Next

REVOLUTIONARY WAR HOSPITAL

                           1777-1781

ABIGAIL HARTMAN RICE AND CHRISTINA HENCH

                    REVOLUTIONARY WAR NURSES

ABIGAIL HARTMAN RICE (1742-1789), like so many of her family and neighbors, did what they could to help in the fight for independence.  Prominent farmers in Pikeland, the Hartmanís hosted General Washington when he marched through the township in September 1777.

Abigail was the wife of Zachariah Rice who ran the clover mill.  He helped to build the Revolutionary War hospital at Yellow Springs.  Abigail had 22 children but made time to work at the hospital and tend the sick soldiers.  Tasks included cooking, cleaning, bathing patients and doing laundry.

CHRISTINA HENCH was the wife of Christian Hench who managed a 300 acre farm in Pikeland Township.  She was the mother to 7 sons and 2 daughters.  All her sons died in the Revolutionary War.  Christina joined Abigail in the duties of nursing at the Yellow Springs hospital.

The successful medical work accomplished at the Yellow Springs Revolutionary War hospital could not have been realized without the help of these courageous local women.  Their work along with the support of wives, sweethearts and those known as camp-followers assisted the doctors working here performing their errands of mercy. This brave, heroic and noble work was a very generous contribution to the war effort.  All did the very best that they could.

ABIGAIL HARTMAN RICE AND CHRISTINA HENCH volunteered their service and ultimately gave their lives having contracted the thyphus fever so rampant in the Valley Forge encampment during the winter of 1777-1778.  Both are buried in the cemetery of the Pikeland Churches in Chester Springs on Clover Mill Road.