Emma C. Patterson wrote "Your Town and My Town" for the Suburban & Wayne Times from 1949 to 1958. It was written during a time when Wayne's founders were still around to reminisce about the area's development. The articles are a wealth of information, with many names and places referenced.

The same way historic photographs of Radnor can tell us a great deal about their subjects, Ms. Patterson's writing draws a vivid picture of Radnor's history as seen from the lens of the mid-20th Century. At that point venerable institutions that no longer function were still alive in full swing, longtime residents who could remember back to Wayne's agrarian past could still share their memories, and there was enough community interest that the Suburban was willing to print such extensive and descriptive columns week after week for nearly a decade.

Locked in fading newsprint, tucked away inside crumbling scrapbooks for fifty years, each article by Emma C. Patterson is reproduced here in full, in an easy to navigate searchable blog format.

Browse an index of all articles

Wayne’s Company B, part 1 – Phila. Military Training Corps., Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Men’s Club of Wayne

/ Emma C. Patterson

In these days of “wars and rumours of wars” it might be interesting to review the history of Wayne’ own “Company B”, organized early in the days of America’s participation in World War I, primarily for the purpose of home defense. Like its neighboring communities, Radnor Township at that time was disturbed by the fear of internal disturbance, since war propaganda in regard to German families was rampant everywhere. And so in June, 1917, only two months after President Wilson’s declaration of war on Germany, a number of residents of Wayne, St. Davids, and other parts of Radnor Township formed Company B, Wayne Infantry, Philadelphia Military training Corps.

Composed originally of those who were beyond the age for active service, the Company soon had among its members many who were later to enter the active service. During its existence of something over a year it had 152 names on its roster. Of these, 42 entered the service, two of whom made the supreme sacrifice, Wallace C. Dickson and Norman B. Hallman.

This Philadelphia Military Training Corps, of which Company B was a part, was originally incorporated in 1916 under the laws of Pennsylvania. Sponsored by Major Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, it had its headquarters on the old Biddle estate in Lansdowne. Upon the outbreak of the war in Europe, Major Biddle delegated Captain Edward W. Macey to organize the Main Line for military drill.

The first company in Wayne was known as “Company A”, and although composed for the most part of excellent material, it did not long survive. It was in 1917 that its successor, Company B, was organized at a meeting of the Men’s Club of Wayne, still under the leadership of Captain Macey. Although its primary purpose was to act as a secondary line of defense in the absence of the regular army and the State Militia, Company B was desirous of giving primary military training to those who should later be called into the service.

The Men’s Club of Wayne immediately voted the use of its clubhouse as headquarters for this new military organization. Captain Milton W. Orme, who had had a long and active career in the Pennsylvania National Guard was the first commanding officer. He remained in this position until he moved to New York City, when he was succeeded by Captain Winfield L. Margerum, another active National Guardsman, who had been first lieutenant under Captain Orme. The former had been captain of Company A, First Regiment Infantry, N.G.P. Norman J. Coudert was second lieutenant under Captain Orme. He had formerly been connected with the Twenty-second Regiment of Infantry of New York State. Later Norman Coudert became first lieutenant under Captain Margerum and Herbert Plimpton became second lieutenant.

Because of his former military experience, T. Griffiths Roberts was selected as first-sergeant, a position he retained by his own choice throughout the existence of the company. According to our historian, “It was a pleasure to see him form the company in front of the Men’s Club, preparatory to turning it over to the commissioned officer in charge.” The other non-commissioned officers appointed at the first roll call in May, 1917, were: Sergeants, Herbert Plimpton, Charles H. Scott, W. L. Fox, Albert A. Ware, Wallace C. Dickson, C. L. S. Tingley, F. P. Radcliffe, W. H. Shuster, Edgar L. Hunt and J. Arthur Standen. Corporals were M. C. Prew, A. N. Elliott, E. W. Maxwell, Richard S. McKinley, Walter Pierson, Jr., J. Donaldson Paxton, W. M. Holloway, George R. Park and Henry H. Ziesing, who later became a first lieutenant of engineers.

Frank T. Adams was appointed supply sergeant, and was succeeded by Lance E. Booth, who remained in that position until the company was mustered out.

At a meeting of the company held on September 28, 1917, a civic organization was effected and by-laws adopted. Officers elected were Captain Orme, president; C. H. Wilson, vice-president; Wallace C. Dickson, secretary-treasurer. F. T. Adams succeeded Mr. Dickson when the latter entered the service.

For those men who did not equip themselves, uniforms, with campaign hats and hat cords, leggings and cartridge belts were provided by public spirited citizens. Among those who were active in creating this fund raised by the Men’s Club were A. M. Ware, William H. McCutcheon and Charles S. Harvey. Among the many liberal donors to the fund were Charles C. Shoemaker, then president of the Men’s Club, H. P. Conner and Walter Pierson, Sr., with his three sons.

Transient as its membership was, the attendance at drills averaged six to eight squads. The company was also always well represented at the weekend reviews of the C.M.T.C. at Major Biddle’s Lansdowne estate. It had grown to the point where 103 rifles were constantly employed, these rifles being furnished by the Philadelphia Military Training Corps.

Although many of the members of Company B were well beyond the years of active campaigning, others joined for the knowledge of the drill and army usages which would help them so greatly after they joined the colors. In Lansdowne they frequently participated in weekend drills, parades and reviews, when they gained experience in regimental and battalion maneuvers.

Routine work was sometimes relieved by the unusual. On one such occasion in May, 1918, Company B participated in the outdoor fete held on the estate of Mrs. Charles A. Munn, at Radnor. This was for the benefit of the overseas hospitals, under the auspices of the Emergency Corps of the American Red Cross. As Company B staged a sham battle using blank cartridges. Red Cross field work was demonstrated. Litter bearers, ambulance dressing stations and hospitals of the Red Cross gave an exhibition of what the work would be under real war conditions. Certain Company members even served as casualties, among them “Private” A. M. Ware, who was placed on a stretcher and carried into a hospital tent after he was “wounded.” Further particulars of his recovery are lacking, however.

(To be continued)

(For all the well authenticated facts in regard to Company B the writer is indebted to one who is thoroughly conversant with them, Captain W. L. Margerum, who wrote a series of articles for The Suburban some years ago.)

Wayne’s Company B, part 2 – Anthony J. Drexel Biddle

/ Emma C. Patterson

Company drills were routine for Wayne’s own “Company B”, the organization of which in the early days of World War I was described in last week’s column. Tuesday evenings of each week were devoted to squad drills and Thursday evenings to Company drills. Both were held on the Radnor School Field–offivers and privates alike took this military practice very seriously with the result that the company soon presented a fine appearance.

Eventually the group took up the study and practice of guard duty, in which members were required to memorize the twelve general orders for sentinels as weel as special orders for the sentinel at the posts of the guard. According to Captain Margerum, who has kept such a splendid record of his groups, “this feature of the evening to hear the several posts call out the hour and ‘all is well’ lent a glamour to the situation which few will forget.”

As drills were continued, membership steadily increased, in spite of the fact that many members were going into active service from time to time. Permanent squads were formed with corporals training their respective squads for competitive drill. Captain A. J. Drexel Biddle, U. S. M. C., who had just returned from the European battle front, reviewed a parade of Company B held on the old Biddle estate in Lansdowne. From there the Company procedded to the grounds of the St. Davids Golf Club with music and colors, for drill in extended order.

Aside from the manual of arms and the various maneuvers of company, platoon and squad, members of the Company were rigidly drilled in the matter of military deportment.

Chairman of the Recruiting Committee was A. M. Ware, who was very active in furnishing and placing notices throughout the township. His son, Albert A. Ware, was detailed to drill the awkward squads after he enlisted and went into Camp. According to one historian the Sergeant “was so efficient that he continued in this capacity until he came to the conclusion that his military training in Company B had been something of a detriment, as it kept him from seeing more active duty”.

When Captain Orme informed Company B in January, 1918, that he must resign because of a change of residence to New York, the Company gave him a farewell dinner at the Men’s Club. They also presented him with an inscribed sabre as a token of their esteem. From this time until May, 1918, the Company was under the command of the first lieutenant. At that time an election was held with all military formality, resulting in the unanimous choice of W. L. Margerum for Captain, Norman J. Coudert for first lieutenant and Herbert Plimpton for second lieutenant. On this same date, W. L. Margerum was commissioned a captain in the Philadelphia Military Training Corps.

Only a short time after leaving Wayne, Captain Orme died in New York of influenza. When he was buried from his residence in Wayne, Company B, by special permission of the health authorities, acted as a guard of honor at his home and at the Valley Forge Memorial Cemetery where he was buried. As a mark of respect, the officers of the company wore the usual mourning on the sword hilts for thirty days.

In July, 1918, Corporal Edward W. Maxwell resigned, as he was leaving for England. Supply Sergeant F. F. Adams also left Wayne about this time, while Private Edward Carey Gardner joined the marines.

Special occasions are worthy of notice of any review of Company B’s existence in Wayne. On Memorial Day, 1918, the Company marched to a point off Old Church road for field practice in attack and defense. On that same day, by invitation of Jarvis A. Wood, the company participated in a memorial service in the Central Baptist Church for Lieutenant William Bateman, Lieutenant Pennington Way and Corporal Norman Hallman, the latter a former member of Company B. The Rev. W. A. Patton also invited the Company to the memorial services held in the Wayne Presbyterian Church for Sergeant Wallace C. Dickson, who died in France.

At the Fourth of July celebration on the school field in that same year, Company B made their appearance when in addition to the manual of arms, company and platoon drills, they were deployed as skirmishers with blank cartridges. They gave an exhibition of this feature of the drill regulations. On the evening of the following day, by invitation of Major William C. Tuttle, the company joined the military rally at Bryn Mawr.

The conversion of the Saturday Club house into a hospital during the influenza epidemic has already been described in this column in the story of that organization. Both trained and volunteer nurses and other workers were on constant duty in the sickrooms and in the kitchen. Most of these were women. However, when strong arms were needed for handling delirious patients, a call to the men of Company B went out. In spite of the public dread of the disease the response was prompt.

Among organizations which were formed to operate on a more widespread basis during the days of World War I were a Committee of Public Safety for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the “American Protective League” for the whole country. The former was a Home Defense police force for the various counties of the State as created by Act of Assembly in July, 1917. Charles Wheeler, who was vice-director, appointed T. Truxtun Hare and W. L. Margerum as aides. Lieutenant Coudert was also a member of this organization. Captain Hare commanded Company B of this organization embracing Radnor Township. This Committee of Public Safety was not demobilized until April, 1921.

The American Protective League was organized with the approval of the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation, under whose direction it operated. In this organization W. L. Margerum was appointed lieutenant in April, 1918.

Several days after Armistice Day the Peace Jubilee was celebrated in Wayne by a rousing parade in which various local organizations participated. Headed by a detachment of Marines from the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Company B paraded with two bands of music, members of the Red Cross in Uniform, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the fire company, all forming a column worthy of the occasion. Company B. paraded three platoons, with the first Sergeant in charge of the third platoon.

Soon comrades returning from overseas and from camps in this country were home. Among them was Captain Fallon, who had received a special decoration from the French Government because of his services in the Air Force. And of course there were many others.

By February, 1919, rifles of Company B were returned to the P. M. T. C. or delivered on order to other organizations. Among the latter were forty rifles turned over to St. Luke’s School, and sixty to Radnor High School.

Sergeant Edgar L. Hunt was mustered out of Company B. And soon the days of the Company’s activities were a thing of the past, to linger on only in the memories of those who had participated in its work, and those who had stood by admiringly as they saw what had been accomplished in such a short time.

(The End)

Ashmead’s History of Delaware County, part 1 – Wendell, Childs, Drexel,

/ Emma C. Patterson

In the Spring and Summer of 1949, when this column was just getting under way for a reading public that has since shown its consistent interest in the history of Radnor township, the writer described from time to time the appearance of Wayne in its early days. She wrote of the first roads and of the farms which bordered on them, and of Louella House, completed in 1867, which with the Presbyterian Church and the old Lyceum formed the nucleus of the little hamlet, first known as Cleaver’s Landing. She told, too, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which succeed the old Lancaster & Columbia Railroad Company, and of the double tracks laid in 1860 by the former. And then she wrote at length of the Wayne Estate houses, built by Wendell and Treat on 600 acres of land, purchased by George W. Childs and A. J. Drexel, of Philadelphia.

But it was not until recently, when a copy of Henry Graham Ashmead’s “History of Delaware County” came into her possession through the courtesy of its owner, Richard W. Barringer, that this same writer could clearly visualize for herself the appearance of Wayne in the middle eighties, when “the little hamlet” had grown into a Main Line suburb. The “History” contains a concise description as given in the “Germantown Telegraph,” under date of July 2, 1884. According to this newspaper article, “a new town, or rather an aggregation of delightful suburban residences, is rapidly springing up within easy travelling distance of the city of Philadelphia, either by rail or Pike.” At that time not less than fifty “elegant residences” had been completed and occupied with about $600,000 invested in them, and others were under way by the owners, Drexel and Childs.

Writing in the first person, the author of the “Germantown Telegraph” article says that he proposed to describe a visit he recently made there, and state just what he saw. At the end of the half-hour ride from Broad Street Station he emerged from the railroad car and started along Wayne avenue. This was evidently to the South since he soon came into sight of Wayne Lyceum Hall (now the old Opera House, the future of which has recently been the cause of much discussion). On either side of Wayne avenue were “several beautiful cottages,” although “cottages” certainly seems a misnomer for three story homes. What remains of them may still be seen in several of the stores on this street.

Wayne Lyceum Hall is described as three stories high, built of brick and plaster, and costing $30,000. It contained at that time a general store, a drug store, the post office and the superintendent’s office, in addition to the larger auditorium above. On the corner now occupied by the Cobb and Lawless store was “the cottage” of J. Henry Askin, former owner of the land sold to Drexel and Childs. The Askin “cottage” is described as built of brick with a “spacious porch and a neat lawn.”

Near Mr. Askin’s home was the cottage belonging to a Mrs. Patterson, “a fine brick building.” North of Mrs. Patterson’s was “the large and substantial cottage” of Mr. Israel Solomon, of the Bingham House. Immediately adjoining Mr. Askin’s home to the west was a cottage occupied by Mr. William J. Phillips, “ex-superintendent of the Police and Fire Alarm Telegraph.” Next to Mr. Phillips’ place was the beautiful old home, surrounded by several acres of land, belonging to Mr. William D. Hughes. This estate has already been described in detail in this column.

Next to the Hughes property was the famous Bellevue Hotel, a good description of which the writer has not found until now, although she has made numerous references to the hotel. To quote from the description of the roving reporter of 1884:

“We now come to the beautifully situated Bellevue Mansion on Lancaster avenue. The mansion has been leased by Mr. Childs to Miss Mary Simmons and her sister, and is a charming summer resort. It has one hundred rooms, and each room has a private porch. Four porches run entirely around the mansion, and the building and surroundings cost over eighty thousand dollars. The mansion stands in the centre of a beautiful lawn, and is approached by a fine macademized road. The parlors present a most luxurious appearance, and the large and elegant dining room is where the ‘Aztec Club’ took their annual dinner before the death of General Robert Patterson. A handsome billiard-room or hall is near the mansion, and there are ice-houses, servants’ quarters, stables, gas-house, etc. The mansion is well supplied with fire-escapes, and the heating arrangements are excellent. There are a smoking room, card room, private parlors, etc.”

This fine old hotel, so popular over the years with summer visitors from Philadelphia, was burned to the ground on a bitter cold night in the winter of 1900. It was located on what is now the intersection of Lancaster Pike and Bellevue avenue (named for the hotel) on the property now occupied by the A&P store and the Anthony Wayne Service Station.

The “Germantown Telegraph” reporter in his wanderings found out about seven cottages just opposite the Bellevue Hotel, some of which were already under construction. They were described by him as “elegant” and “would contain twelve rooms, open hallways, parlor, dining room, library and kitchen on the first floor; four chambers and bathroom on the second floor, and the same on the third floor, and elegant wide porches . . . they are finished in imitation of hard wood, and built of brick and stone, with slate roofs, have hot and cold water, and are papered in the latest style.” Lots were one hundred feet front and three hundred feet deep.

These houses are still standing and in constant occupancy. In addition to the seven described, Mr. Abbott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company built “a fine cottage” in this same development, and according to our reporter, who seems to have known something of the personal affairs of Wayne’s residents, Mr. Abbott planned to spend his honeymoon there.

(To be continued)

Ashmead’s History of Delaware County, part 2 – Bellevue Mansion

/ Emma C. Patterson

In last week’s column we gave you a block-by-block description of Wayne as it appeared to the eyes of a reporter on the “Germantown Telegraph” in the summer of 1884. Henry Graham Ashmead has preserved for posterity in his “History of Delaware County”, the article as it appeared in that paper under date of July 2 of that year.

In this column’s resume of the reporter’s (or perhaps he was a special feature writer) description we had come as far as the corner of Lancaster Pike and Bellevue avenue last week. There was a well drawn word picture of the famous Bellevue Mansion of one hundred rooms located on the northeast corner of what is now Bellevue avenue and the Pike. And across the road were seven or eight new “cottages” under construction.

Evidently there was no Bellevue avenue at that time. For it was “adjoining Bellevue Mansion on the west” that Mr. Theodore Gugert of the firm of Bergner and Engel had purchased a lot one hundred feet by three hundred feet, on which he was erecting “an elegant cottage”. This cottage, which we of today consider a house of goodly proportions, still remains in excellent condition. Perhaps some of its original frontage has been sacrificed to make room for the large building which now houses Jackson Chevrolet’s show room and offices. However, that ground and that which is now taken up by Bellevue avenue itself, were probably originally part of the grounds of Bellevue Mansion.

Next to the Gugert residence was a lot on which “Dr. Egbert, a young physician of Radnor Township . . . is also building a fine stone cottage” according to our chronicler. This is the large white stucco house with the white pillars so different in type of architecture from many of its neighbors that it is difficult to associate it with that period of the middle eighties. Occupied for many years by Dr. Joseph Crawford Egbert, well known Wayne physician and a long time member of the Radnor Township School Board, it has seen many successive owners since that time. The house has now been converted into apartments.

By way of passing, our reporter states that Dr. Egbert at the time had medical charge of the young Indian girls at the Spread Eagle Inn, near his cottage. This old hostel built in the late 1700’s, had been purchased by Mr. Childs “to stop the sale of liquor near his bailiwick”, so it is said. The new owner had lent it for a country home for the young Indian wards of the Lincoln Institute. Mrs. Belanger Cox was in charge of these children who in the middle eighties were enjoying “plenty of comforts and conveniences, and every opportunity for outdoor exercise, without being interfered with by outsiders.”

After leaving the Spread Eagle Inn, our reporter went along Old Conestoga road to its intersection with Wayne avenue. Here in the vicinity of the old Baptist Church, Messrs. Childs and Drexel were ofering building lots of 150 feet frontage and “considerable depth” priced at $800 to $1500 each. They were near “the spacious and substantial reservoir” located at the corner of old Wayne road and Bloomingdale avenue. Built at a cost of $30,000, this reservoir had “a capacity for 300,000 gallons of pure spring water, of which there is an abundant supply on the estate”. It is described as standing 450 feet above tidewater, and supplied by “extensive and costly water works.” It was evidently not only of great use, but also of great ornament to the community as there was “an elegant promenade on top, provided with rustic seats”.

Along Wayne avenue from Bloomingdale to Audubon avenues, there were a number of new brick and stone cottages on either side. According to our chronicler they were “very superior and provided with all modern conveniences”, some having fronts of 85 feet by 250 feet depth. They were to be sold for $5500, “clear of all incumbrance” and our description continues, “each cottage is by itself, and there is plenty of privacy.” These houses still line both sides of West Wayne avenue. The Saturday Club, which stands in their midst, was not built until 1898.

Before commenting on what is now the “business block”, our reporter states that there were “several available building lots” as he looked up Windermere avenue to the right after crossing Audubon avenue. These are now occupied by such buildings as the Radnor Township Schools, Windermere Court Apartments and a number of private dwellings.

The site of the present Sun Ray Drug Store was occupied in 1884 by the “new and handsome” drug store of J. M. Fronefield, Jr., next door to which was the building still occupied by Lienhardt’s Bakery, as it was originally. Across the Pike and next to the Lyceum, was the “costly, well-built Presbyterian Church”, of which the Reverend William Kruse was the pastor. Across the street from the Church and to the east of Lienhardt’s Bakery were several “splendid cottages . . . built of brick with slate roofs, ten rooms, wide porches, fine lawns and luxuriously fitted up.” If the present day passerby looks across the Pike from the sidewalk in front of the Church, he may see in the second and third stories of the stores in the business block, what now remains of those “splendid cottages”. For obviously the upper stories of many of the stores like Lafferty’s, Wack’s, the Delaware Market House, and many others were originally part of homes, not business houses.

But in 1884, the Pike was a narrow, three shaded road. These houses stood well back from it on spacious, weel kept lawns, wehere the grass was green and the planting luxurious. Somehow it is hard to imagine . . . but it was all part of an era before that of the swift moving passenger automobile and the heavy lumbering trucks that go their way by day and by night along the Highway. Those were the “horse and buggy days”, still clear in the memories of a few.

And at the end of that block, where Louella avenue intersects Lancaster avenue, stood the spacious home of one of Wayne’s prominent citizens, James Pinkerton, an official of the Bank of North America, in Philadelphia. What now remains of the once handsome building may best be seen from Louella avenue as one looks up at the large brick dwelling which forms the back of the former Halligan Store and of LaFrance Cleaners, and overlooks the school field. Until recently used as an apartment house, it now stands condemned for present occupancy, many of its windows shattered and desolate in its emptiness.

Ashmead’s History of Delaware County, part 3 – Louella Mansion, Wendell & Smith

/ Emma C. Patterson

Although the Louella Mansion was described in much detail in some of the very early articles of this column, it is interesting to repeat what the reporter on the Germantown “Telegraph” had to say about it in the July 2, 1884 issue of that paper. It is from his article that we have obtained much of our description of Wayne in 1884, as given recently in this column.

He calls the Louella Mansion “one of the great attractions” of the growing community, with its “magnificent surrounding grounds on the north side of Lancaster avenue”. By this time it had ceased to be the home of J. Henry Askin, who, in the middle eighties, was occupying a new and smaller home on the northwest corner of Wayne avenue and Lancaster pike. George Childs had become the owner of Louella Mansion, which he leased to Miss E. R. Boughter. A very popular summer resort, it had eighty rooms for guests who enjoyed its many privileges, including the spacious porch that looked on “as finely cultivated a lawn as can be found in the surrounding country”. The front lawn alone, facing as it did on Lancaster Pike, measured one thousand feet in length with “an abundance of shrubbery, shade trees and flower beds.”

East of Louella Mansion was the old Carpenter homestead, or “Maule Farm,” as it was sometimes called. Apparently between the latter and Louella Mansion there were large livery barns, where “the stabling arrangements were under the care of Charles R. Wetherell, the competent and experienced lessee”. These stables had stall-room for one hundred horses, with a commodious wagon-house nearby, as stated in our earlier article on Louella Mansion. They were apparently part of the Louella property, as were various other small buildings nearby.

Opposite Louella Mansion, but somewhat south of Lancaster avenue, stood the waterworks, containing a large retaining pond from which the water was pumped into the reservoir near the corner of Wayne avenue and Bloomingdale avenue, as described in last week’s column.

Next on his travels, our reporter visited Aberdeen avenue, where there were “several very superior brick cottages, with elegant terraced walks in front, and graveled foot-ways.” Although he does not say so, these houses must have been to the north of the Pike, as on the south side there are none facing on Aberdeen avenue until after it intersects St. Davids road. At any rate, all of the houses to which our chronicler refers were already finished and some of them occupied at the time of his visit. They were built on large lots and contained from “nine to twelve handsomely papered rooms, side vestibules, stained glass windows, broad porches, and spacious stairways.”

Particularly specific was our writer in his descriptions of these particular “cottages” even to the kitchen which, he said, had circular boilers, ranges and hot and cold water. Parlors had “low-down” grates and all the bedrooms had inside shutters. Also there were sliding doors between the parlors and dining rooms and between the vestibules and parlors. But most interesting of all to readers in this price-conscious age were the rental and sale prices of these houses. Dependent on size, they had a yearly rental of $360, $480 and $600. Sale prices ranged from $5,250 to $7,200 each. All could be had on easy terms.

But the particular bargain of the large building development in Wayne at that time seems to have been the small houses on North Wayne avenue which rented at $20 per month and sold for $3,000 each. Many of these are still standing and occupied although the years have brought many exterior and interior changes to almost all of them.

Before closing his article, our writer tells of “a charming piece of woodland” near St. Davids Station, which was to be “utilized for pleasure parties and picnics.” This must have been to the north of the station, as was an old stone country farm house which was then being converted into “a first class cottage” with the surrounding lot “being laid out in elegant style.”

In view of the comments made by present day newcomers to Wayne and St. Davids on the general uniformity in style of the houses built for Drexel and Childs by Wendell and Smith, the closing sentence of the Germantown “Telegraph” article seems a little surprising. “It may be mentioned here that no particular style of houses is required to be built at Wayne, and parties purchasing lots can erect any kind of building they choose, or make any disposition of their purchases they deem proper.” Apparently, however, “parties purchasing lots” must have liked the architectural plans already available as there are so many in both Wayne and St. Davids that were built alike.

The Germantown “Telegraph” was not the only newspaper to run a long feature article on Wayne’s development in the eighties. Under date of May 22, 1884, the Philadelphia “Record” had a somewhat less lengthy one which, however, brought out several points not touched on by the Germantown “Telegraph”. The former article has also been preserved in Ashmead’s “History of Delaware County”. According to the “Record”, Wayne had “perfected a drainage system which is said to be unequalled by any resort in the United States, the designs having been furnished by Colonel George F. Waring, the best posted man in the country on sanitary matters.” The use of the word “resort” is interesting in that it shows that Wayne was still considered more of a summer residential section than a permanent home one at that time.

In enlarging on Colonel Waring’s drainage system the “Record” stated that miles of distribution pipe had been laid, the water supply coming from springs at the source of Ithan Creek, while it clarified itself in the large reservoir on Bloomingdale avenue that was described in last week’s column. It seems, too, that a nursery was laid out for young sprigs, which according to the “Record” were “tenderly cared for in this little patch until they had acquired enough age to be transplanted along the banks of the creek in a pretty park”. In North Wayne, plans were under way to use the waters of Gulf Creek just as those of Ithan Creek were used in South Wayne.

At that time the Lancaster Pike from Philadelphia to Paoli had recently been purchased by a corporation headed by A. J. Cassatt for what seems nowadays the very modest sum of $7,500. However, the corporation had immediately $70,000 worth of improvements on it. The “Record” pays its tribute to these improvements by stating that “Today there is not in America a driving road of equal length that compares with it.” At that time the new homes in Wayne and St. Davids stood forty feet back of the street line, showing how narrow even the improved highway was.

The closing paragraph of the “Record” article bears quoting in full. “Real estate men say that the tendency of purchasers of country homes along the Pennsylvania Railroad is beyond Bryn Mawr, and they attribute this to three facts, –the lower prices, higher elevation, and the extensive improvements at Wayne and other places near by. In six years the value of real estate fringing the Pennsylvania Railroad from the country line to a point near Paoli has appreciated nearly $30,000,000. All this started with the purchase of 600 acres near White Hall by the Pennsylvania Railroad 13 years ago (1871). Within three years the advance in price along the line has been very rapid. Properties that sold in 1880 for $500 an acre have been recently disposed of for $1200 and some pieces of ground have gone at $4200 an acre.”

Conclusion

(The writer of this column wishes to extend her thanks to Mr. Richard Barringer for the loan of his “History of Delaware County” over an extended period of time.)

The Old Eagle School, part 1 – Evening Bulletin, Martha Wentworth Suffren

/ Emma C. Patterson

“Still sits the school house by the road, a ragged beggar sunning. Not ‘ragged’ any longer. The trustees see to that. They keep the grass cut, remove a tree if one falls. But – no prayer of faith wafts upward to the blue, no childish feet scamper or scuffle through the deep doorway, even as once from Sunday School. Houses have sprung up thickly around the old building, and children there are in plenty. ‘For educational and religious purposes and for the repose of the dead.’ So runs the ancient devise, as interpreted and re-established by the court.”

So Martha Wentworth Suffren, born in Strafford in 1858, and still a resident of that historic community, concluded an article written some years ago for the “Evening Bulletin” concerning the Old Eagle School. One of the most interesting historical landmarks of rural Pennsylvania, this building stands up the hill north of Strafford Station on Old Eagle School road, which runs from Lancaster Pike crossing the tracks of the Pennsylvania Station by an underpass. The school is, according to Mrs. Suffren’s delightful account, “a quaint, almost forgotten relic of early Colonial days, with tightly shuttered windows and tightly bolted door. With the adjacent graveyard, that is a part of the demesne, where the great trees spring as often from the graves themselves as from the ground between, it makes a distinct – and pathetic – appeal to the passerby.”

Among these graves are those of many Revolutionary soldiers. Another link with that period of American history was proximity of the old school to the last of the “sentinel trees” from which during the encampment at Valley Forge direct communication was maintained with the American Army. This tree, a great chestnut over six feet in diameter, and about seventy-five feet high, was taken down when Sigmund’s Drug Store was built at the intersection of Lancaster Pike and Old Eagle School road.

The original Old Eagle School was probably built in the year 1788, as indicated by a stone set in the south gable. It was undoubtedly intended not only for a school, but for a German Protestant Church, erected by some of the early settlers of Tredyffrin and Radnor Townships who followed the original settlers who were Welshmen. The second group of settlers consisted mainly of Germans with some Swiss and even a few of the unfortunate Acadians driven from Nova Scotia. Following a custom of the home land, these Germans probably built a church before they had even completed their homes.

According to Mrs. Suffren, the original structure was only half the size of the present 33’x19′ now standing. The door, now at the south end, was then in the middle of the west side and the line of the added masonry can be plainly seen. The house as enlarged “took the place of an even older log building, used as church and school, which stood a few feet to the northward. Local tradition has it that the two structures stood side by side until 1805, when the first one was pulled down and the huge logs were used in another building now standing.”

A quaint picture in Henry Pleasants’ “History of the Old Eagle School” shows the small building as it looked in 1788. This picture, the author explains, “has been carefully prepared to conform as far as possible to the most authentic traditions of its appearance.”

Built of stone and one story in height, it had the door of which Mrs. Suffren speaks set between two westward facing windows. The window to the right was a large one, while that to the left was a narrow one. These, with two windows on the northeast side and two on the southeast side, lighted the interior. The door was a double one. Inside there were benches arranged in double rows around the side of the building, making a hollow square pen by the fireplace. Here stood the school master’s desk. At evening meetings held for community purposes, no provision was made for lighting the building except by candle or perhaps an occasional lamp. These, in accordance with the custom of the times, were brought to the building by the attendants and placed in rude wooden racks hung on the sides of the room.

Heating of the building was accomplished at first by an open wood fire, later by a ten plate stove. In this connection it is interesting to note that stoves of this type were distinctly of German origin. There were five, six and ten plate stoves according to the number of cast-iron plates composing the stoves. Five plate stoves were cast at all the furnaces in Pennsylvania from 1741 to 1760. Later these were superseded by the six-plate stove, and about 1765 ten plate stoves were put into use. But even with one of the latter. Mr. Pleasants comments that “the most zealous advocate of fresh air could hardly have complained of the ventilation of the building.”

Inside walls were entirely without plaster; window sashes “slid sidewise on the inside, as is yet often done in old barns, leaving the window ledge outside of the building. There were no shutters to these windows. The front door was secured by a long wooden bolt, slipped into place by a crooked piece of iron, passed through a hole.”

This description of the original school house of 1788 was based, not on hearsay, but on the actual description of it as given by several persons who were daily attendants there not many years later. It cannot fail to be of interest and value, Mr. Pleasants feels, “to the present favored recipients of the glorious school privileges of Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in this twentieth century.”

(To be continued)

The Old Eagle School, part 2

/ Emma C. Patterson

In continuing the story of Old Eagle School in Strafford as begun in last week’s column, it is interesting to read what Sidney George Fisher has to say about the early settlement of Pennsylvania in his book, “The Making of Pennsylvania”. “Most of the English Colonies in America”, he writes, “were founded by people of pure Anlgo-Saxon stock, and each colony had usually a religion of its own, with comparatively little inter-mixture of other faiths . . . But Pennsylvania was altogether different, and no other colony had such a mixture of languages, nationalities and religions. Dutch, Swedes, English, Germans, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Reformed, Mennonites, Dunkers, and Moravians, all had a share in creating it”.

Of these settlers, the Germans were decidedly the most numerous. Two divisions among them stand out prominently, the Sects or Pietists, and the Church people. The first included the Amish, the Mennonites, Shakers, Mileese, Schwenkfelders and many others. The Church people were divided between the Reformed and the Lutheran, the latter of especial local interest, since it is of them that the settlement in Tredyffrin seems to have been mainly composed. It was Lutherans who founded the first small church on the site of the present Old Eagle School, and, according to Fisher, all these Lutherans had many affiliations with the Episcopalians who at that time “looked upon them as likely to become a church in communion with themselves if not their actual converts.”

The original German pioneers were immigrant peasants, the first of that class to land in America, and very different from the English Yeomanry that settled Virginia, New England and most of the other Colonies. Many of them were very rough in manner and dress, speaking “an unintelligible dialect”. Nevertheless they took up their work of settlement in a new land in a way deserving of admiration. They became farmers, taking good care of their cattle and of their property. According to the historian, Fisher, they were “good judges of land, always selecting the best and were very fond of the limestone district”. And this was evidently one of the attractions in Tredyffrin Township.

These German settlers were not only a hard-working lot, but they were thrifty and frugal as well. When land had to be cleared, they cut down each individual tree and preserved each stick of it. When other colonists built houses with huge fireplaces at each end they used stoves for heating, stoves being of distinctly German origin, as explained in last week’s column. Fisher writes that this use of stoves “is said to have given their houses an even temperature, which enabled the women to work at various useful occupations in the long winter evenings which were passed by the wives and daughters of the other settlers in idleness, with benumbed fingers, shifting places around their romantic and wasteful fires.”

According to an article published in 1888 by Julius Sachse, to whose book, “The Wayside Inns on the Lancaster Roadside”, this column was indebted for the material for the series on the Old Spread Eagle Inn, the settlement of Germans in the present Strafford section dates back to about the middle of the eighteenth century. They were part of the group who, “with a few Swiss families, established themselves between the ‘Blue Bale’ (now ‘King of Prussia’) Inn, of Upper Merion, and ‘The Unicorn’ tavern of Radnor along the road, skirting the southern slope of the Valley Hills.

The first authentic evidence of the existence of the German colony in Tredyffrin Township is found in the deed books of Chester County, which, according to Henry Pleasants’ “History of the Old Eagle School”, indicate the purchase by Jacob Sharraden . . . from Sampson Davis and wife on March 16, 1765, of 150 acres of land in Tredyffrin, lying immediately north of the present Strafford station, Pennsylvania Railroad. This tract is part of an original purchase by Richard Hunt of Brome Yard, Hereford County, Wales, Chirugeon, from William Penn, dated March 1 and 2, 34th Charles II (1683) of five hundred acres described as in the Great Valley in said County of Chester, being bounded on the S. S. E. side with the late lands of Hugh Samuel, which would seem to indicate its extension from the Valley Hills into Radnor Township.

“The deed to Jacob Sharraden for this purchase marks the transition from the Welsh to the German settlement of the neighborhood, it is followed in March 1767, by a deed from Jacob Sharraden to his son-in-law, Christian Werkister . . . of the same premise. As these two men are undoubtedly the most prominent of the German pioneers connected with the establishment of the Old Eagle School, it is desirable here briefly to record what is known of them.”

Mr. Pleasants then goes on to say that neither of these names has been found in any of the immigrant lists. Jacob Sharraden having located in Tredyffrin in 1765, moved in about 1771 to Vincent Township where he died in about 1774. His will indicates that the testator was a religious German of some education and property. Tax lists of Tredyffrin show him to have been the proprietor of a grist mill and owner of 190 acres of land.

Christian Werkiser seems to have married Jacob Sharraden’s daughter, Margaretta. From 1776 to 1785 when he died, he apparently owned a considerable amount of real estate in Tredyffrin. It seems highly probably that he was buried in Eagle School graveyard, although no record of his burial exists on its records. However, his wife’s name is on these records.

Within a few years of the time of his purchase of a large tract of land, Christian Werkiser seems to have been disposed of it in smaller lots to Michael Walts, Peter Stidler and Jacob Huzzard. Meanwhile, from Pennsylvania Archives came an important bit of information to the effect that “when Christian Werkiser passed on the tax lists of Tredyffrin, in 1768, from a humble ‘Freeman’ . . . to the dignity of ‘Owner’ he is taxed not with 150 acres, but with only 149 acres. This discrepancy is the warrant for the belief that between 1765 and 1767 there was established by Jacob Sharraden (then the owner of the land) what seems a distinctive feature of German Protestant Settlements–a place for church and school purposes; and that he was the donor, at least of the ground, on which it was located”.

This is not the sole evidence that this early German settler gave the plot of ground on which the present historical Old Eagle School stands. Statements to that effect were given by early residents of both Tredyffrin and Willistown Townships. This rather definitely affirms the date of 1767 as the year when the first small building for church and school purposes was erected on this plot of ground just north of the present Strafford Station.

(To be continued)

Archaeological Mysteries – Ithan Store

/ Emma C. Patterson

One of the most delightful afternoons that we have spent in many a day was that of Saturday, October 21, when the tour of eight of the historic old houses of Wayne was made under the sponsorship of the Radnor Historical Society. We sincerely hope that many of the readers of this column were also able to go, for these old homes could not fail to interest any who were privileged to see them. The response to our request for a repeat visit and for further information was so graciously received from all who were asked that we hope from time to time to devote a column to this history of each of these houses.

In the meantime, several bits of information came to light. Among the visitors to “Kinterra”, the home of the Misses Watson, on Church road, was Helen Richards Sellers (Mrs. Edwin F. Sellers), of Radnor Inn, a direct descendant of John Richards, Penn grantee 1682, who from point of view of still having the same Richards name can claim to be of the “oldest family” in Radnor Township with the Pugh family the only rivals. Mrs. Sellers was particularly interested in the Watson homestead since it was the Richards family who built the original part of this old stone house in 1718.

Mrs. Robert Dornan, of the Wesley apartments, gives the interesting information that her three nephews, Franklin F. Trainer and Henry C. Trainer, both of Wayne, and Richard D. Trainer, of Strafford Village are the direct descendants of the first male white child to be born in Radnor Township, as told in this column when the history of the Old Ithan Store was given. He was the son of John Jarman and first saw the light of day in that part of the present building at the intersection of Conestoga road and Radnor-Chester road which now houses the Store. In 1769 at the ripe old age of eighty-five, Jarman died in this same house. Mrs. Dornan did the research entailed in establishing the family descent of her nephews from Jarman.

Many requests for information come to “Your Town and My Town”. Some can be answered, some cannot, even after considerable research and some questioning of old-time residents in Radnor Township. Here is the most interesting one to date, and one to which the writer has found no answer as yet. Mr. Leslie Geer, who has recently purchased a home near the intersection of Brookside avenue and Conestoga road, decided to make a garden in his back yard this summer. His property extends from Brookside avenue in an irregular line to a point on Conestoga road just west of the old spring house, from which water was pumped and sold at one time. People are said to have come from miles around in order to obtain water of such purity.

In digging for his garden Mr. Geer struck rock well under the surface of the ground which upon further investigation proved to be part of the foundation of a building of some sort. It is, according to Mr. Geer, an excellent foundation with stones laid one upon another with much exactitude and care. He did not dig extensively enough at the time to discover the dimensions or the shape of the foundation. But he did unearth old horseshoes, long, heavy nails, and iron door hinges, all of them frail with age and rust.

No one in the neighborhood can offer any solution to the question of what sort of building once stood on this foundation, nor has the present writer been able to find any answer. Some one has suggested that i might have been an Inn, since certain old records show that there was one between the Old Sorrel Horse on Conestoga road and the Old Eagle on Lancaster Highway, at a distance of about a mile west of the former. If not an Inn, might it have been a blacksmith shop? Or was it one of the small stone houses along Conestoga built by some early Welshman about the time that the Ithan Store and the original old Radnor Friends meeting was built?

There is one of these little stone houses on Conestoga road not far west of this spot, as the writer well knows, since she lived there herself some years ago. This is the house just to the east of Five Points, now occupied by Mrs. Frank B. Johnston. Originally this house, with its thick stone walls contained two rooms downstairs each with a large fireplace with two bedrooms above as well as an attic, the old stairway to which still remains as it was so many years ago. Alterations made to this simple structure by Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Ware in 1912 converted it into the pleasant white house by the side of the road still dear to the heart of the writer, though it has been many years since she lived there with her family.

Whatever its history, for the present Mr. Geer has covered the excavation with earth again. Later he intends to excavate more thoroughly. In the meantime this column would be glad to pass on to him any information its readers may give on the subject.

(Editor’s Note: Another “discovery” arousing much local interest is a well of considerable depth found by workmen excavating at the old Opera House. Bricked in and more than 20 feet deep, who built it?)

The Old Eagle School, part 3 – Radnor Lyceum

/ Emma C. Patterson

In continuing the story of the Old Eagle School as begun in this column several weeks ago, it is a noteworthy fact that from the time the first small crude building was erected in about the year 1767, it was not only school and church, but pre-eminently “a social center of bucolic life,” to quote from Henry Pleasants’ history of that historic landmark. It became indeed a public meeting place of the neighborhood where militia companies were organized and drilled and where political meetings were held. And on the lighter side of life it was where singing groups and debating clubs met. Still in existence is a quaint invitation of March 1, 1822, for a debate to be held there a few days later. This invitation reads:

“The Eagle Association’s compliments to Miss Eliza Siter and requests the favour of her company at a debate at the Eagle School house on Saturday evening, March 9th.”

This invitation is among the bits of early evidence that the Eagle School was among the pioneers in the “lyceum movement,” which was to become an integral part of the life of the early settlers in this section. Records show that as early as 1935 the Chester County Education Convention organized a County Lyceum with a full roster of officers. As already stated in this column, Radnor Lyceum was organized in 1838 with Hugh Jones Brooke as president. Among the names connected with this Lyceum that still live on in present-day families are those of John Pechin, John Mather, and Adelaide Cornog.

Among these lyceum meetings held in Eagle School is one of 1832 so graphically described by one of the audience that his account is well worth quoting in full. It was given to the Board of Trustees of the old School by the late Joseph Levis Worrall, of Radnor, and recorded in Mr. Pleasants’ history.

“In 1832 we had an exhibition of the telegraph in winter time. Two operators came up to Edward Siter, who kept the Eagle Hotel . . . and asked permission to give the people a free exhibition of the telegraph at the Eagle School. The real object of the exhibition was for the purpose of obtaining an appropriation from the Pennsylvania Legislature through representatives favorable thereto . . . Edward Siter sent word around on horseback to the different stores, blacksmith shops and taverns, and put a notice in the Delaware County paper “Upland Union” of Chester, and in the “Village Record” of Chester County.

“We had a crowd of persons present at the exhibition; the building was jammed, and many could not get in. Dr. Joseph Blackfan and my father, Fred Worrall, were chosen by the people to sit by each telegraph operator, who took their positions at opposite corners of the room. Edward Siter, John Pugh and others stood in the doorway of a board partition . . . as judges to see that no sign was given of what was written, and then a message was sent across, the machine writing by dots and dashes on paper: Dr. Blackfan writing down a message which the operator sent to the man at father’s end, who read it out aloud, and then a message was sent back. The judges were first given the message which Dr. Blackfan wrote down, to see that no fraud was practiced. The message was always read off correctly and the effect on the audience was astonishing. They closely questioned Dr. Blackfan and father to know if there was any collusion. Father and many others thought the exhibition one of supernatural powers. Edward Siter stated that he could not account for it. Others thought that it was the work of the Devil.

“The arrangement for the exhibition had been made with much care. The batteries were concealed in boxes. John Meredith sent men to do all necessary carpenter work without charge; and the school was dismissed at noon, so that they had the full afternoon for making their arrangements. The door was locked until the time of the exhibition.”

Thus did our forebears in this section first learn of the mysteries of telegraph, which was so soon to become one of the country’s greatest means of communication.

From its earliest establishment old Eagle School was placed under the control and management of men designated as “Trustees” or Committeemen, who held a position similar to that of our present-day School Directors. The last formal election of these trustees is said to have taken place in the old building about 1835, at a meeting held there “for the purpose of securing better educational facilities for the neighborhood.”

Many of the names of these trustees have been preserved, not in record form, but in the memories of those who have passed their names down from generation to generation. Among those from Radnor were William Siter (the elder), John Pugh (the elder), Nathaniel Jones, Samuel Cleaver, Robert Kennedy, landlord of “The Unicorn,” and Edward Siter, landlord of “The Eagle.”

Other rural schoolhouses of an early date that have been preserved to the present generation, and are well known to many of us are the Camp School at Valley Forge, restored by the Valley Forge Commission; Diamond Rock School near Howellville and the Octagon Schoolhouse near Newtown Square. Until the Common School System of Pennsylvania came into full operation about 1836 such schools as these afforded the only facilities for the education of children in the rural districts. Many of them were established soon after the arrival of William Penn. Compared to what the schools of today have to offer they were primitive and crude, indeed, yet in their way they served their purpose at a time when nothing else offered itself.

Standard books of these early schools, according to Mr. Pleasants, included “Cornleys Spelling,” “Pike’s Arithmetic,” “The American Tutor” and “Murray’s Introduction to English Reader and Sequel.” Occasionally used by particularly apt scholars were “Gummere’s Surveying,” “Bonnycastles’ Algebra and Measuration” and “Kirkman’s Grammar.” Records show that at the Eagle School the usual tuition was two dollars per quarter, “exclusive of books, slates, ink and goose-quills.”

Old-time school masters usually acquired their positions by “circulating a subscription list around the neighborhood and inducing the various residents to send their children to school at certain rates.” There is some question as to who was the first master, that honor lying between a Brinton Evans and Jacob Sharraden Werkiser, son of that Christian Werkiser who gave the original acre of land on which the first school building was erected. Another of the old masters was James Boyle, descended from Irish gentry, who also taught at Old Glassley School, in what is now part of Devon, and at the Union School, near Great Valley Baptist Church. Still another was Adam Siter, a lame man, whom the pupils “endearingly called ‘Old Step-and-go-fetch-it.” He also taught in the School house at Old St. David’s Church. These old-time school-masters had no supervision from anyone except possibly from “the committeemen,” though there is not much evidence even of this. Among the relics of the Old Eagle School are some of the primitive instruments by which a rudimentary education was literally “driven into its early pupils.

(To be continued)

The Old Radnor Methodist Church, part 1

/ Emma C. Patterson

19501117

A touch of early Winter was in the breeze that rustled the dry brown leaves in the old Church yard and followed us up the shallow, well-worn steps into the interior of Old Radnor Methodist Church last Sunday afternoon. We had paused for a moment outside to examine the old door knob, punctured, it is said, by a bullet. At any rate, the hole is there. On the inside of the door is the ancient lock, and hanging under it the quaint old wrought iron key, some four inches in length. The Reverend James Haney, minister of the CHurch, ventured the guess that it weighs at least a pound.

At once the quiet serenity of this old place of worship, seen in the light of the late afternoon sun as it came through the high windows, seemed to envelop us. It is the peace that long uninterrupted years of worship within its four walls has brought. For this present Church building dates back to 1833, and its log cabin predecessor to 1783. A hundred years had then passed since William Penn had founded his colony of 40,000 acres which he called the “Welsh Tract”. The land on which this old church stands was originally part of the tract, embracing as it did the present townships of Haverford, Merion, Radnor and part of Goshen. The first Radnor Meeting House had been built by early Welsh Friends in 1695, while Old St. David’s, originally called The Radnor Church, was begun in 1715 and completed in 1717.

The Methodist movement was born at Oxford, England, in 1729, when John and Charles Wesley and a few others began to meet for religious exercises. Eearly in 1734, a company of three hundred emigrants, led by James Oglethorpe, landed in Georgie, the Wesleys among them. By 1739 Methodism had gained much headway among Philadelphia’s 10,000 inhabitants. By 1780-81 a number of Methodist circuits had been organized and about this time Radnor became a meeting and a Society numbering forty members was created.

The one-story log cabin meeting house, built in 1783 on what was soon to be known as “Methodist Hill” on the much travelled Conestoga Road is the oldest Methodist Meeting House in Delaware County. In point of age in comparison to Methodist churches in Philadelphia it is surpassed only by St. George’s. The quaint illustration accompanying this article was made by Miss Edith Powell in 1908 from a description of the little log cabin given by Mrs. Mary Clemmens and Miss Hannah Gyger Clive, who were then in their eighty-ninth year. Facing south this small building, twenty-five feet wide by thirty feet long, had two small windows, one on each side of the doorway. Inside there was one aisle with a long mourners’ bench in front of the pulpit. It was heated by a stove in the center of the room with its chimney going up through the peaked roof. The plot of ground on which it stood was deeded to the Society by Evan James.

The really lovely interior of the present church building is a restoration of the original Colonial one as it looked when the second meeting house was erected in 1783. It has its divided chancel and central altar with a recently installed Hammond organ and a set of chimes given in memory of the Reverend John Watchorn, who served the Church from 1940 until 1943. Mr. Haney amazed us on Sunday when he showed how the backs of many of the pews can be reversed, so that the occupants face either to the front or the back of the Church. During Church services all face front, of course. But when the room is utilized for Sunday School purposes the pews are arranged so that the occupants of any two of them face each other for classes.

Other Sunday School classes are held in the large basement room where on Sunday Mr. Haney showed us an interesting chart prepared by Mr. Herbert L. Flack in preparation for the church’s present drive for a $40,000 building fund. This chart shows that in 1780 the CHurch had a membership of forty as compared to its present two hundred and ninety, while the Sunday School has had the amazing growth of from twenty-seven to one hundred and sixty members, from 1843 to 1950. In 1783 the plot of ground on which the Church stands cost the congregation $1.69. Other interesting figures show that in comparison to the present $40,000 prospective building fund, $161.40 was raised in 1801-1803 by “subscription and collection”, while in 1881-82, $1631.21 was raised, “all of which was paid by subscription before the day of re-opening”. In 1931 members and generous-minded and public spirited citizens of the surrounding communities contributed $8,000 to defray remodeling costs.

Back of the modern furnace that heats the church of the present day Mr. Haney showed us a narrow doorway formerly closed by a heavy iron door. In days now long past this led into the vault used for coffins when frozen earth in winter made permanent burial impossible until spring should come. It reminded us of the small building in Radnor Friends Meeting burial ground once used for a similar purpose. Strangely enough this one time vault in the basement of the Radnor Methodist Church is now a cheery and most adequate kitchen. Its stone walls must be at least two feet thick, as shown by the masonry around the windows.

The church is surrounded on three sides by a large burial ground where old stones and new are close neighbors. Horse sheds of a former generation have been torn down only recently. A parking lot for the modern automobile that has succeeded the horse and buggy is an acquisition of a few years ago. Dates noted at random on but a few headstones showed burials in 1791, 1794, 1808, 1815 and 1832. There were many others, some in excellent condition despite the passing of the years, others crumbled and fallen. Among the many quaint epitaphs was one inscribed in 1835, the year the present church was erected:

“Affliction sore, long me a bore
Physicians were in vain
Till God was pleased me to relieve
and eased me of my pain.”
One of a few years later reads:
“Farewell to friends and all I know
My husband gone & I must go
Through 50 years away has past
Since we have seen each other last
We now shall meet in heaven above
And join to sing in redeeming love.”

After leaving the church grounds, Mr. Haney drove us along Conestoga road where at its intersection with Montrose avenue still stands the original Mansion House, once owned by the James family where the first Methodist service of any kind in this region was held. That service was a prayer meeting, the date of which is not recorded, though it was probably in the year 1778. The beautiful old house, now somewhat modernized, still has the original stone walls of the early structure intact. It is now occupied by Mrs. Percival Parrish. The parsonage constructed in 1891-95 still stands at 1003 Conestoga road, where it is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Haney and their family.

(To be continued)