We have proudly explained to our tour visitors that we have several graves of Revolutionary War veterans, marked by the American flag at the headstones.' Thanks to research by Charles Nixon, we now realize that we have a third grave in the Burial Ground of veterans from the French and lndian War(1754-1760). We knew about Major William Lea, who was given a King's grant of land for his service in the war, and Christian Lesnett. We now know that Daniel South, Jr., also served in that war.

Daniel enlisted on April 9, 1759, age the age of 21. He was born in 1747 in Cranberry, New Jersey, and he became a wheel wright, as Lea was a wagon builder. South married the widow Euphemia Smyth Nixon. Her son, Thomas Nixon, married Jane Lea, the daughter of William and Dorothy Lea. The South's 211 acre homestead, surveyed in 1787, was called 'South Hall.' It was located beside Chartiers Creek, between John Neville's plantation 'Woodville' and David Steel's plantation 'Steel's Discovery'. Daniel died in 1811 and his grave is marked by a table (flat) stone, one of two we have in the Burial Ground. His epitaph reads: 'This spot contains the ashes of the just, Who sought no honor, betray'd no trust, This truth he prov'd in every path he trod,, An honest man's noblest work of God.'  Euphemia died in 1819 and is also buried at Old St. Lukas.

The French and Indian War began with a spark cast by George Washington, and it mushroomed into the first world war - the Seven Years War in Europe. George Washington was sent by The Ohio Company and the colony of Virginia in 1753 to warn the French to leave today's western Pennsylvania area. In 1754 he came to the confluence of three rivers on ' ly to find the French Ft. Duquesne. Washington built Ft. Necessity for the British troops. While there he came upon French troops led by Lt. de Jumonville. Ten Frenchmen were killed, and I'affaire Jumonville was the start of the war. At wars end and with the Treaty of Paris, France lost her holdings, except in the Caribbean. American fear of France was at an end.

Britain spent vast sums to wage this war. To recoup some of the cost, in 1765 the Sugar Act, a duty on molasses, was strictly enforced, and the Stamp Act was imposed on imports.. When Britain declared sovereignty over the colonies-, the spirit of rebellion was triggered. King George set in 1763 a boundary line for westward colonial expansion, at the head of all rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of being blocked by the French, now the King wanted westward expansion blocked by Indian reservations. (This unenforceable order was rescinded in 1771.) In 1763, Ft. Pitt was a beehive of activity. In 1765, Henri Bouquet ordered a military outpost be built in the Chartiers Creek valley. Hence, Old St. Lukas' site was seeded, and by 1770 Major William Lea had claimed this site for his home.

COINCIDENTALLY WITH THE WAR

MEANWHILE, in the 1750's a spiritual movement called The Great Awakening was underway, which would also prepare the colonists for the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. Settlers like Lea and South not only faced the challenges of the 'frontier, but also the challenges of their Christian faith.

The Great Awakening was in contrast to what is called the Enlightment, the Age of Reason. The power of the human mind was discovered in the eighteenth century, as many thinkers claimed to be 'enlightened.' There was a radical shift from traditional Christian theism to Deism. It claims that God is transcendent only, unreachable by prayer. Deism eliminates divine revelation, miracles, the Incarnation of Christ, and the doctrine of the Trinity. Some famous persons were advocates of Deism: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Voltiare, Thomas Paine and David Hume. In Europe, Rousseau and Goethe were also sowing these same seeds, which became part of the setting for the French Revolution.