Last updated: November 5, 2021
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Self Guided Veterans Day Tour 2021
National Park Service
St. Paul’s Church
National Historic Site
897 S. Columbus Avenue
Mt. Vernon, New York
914-667-4116; www.nps.gov/sapa
Veterans Day,
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Self-guided tour exploring the lives and service of eight of the veterans buried in the historic cemetery at St. Paul’s. Note: Veterans graves on this self-guided tour are marked by tall American flags. Tour map, drawn by John R. Wright, is included on this web page.
1. Alfred Thomson served in the Merchant Marine in World War II. Born in Canada, he emigrated to America in 1919, and settled in New York, working in a professional position for Con Edison and as an independent insurance broker. Thomson entered an officer training program for the merchant marine, graduating in 1943, and serving through the war’s final two years. Merchant marine officers provided vital services in the American effort. They commanded ships that transported the material resources of war through hostile combat zones in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean theaters of operation, and suffered high casualty rates. Thomson remained in the merchant service following American victory, achieving the rank of Lt. Commander. Stricken with pneumonia on a voyage, he died in Sweden in 1947.
2. Michael McLaughlin served as an assistant engineer in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Born in Ireland, McLaughlin reached the United States in the mid 1850s, settling in Boston, and gaining employment on the docks. He volunteered for the Navy in 1862 and helped maintain the steam engines on the USS Genesee. That ship participated in the blockade of the Confederacy on the North Atlantic and in the pivotal siege of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River in 1863. After Union victory, McLaughlin settled in New York. He married Pauline Tigh, whose family had long ties to the St. Paul’s parish, although the marriage represented a rare inter-religious union for the 19th century -- Michael was Catholic and Pauline was baptized in the Protestant Episcopal faith. They raised a large family in Brooklyn. The Navy veteran lived until age 75, followed by burial here.
3. Samuel Pell was an officer in the Continental Army, serving throughout the Revolutionary War. Son of the prominent Pell family of Pelham, New York, he enlisted as an Ensign in the American Army for the invasion of Canada in 1775. The young officer from Westchester County remained in the service for the next eight years, surviving the crucible of the infamous Valley Forge winter of 1778, and fighting in most of the major engagement in the Northern part of the Revolutionary War. This included a note in his records about distinguished service in the American victory at Saratoga in October 1777; he was also engaged at the climactic Battle of Yorktown in October 1781. Following American victory, Pell was enrolled in the Society of the Cincinnatus, the prestigious but controversial veterans’ association of officers of the Continental Army. A fatal accident while riding a horse on a winter day in 1786 led by Pell’s untimely death at age 32. He never married.
4. Thomas Le Viness is representative of thousands of men who served in the militia regiments during the Revolutionary War. These units, raised through towns, counties, or states, fought in engagements in their local areas, often in support of the regular Continental Army troops. Born in Peekskill, NY in 1753, Le Viness enlisted in the Third Westchester County Militia in 1776 and would have fought at crucial engagements of the New York campaign, including the Battles of Brooklyn in August, Harlem Heights in September, and White Plains in October. Private Le Viness passed away, in Eastchester, in 1838, followed by burial at St. Paul’s, before the creation of government veterans’ stones.
5. Henry Schlote served in two Union Army regiments in the Civil War that were characterized by their distinct German profile. Born in Hanover in 1826, Schlote immigrated to America in the late 1840s, joining thousands of refugees fleeing the German states following the failure of the revolutions of 1848. In 1861, Schlote joined the 7th New York Volunteer Infantry, nicknamed the Steuben Guard, because of the heavy concentration of German immigrants. The unit served in the Army of the Potomac at the major eastern engagements, including the Peninsula campaign, the Battle of Antietam and Fredericksburg, before mustering out in April 1863. He re-enlisted in several months later, or “re-upped,” in the terminology of the day, joining the 15h New York Heavy Artillery, another regiment with a distinct German profile. The regiment served in the Virginia campaigns of 1864-5. Schlote returned to Mt. Vernon after the war, and he and his wife Hannah, also a German immigrant, had a son. The Union veteran worked as a house painter, and passed away in 1886, age 60. His St. Paul’s grave is marked by one of the cemetery’s first government veterans’ stones.
6. Edward Patterson, served as a carpenter in the Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner to the Coast Guard, during the Mexican American War of the 1840s. Born in Ireland, he was working in South Carolina, on the docks, in the 1840s, when he entered the service of the revenue cutters, serving on the schooner, USS Van Buren, The ship participated in blockade duty in the Gulf of Mexico and provided support of the invasion of Vera Cruz in 1847. Patterson moved to the Westchester County area later in the 19th century. He worked for many years as a successful carpenter, probably a skill he learned in the service. The former revenue cutter seaman also held several appointive and elective positions in local government and civic associations in Pelham, New York.
7. Morris Link, a Corporal in the famed 369th Infantry, the all-black Harlem Hell-Fighters, was killed in action July 15, 1918, at the Second Battle of the Marne, in France, during World War I. Link was born in North Carolina, married, with no children, living in Mt. Vernon at the time of his enlistment. The 369th endured considerable prejudice in recruitment, training and especially in the war theater in France, where American military authorities refused to let them into combat commands, preferring to use them as service troops. Instead, the Hell-Fighters fought with the French Army, compiling an admirable credible combat record. Corporal Link was killed in a Germany artillery assault, and awarded the Croix de Guerre, a French medal. Originally buried in a French military cemetery, Link’s remains were returned to America in 1921, followed by interment with full military honors at St. Paul’s.
8. Michael Fragasso served as a private with the 41st Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, of the United States Army. This included service during what is often called the Philippine insurrection, which followed American victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Born in Italy in 1880, Fragasso reached America as part of the great wave of Italian immigration in the early 20th century. At a time of considerable prejudice against newcomers from southern and eastern Europe, Fragasso occasionally used the last name Formes, probably to disguise his ethnic identity. He was employed as a stone mason and died of tuberculosis in Mt. Vernon at age 38 in 1919.