To return to Edward ROSE of Friend's Cove, Pa., he had a dau. Rachel, b June 17, 1751, who m Joseph FRIEND, and of whom I shall speak in connection with that family. Another dau., Nancy, b in 1755, m John ELDER, a Scotch Irishman and near of kin to Rev. John ELDER who was for many years pastor of the Presbyterian church at Paxtang, near Harrisburg, PA. Rev. John ELDER had command of two military companies in Lancaster Co., PA during the Indian War of 1763, and historian Parkman says of him: "He was a man of worth and education, and held in great respect upon the borders. He discharged his military functions with address and judgment, drawing a cordon of troops across the front of the country, and preserving the inhabitants free from attack for a considerable time."

John ELDER, finding Bedford Co. growing too crowded for his family, crossed the mountains in 1806 and selecting a new home near where McCaslin, Lawrence Co. now stands, he returned to the East and moved out the following spring. John and Nancy ELDER had five sons and ten dau. At the time of the migration the family consisted of the father, mother, twelve children that were single, two married dau., their husbands and three grandchildren--twenty-one persons, and enough others accompanied them to make a total of 26. One married dau. Jenny was left in the East. Considering the length of the journey and the condition of the roads at that time, the removal of so large a family must have required considerable heroism, but Mrs. ELDER was equal to the emergency. She was a woman of rare resolution and resourcefulness. In consequences of a drought or other cause there was a shortage of provision in the new settlement, and it was proposed to send to Pittsburg 50 miles distant for supplies. Aunt Nancy set her foot down on the proposal with emphasis. "Nonsense," she is reported as saying. "Why the rye is heading out and it will be only six weeks till harvest!" Therein spoke the spirit of William the Conqueror, also the spirit of the true American pioneer.

She had no patience with people who couldn't scratch along on a diet of roots and "yarbs," for a trifle of two months or so, and when Aunt Nancy with her score of mouths to feed could face famine with composure, it did not become the parents of small families to quail. The proposed expedition to Pittsburg was abandoned.
Long afterward when Mrs. ELDER was nearing her 90th year one of my older sisters who, together with other children were scouring the woods for berries, stopped at the ELDER homestead for a drink of water. But offering a guest a cup of water wasn't the old lady's idea of manners at all. Spreading a bountiful lunch she bade the youngsters put down their baskets and sit up at the table, saying by way of encouragement, "Now, children, just eat all you can, for what you don't eat the dogs will get. The language may sound a little bit ambiguous, but there is no mistaking the hearty hospitality which prompted it.
John ELDER died Aug 14, 1834, and Nancy ELDER March 7, 1846, the former being 81 and the latter 91 at the time of death. One of my early recollections is of peering through the fence at the big headstone of old John and the smaller ones of his children and grandchildren, the stones ranged in a row and apparently growing smaller and smaller the farther the row extended. The graveyard was on the ELDER farm and is still known as the ELDER burying ground. People still living in the neighborhood remember the old couple very well, and yet when their descendants met at the house of John Patton in September, 1899, for a family reunion more than 300 people sat down to the tables, and probably as many more descendants were scattered too far and wide to attend the reunion.

Before dismissing the Rose family I may mention a physical trait. Bishop Meade says: "I have preached repeatedly in two of the old churches built under the auspices of Rev. Robert ROSE whose pulpits were remarkably deep. In one of them a large round block, sawed from the body of a tree, more than a foot high, had been provided by one of his successors and stood in the center of the pulpit, and even on this I found it uncomfortable to stand and preach." Mr. ROSE was evidently a very tall man. His niece Nancy ROSE ELDER was a remarkably tall woman and so was her sister, Rachel ROSE FRIEND. It was no doubt a family characteristic.

From: "The FRIEND Family in America" by William J. Gibson, March 1900:

"NOTE: It is interesting to see how the various families intermarry. Joseph FRIEND, Sr. married Rachel, daughter of Edward ROSE. Nancy ROSE married John ELDER and they had 10 daughters. Joseph FRIEND, Jr. married Elizabeth ELDER, one of these daughters. Elizabeth's sister, Mary, married a WILLIAMS, and they lived neighbors near Mansfield, 0. Ezekial ROSE, brother of Nancy ROSE ELDER, lived near Roseville, 0. Edward ROSE was one of the Scotch-Irish breed whose ancestry is traced back through Dunbars, Stewarts, Douglas, Buglers, Robert III, William the Conqueror, Egbert, King of England; Duncan, King of Scotland; and Bernard, King of Italy."