W/O Rev. Thomas C. Billheimer & D/O Rev. Jacob Ziegler& Anna Mary Danner. Emma was a Civil War Nurse and lived to be 94 years old. She met President Lincoln and heard him deliver the "Gettysburg Address" at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.

Article from The Gettysburg Compiler - June 13, 1936

MRS. BILLHEIMER DEAD AT 94; A CIVIL WAR NURSE

Mrs. Emma C. Billheimer, 94, widow of Dr. Thomas C. Billheimer died at 4:20 o'clock Tuesday afternoon at her home, 108 Springs Avenue. Death resulted from the informities of old age and followed by illness of about three weeks. Her condition became serious a week ago.

Aa native of Bedford, Mrs. Billheimer resided in Gettysburg for more than 50 years. She was 21 years old at the time of the battle of Gettysburg and then resided near the St.Francis Xavier Catholic Church, West High Street. With other women of the town she ministered to the sick and wounded soldiers who were brought in to the church building where an emergency hospital had been established. The Sunday following the battle she assisted in cleaning the church property.

With her future husband, then a student at Gettysburg College, Mrs. Billheimer attended the public reception held at David Wills home in center square for President Lincoln on the occasion of his visit here for the dedication of the National cemetery. She shook hands with Lincoln there and was in the audience at the cemetery when the famous Gettysburg address was delivered.

Mrs. Billheimer was a regular attendant at annual memorial services conducted in Corporal Skelly post rooms of the G.A.R. and always occupied a place of honor on the rostrum at Memorial Day exercises in the National Cemetery. She was unable to attend either of these services this year because of illness. She was one of the three persons whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt shook hands on the rostrum in the cemetery here two years ago.

Mrs. Billheimer was the daughter of the late Rev. Jacob Ziegler and Anna Mary Danner; the latter being from York. She was born in Bedford, February 2, 1842 and eleven years later moved to Gettysburg with her parents. During her residence here her father performed the first burial service in Evergreen Cemetery as pastor of the Trinity Reformed Church.

She was married December 31, 1867 to Professor Thomas C. Billheimer, after his graduation from Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary here. The ceremony was performed in York where her parents had moved from Gettysburg.

During her residence in Gettysburg before her marriage Mrs. Billheimer attended the Gettysburg Female Seminary, locatd at South Waddington and West High Streets. For two winters she taught at the Marsh Creek School along the Fairfield road about two miles from Gettysburg.

The college course of her future husband was interrupted by Civil War. When Lee invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, Thomas Charles Billheimer and other fellow students at the college enlisted for service in the 36th Emergency Regiment of Pennnsylvania Militia. He later returned to college and was graduated in 1865. Two years later he graduated from the seminary here and was licensed to preach by the East Penna. Synod. In the fall of 1867, the year of his marriage he accepted his first call to Watsontown.