{"id":235884,"date":"2026-07-05T05:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235884\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T05:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:59:16","slug":"photo-gallery-5th-annual-first-to-fall-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235884\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo gallery: 5th annual First to Fall ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The West Pittston Historical Society hosted the 5th annual First to Fall ceremony on June 28 at the Jenkins Harding Cemetery. This event honored local Revolutionary War patriots with a dramatic presentation of the events leading up to the Battle of Wyoming in 1778. Benjamin and Stukley Harding, who were the first victims of the battle are buried in the Jenkins Harding Cemetery. Joining the program were members of the 24th Connecticut Militia reenactors who conducted a memorial service to the Harding\u2019s in the cemetery after the presentation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A member of the 24th Connecticut Militia fires a volley...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-08-1.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A member of the 24th Connecticut  Militia fires a volley during the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.  (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dan Shaw, a member of the 24th Connecticut Militia, plays...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-01.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dan Shaw, a member of the 24th Connecticut  Militia, plays a flute during the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston. (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jason Hardy and his aunt, Jean Marie Hardy, who are...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-05.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jason Hardy and his aunt, Jean Marie Hardy, who are relatives of Benjamin and Stukley Harding who are the subject of the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston. (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mary Portelli, President of the West Pittston Historical Society, addresses...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-06.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mary Portelli, President of the West Pittston Historical Society, addresses attendees at the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.<br \/>\n (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Members of the 24th Connecticut Militia fire a volley during...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-09.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Members of the 24th Connecticut  Militia fire a volley during the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston. (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Visitors look over tombstones prior to the 5th annual First...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-03.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Visitors look over tombstones prior to the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.  (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Visitors look over various tombstones after the 5th annual First...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-10.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Visitors look over various tombstones after the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston. (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Reenactor Mark Kahn portraying a fictional Rev. Entwhistle reads a...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-07.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Reenactor Mark Kahn portraying a fictional Rev. Entwhistle reads a prayer near the graves of Benjamin and Stukley Harding who are the subject of the First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.<br \/>\n (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Ochman, a member of the 24th Connecticut Militia, during...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-04.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John Ochman, a member of the 24th Connecticut  Militia,<br \/>\nduring the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.  (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jeff Evans with daughters, Jean and Rosalie, look over graves...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.citizensvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVC-L-FIRSTFALL-0630-02.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Evans with daughters, Jean and Rosalie, look over graves prior to the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston. (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 10<\/p>\n<p>A member of the 24th Connecticut  Militia fires a volley during the 5th annual First To Fall program presented by the West Pittston Historical Society on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Jenkins Hardy Cemetery  in West Pittston.  (Dave Scherbenco \/ Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West Pittston Historical Society hosted the 5th annual First to Fall ceremony on June 28 at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[182,803,139,28,178,180,179,802,4488],"class_list":["post-235884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-cvc","tag-west-pittston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}