Copyright 1914 Composed and Printed at the Waverly Press
By the Williams & Wilkins Company Baltimore, U. S. A.

Contributed for use by Wayne M. Sampson
916 South Olive Street; Mexico, MO 65265. [email protected]

The "Old Beulah Church and Cemetery" On Greensburg Pike, some eight miles east of Pittsburgh, Pa., which was the old road from Fort Pitt to Philadelphia, there is standing today and old dead walnut tree which marked one corner of the boundary line of John Sampson's farm over one hundred and twenty years ago. This farm of John Sampson's was very extensive and in a rolling country. It lay at the top of quite a hill commanding a most beautiful view over the valley. To the north about two miles was the Presbyterian Church and graveyard.

The Church was called "Beulah" and is the oldest in Western Pennsylvania and although we have no proof we must naturally conclude that John Sampson and his family lie buried in this old churchyard cemetery. There are no monuments to mark their resting place - there are no records in the church of bodies that were buried here in those pioneer days. Some of the oldest graves were marked with board at the head and foot and others have an ordinary three cornered stone such as you could pickup in fields, to show there is a grave on that spot.

A Miss Martha Graham (a granddaughter of the pastor who preached in this little church some 41 years) told me they had ceased to bury in the old part of the cemetery, for in excavation for new graves they would come upon evidence of other bodies having been interred in the same place. A little book of records kept by Miss Graham's grandfather since 1804 gave the name of Polly Sampson as uniting with the church. In a deed at the court house in Greensburg I find a signature of Mary (called Polly) Sampson. This record of Polly Sampson uniting with Beulah Church would indicate that the family were affiliated with this old Church, and makes the conviction still stronger that the little cemetery adjoining was the burial place of the earliest Sampsons of that section. This Mary Sampson in mentioned as a daughter in John Sampson's will. The following beautiful tribute from the Pittsburgh Despatch of May 24, 1886, is the only monument to the memory of Major Thomas Sampson (c1755-1833):

A Tribute to Major Sampson and Old Beulah Cemetery
Pittsburgh Despatch - 1886.

When the Western Pennsylvania's loyal sons and daughters next stop for a moment from the whirl of life to renew that most beautiful custom of modern days, decorating the graves of the Nation's dead, each heart should turn to a little, half-deserted, burial ground that years and years ago became history through the dead of heros of an extinct band of men. Crowning a range of hills that overlooks fertile valleys and fields, some miles east of Wilkinsburg, is Beulah Church and its humble last resting place, where sleep scores of men and women who long since paid the last great debt. Within the limits of the rude enclosure rest the ashes of four generations of soldiers.

When the leaves of the Judgment Book are unfolded old Beulah's church yard will furnish ten warriors of the Revolution, three of the War of 1812, two of the Mexican War, and over twenty of the late rebellion (Civil War) for the final reckoning. Some of them have been out of the strife for over three-quarters of a century, resting there with birds and trees and flowers through the summers, and disturbed by no harsher sounds than moaning winds during the winter.

Beulah Church is probably the oldest in Western Pennsylvania - it was built by rugged yeomen sometime after 1750; its early history is lost in the mist of years. Among the soldiers of the Sampson family, who are buried in Beulah Cemetery, Major Thomas Sampson, of Revolutionary Fame, awaits the trumtet call in an unmarked grave. Three generations of the family, headed by Major Sampson, were represented on fields of strife, but his only monument consists of a good name. John Sampson, a son of Major Sampson, took part in the War of 1812; he was born in 1785, and died in 1859. Coming down to the late war the names of many young men who went forth to battle for their country and returned in coffins, are to be found in Beulah; among these were George Washington Sampson, a grandson of Major Sampson; also Thomas Sampson, Company C-3 P. V. Other old family names are scattered through the peaceful shades of Beulah, making it one of the most noted spots in the county.

* Of the nine children of Major Thomas Sampson, I find records of only three. David, born December 13, 1800, married in Kentucky and had five children: William, Thomas, Stewart, Margaret and Theodosia. David returned to Westmoreland County from Kentucky and died December 31, 1864. No doubt, he, too is buried in Beulah.

Margaret, born September 21, 1797, married Stewart Thompson, and has one son, Stewart S. D. Thompson, living at Princess Anne, Maryland. Margaret died July 9, 1868, and is also buried at Beulah, with a stone to mark her resting place.

Unmarked Graves:
Major Thomas A. Sampson 1755 - Aug 1833
His wife, Elizabeth (Duff) Sampson 1755 Aug 1833. She is the sister of John Duff (1756-1823).

David Sampson, son of Thomas, 13 Dec 1800 - 31 Dec 1864.
His wife Mary (Purcell) Sampson 1820 - ?.

Thomas Sampson, son of David and Mary Sampson, was born 1844 in Kentucky. Note: He is listed on  at Beulah Cemetery  as Thomas Sampson, Private, Co. C, 63rd Reg, PA Vol.

Margaret (Sampson) Thompson, daughter of Major Thomas A. Sampson, 21 Sep 1797 - 9 Jul 1868. She is the wife of Stewart Thompson.