written during the war by General Washington to General Hand. The letter is framed with glass on either side and hangs in the Davis home. General Hand was a resident of Lancaster, Pa. The greatness of General Hand and the high reverence in which his name is held in his home county and in the United States is shown by the erection of a memorial tablet six feet long and four feet high composed of granite and set in the face of Indian Rock, a great landmark in Williamson park near the home occupied by General Hand during the Revolutionary period. Following is a brief history of General Hand. He was born December 31, 1744, at Clyndaff, Kings county, province of Leinster, Ireland. He received the appointment of surgeon's mate, or surgeon, to the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regiment of Foot and sailed with the regiment to Cork, May 20, 1767. He arrived in Philadelphia July 11. He was ensign of the same regiment, his commission bearing the date of 1772. He went with the same regiment to Fort Pitt and returned to Philadelphia in 1774, resigning his commission and receiving a regular discharge from the British service. In the same year he went with recommendations to Lancaster in order to practice his profession. The following year he married. In 1775 he entered the continental service, his commission bearing a date in June of that year. In 1777 he was chosen colonel of the First Regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen, which is famous for its exploits during the Revolution. He was raised to the grade of brigadier general and later to that of adjutant general. He was adjutant general at the battle of Yorktown and marched with his troops back to Philadelphia, where they were dismissed. Upon the close of the war General Hand resumed practice of medicine in Lancaster, Pa. In 1798 he was appointed major general in the provisional army. In 1785 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania house of representatives. In 1789 he was a delegate from Lancaster county to the convention which amended the first state constitution. He was a member of the Continental congress in 1784 and 1785. In politics he was a Federalist. He died September 3, 1802, in the fifty eight year of his age. As a citizen he was highly esteemed and as a physician greatly sought after and beloved, especially by the poor, to whom he was in the habit of rendering his services gratuitously. |
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