My Laurel Hill Cemetery Project

I am almost finished with the project I was assigned on the Laurel Hill Cemetery. I researched the people who were buried in the Pinchot family plot. These were Gifford Pinchot's Great-Grandparents, Grandparents, and a couple Great Uncles. Here is the text that I want to put on the sign:

Gifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the USDA Forest Service from1905-1910, and also served two non-consecutive terms as the governor of Pennsylvania. Gifford Pinchot’s ancestors originated in Breteuil, France. Constantien and Marie Pinchot, Gifford’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother, immigrated to the United States in 1816 with their son Cyrile Constantien Desire Pinchot. The family initially moved to New York City, but established themselves in Milford, Pennsylvania, a settlement that was composed largely of French émigrés, in 1819. There, father and son embarked on numerous economic ventures, including running a general store, and buying up large tracts of land that tenants farmed for them. The town of Milford was situated on the Delaware River and served as a hub for communication and transportation. The Pinchot’s store was located at the central crossroad of this important town (the store building still stands at the corner of Harford and Broad Street), and thus, the business and family thrived economically. Cyrile also took part in land speculation in eastern states like Pennsylvania and New York, and later in the western states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Clear-cutting the forests on newly purchased, virgin land was common in the nineteenth century, and Cyrile became prosperous from this practice.
Cyrile Pinchot married twice, his first wife, Sarah Dimmick, died childless in 1821. Shortly after her death, Cyrile married Sarah Dimmick’s cousin, Eliza Cross. The grandfather of both of these women had been a Belgian nobleman who held a commission in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and who, after the War, settled his family in Pennsylvania. Cyrile and Eliza raised five children together, named Edgar, James, John F., Mary, and Cyrile H. As young men Edgar and James moved to New York City and each made fortunes in their respective industries. Edgar sold pharmaceuticals and speculated on land, while James imported wall paper. Mary married an attorney and moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut. John F. Pinchot stayed in Milford and continued both his father’s mercantile business, and his land speculation practices.
Buried in the Laurel Hill cemetery are three generations of Pinchots. The first generation, Constantien and Marie Pinchot died in 1830 and 1840 respectively. Their son, Cyrile C.D. Pinchot is buried next to his two wives, Sarah Dimmick and Eliza Cross. Sarah Dimmick died at the age of 18, in 1821. Cyrile died in 1874 leaving all of his estate to his second wife, Eliza. Eliza Cross died on September 15, 1886, at the age of 76. Her obituary noted that her cause of death was a long-suffered illness coupled with a broken hip, the surgery on which she “could not endure.” In her will she left her entire estate to her daughter, Mary Pinchot Warner, and her son John F. Pinchot. Two of Cyrile and Eliza’s children are buried here in the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Cyrile H. Pinchot was born in 1838 and studied at the Hudson River Institute and Claverack Academy from 1856 to 1857. He was enrolled in Union College from 1857 until his death from Tuberculosis in 1860. John F. Pinchot never married and died heirless in 1900.