New film tells little-known story of Revolutionary War soldiers’ graves in Penns Valley
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Local filmmakers produced a 17-minute documentary titled "Graves on Indian Lane.”
- The film recounts the 1778 deaths and burial of two Revolutionary War soldiers.
- The documentary will be available online July 4 at centrecounty.america250pa.org.
Editor’s note: This story is the first in a series highlighting unique parts of Centre County history as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary. Look for more stories through the summer at CentreDaily.com.
Off a quiet gravel road around a Penns Valley farm, just two miles from Centre Hall’s Sheetz, lie the graves of two Revolutionary War soldiers who left an indelible mark on the area after they died defending harvesters from American Indians in 1778.
Every year, since at least 1900, the Bellefonte chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution have gathered at the humble site to say the men’s names — Thomas Van Doran and Jacob Shadecre — so they’re not forgotten to time.
Now, several local filmmakers and historians are trying to do the patriotic group one better. After nearly a year of work, they produced a 17-minute documentary on the memorial titled “Graves on Indian Lane” — with the hope of taking the story national.
“It is a local story, but it’s also a national story,” said Matt Maris, a high school history teacher for Bellefonte Area and one of the documentary’s producers. “I like to kind of describe it as a microcosm of the American Revolution. It’s such a powerful story that we believed it needed to be shared, and we tried our best to do justice to it.”
Many other history books and documentaries focus on conflicts involving larger encampments like Bunker Hill or Valley Forge, but often lost is the nuance that the American Revolution was waged in small towns and valleys like those here. Those stories often aren’t told because the historical records no longer exist. But the skirmish in Penns Valley is an exception, partly because the community has shown a commitment for 248 years to keep its memory alive.
The documentary was written and hosted by Maris and Dustin Elder, who make up Local Historia, a local tour company that also tackles larger projects like WPSU/PBS shows. It was produced and directed by Pablo Lopez, and the cinematography was done by Matt Jacobs. And it was completed thanks to the support of Happy Valley Adventure Bureau and to the collaboration of several local history groups.
What happened in Penns Valley?
In the 1770s, decades before Centre County was formally established, the area was largely a frontier region whose entire settler population likely numbered in the hundreds.
In May 1778, panic set in when a local family was massacred by American Indians believed to be allied with the British. General James Potter, one of the first to settle in the valley, called for reinforcements, and about 25 soldiers marched to Potter’s Fort in the hamlet today known as Old Fort near Centre Hall.
Two of them would eventually be buried there.
On July 24, 1778, Private Thomas Van Doran and Corporal Jacob Shadecre headed to the fields to guard the harvesters. According to a detailed letter from Potter, a party of five American Indians engaged them and shot Van Doran dead on the spot. Shadecre ran about 400 yards and was chased by one pursuer.
After both men emptied their guns, they attacked each other with knives. Shadecre killed his attacker — but another American Indian came up and shot him, so the two bodies rested just 10 yards apart.
“Thus greatly died our two worthy soldiers, and sold their lives at such a price as no enemy would be fond of purchasing,” Potter wrote in a letter the next day.
The two men were buried there, and the remains of one American Indian are also believed to be nearby. The soldiers’ graves were initially noted by a rock, before the Daughters of the American Revolution replaced the humble marker with a memorial in 1900.
Based on early written records, one of the Daughter’s leaders held up at least one bone of the soldiers during the dedication more than a century ago. So the position of the memorial is believed to be accurate.
The public can still see the graves, listed on Google Maps, by turning onto Indian Lane off Penns Valley Pike. The memorial is about 300 yards down Indian Lane, a public gravel road, although the surrounding land is private property. The filmmakers asked visitors to be mindful of that.
The specific identities and motivations of the American Indians remain unknown.
Documentary details
The film may not be long, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t take much time to produce.
The idea for this documentary formed about two years ago and began in earnest about one year ago. The doc took only three days to shoot — but that was after three months of planning and before four months of editing.
Overall, 37 versions of the film were created before they settled on this one.
“As someone who lived in Centre Hall and has gone down that road so many times — literally — I had to stop and be like, I never noticed that,” Lopez said. “The more I learned about it, the more we researched, the more the story just pulled me in.”
Lopez, a certified film commissioner who works for Happy Valley Adventure Bureau and promotes filmmaking in the area, said the documentary team has already submitted it to a dozen film festivals in Pennsylvania, five more on the national level and two others on the international level.
That doesn’t mean the short doc will be accepted at every festival. But it does mean this carefully crafted piece has the potential to make a bigger impact, especially with America’s 250th birthday upcoming.
“I hope the younger generation that might not traditionally be as into American history might be interested in checking it out,” added Jacobs, the cinematographer. “Because it’s a local story and it has these different places they might have visited, that might be an avenue to get them into American history as a whole.”
More than 50 people filled a small room Wednesday at Schlow Centre Region Library for a public screening of the film. Many amateur historians came armed with notebooks, and volunteers needed to add several rows of seats more than 10 minutes before showtime.
The crowd was largely over 40 years old, but the filmmakers noted they hoped to make this available to local schools. And Maris is employed by the Bellefonte Area School District.
Where to watch the documentary
For those who don’t want to wait for the screening at a festival like the Centre Film Festival in November, the documentary will be made publicly available starting July 4.
Lopez said a link to the video should appear on that date at centrecounty.america250pa.org. More information on the film can also be found at localhistoria.com/graves-on-indian-lane.
“I hope that people recognize the quality of work that can come out of Happy Valley,” Lopez added. “I’m here to advocate for the filmmakers who want to tell more stories like this, and there is no shortage in history. It’s always happening, even when we don’t want it to.
“So I believe that we’re going to be telling more stories like this, and I just hope that people who find this interesting, people who find this to be something that they really engaged with, will follow along for the next stories to come.”
The documentary was produced with help from Schlow Centre Region Library, Centre County Historical Society and Museum, Centre County Library & Historical Museum, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
