Two of the first members of Springfield when it was started in the 1700’s were Philip and Mary Hoggatt. Philip was born in England in 1687 and emigrated to Pennsylvania. Mary Hoggatt was born in Scotland in 1698, and hers was the first recorded burial here in 1780.
Philip Hoggatt received a grant of 420 acres along Richland Creek in what is now High Point. He later received an additional grant of 360 acres.
When Mary Glendenning Hoggatt was 82 years of age, knowing that the end was near she said to her husband, who was then a man of 93, “Philip, our sons and daughters have moved on into a newer territory than the limits of Deep River Meeting. They have found homes near the field of Springs, and there their children and their descendants for many generations to come will live and worship.
I have never been afraid of the wilderness. I have followed thee from Scotland to Pennsylvania, thence to Virginia and North Carolina. I have never known fear in life and I certainly shall not in death. When my body is put away, I should like for it to be carried to Springfield and buried in the forest there, so that I may be near the Meeting House and the homes which our children have established. If I am buried there others will soon follow, so even as in life, let me in death be a pioneer.” (from The Story of Springfield by Sara R. Haworth)
One of the Hoggatt homes once stood near the corner of Rotary Drive and Philips Avenue. It was moved in 1973 to the High Point Museum