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BULLETIN HISTORICAL50C1ETY MONTGOMERY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA JVORR/STOWM 22MPRY PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AT ITS ROOMS 18 EAST FENN STREET NORRISTOWN.PA- OCTOBER, 1944 VOLUME IV NUMBER 3 PRICE 50 CENTS Historical Society of Montsomery County OFFICERS Kieke Bryan, Esq., President S. Cameron Corson, First Vice-President Charles Harper Smith, Second Vice-President George K. Brecht, Esq., Third Vice-President Nancy C. Cresson, Recording Secretary Helen E. Richards, Corresponding Secretary Annie B. Molony, Financial Secretary Lyman a. Kratz, Treasurer Katharine Preston, Acting Librarian TRUSTEES Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H. Franoine H. H. Gansee Nancy P. Highley Foster C. Hillegass Mrs. a. Conrad Jones David Todd Jones Hon. Harold G. Knight Lyman A. Kratz Douglas Macfarlan, M.D. Katharine Preston Charles Harper Smith Franklin A. Stickler ^ Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman, Jr. Norris D. Wright Ardmore Station (from "Slimmer Excursion Routes," Pennsylvania Railroad, 1877) THE BULLETIN of the Historical Society of Montgomery County Published Semi-Anrmally—October and April Volume IV October, 1944 Number 3 CONTENTS The Meaning of Valley Forge . Harry Ehnerson Wildes 159 Early Recollections of Ardmore (continued) Josiah S. Pearce 169 Reports 248 Publication Committee Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Hannah Gerhard Anita L. Eystbr Charles Harper Smith Charles R. Barker, Chairman 157 The Meaning of Valley Forge By Harry Emerson Wildes* I Valley Forge marked the turning point of the Revolution. The men who came to its wind-swept, snow-clad acres in stormy December, 1777, were battered, hungry, sick and in distress. Abandoned, as they thought, by the .civilians of the Continental Congress, deserted, all too often, by the politicians of their states, the ragged, barefoot, volunteers huddled help lessly about their smoky, green-wood, fires. Defeated at Brandywine, at Paoli and at Germantown, they had neither lost their confidence nor weakened in morale until the smooth tongued statesmen had turned against the army leaders. The fearful winter, despite its tragic hardships, taught them that their courage, fortitude, patience and unstinted fealty to ideals would lead them to eventual victory. A disciplined, re sourceful and heartened army marched away from Valley Forge to victory at Monmouth. This yve owe to Washington, who welded unrelated, virtu ally independent army groups from thirteen states into an integrated national army. He taught the need for a federated union of free men, enlightened and politically equal, to realize the ideal of liberty, democracy and the pursuit in peace of happiness. He set a pattern for the world to follow. The foundations of a great nation, made possible by Wash ington at Valley Forge in time of trouble, in days of sorrow and perplexity, wrought revolution not only for the thirteen struggling states but for oppressed people in all the world. The doubt, distress and danger, the cold and hunger, the suffering and want, of Valley Forge were sacrifices to the wel fare of a new-born nation. The unfailing patriotism of the •Read before the Society, February 22, 1944. 159 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY soldiers, their unceasing vigilance, their courge and devotion, were bright examples for a world to follow. The point need not be labored; the analogies are all too evident. This world of turmoil, of sacrifice and suffering is, in a larger sense, but an outgrowth of the tribulation faced by- Washington at Valley Forge. The lessons learned upon those snowy hills serve well today in troubled Europe, in steamy, pest-ridden South Sea jungles, in the icy fogs of Attu and in the cold wintry wastes of all the seas. From the broken world of 1944, as from the shattered colonies of 1778, can come, with God*s will and men's desire, the full fruition of George Wash ington's example. But Valley Forge is not alone in offering such inspiration. This southeast section of our state, seed ground of American liberty, is full of similar suggestion. We have here, in Mont gomery, in Chester and in Philadelphia Counties, literally hundreds of memories that can give encouragement and hope. Our great men of the past, many of them, like Senator Jon athan Roberts, virtually forgotten, others shamefully neg lected, our historic sites and relics, all too seldom visited, offer to the nation opportunity for pride and glory. Why do we so often overlook them? Other regions prize their histories. New England's writers combed their neighbor hoods to tell of men and incidents that in no wise match our Pennsylvania heritage. New Yorkers foist their local happen ings upon the rest of the United States. Chicago, San Fran cisco, New Orleans and the South insist on recognition. Only we hang back, shyly and with diffidence. Why must this be ? Like all Pennsylvanians, Montgomery County is conserva tive. Prom the days of William Penn we have believed in mod eration, not in blowing horns; we have been tolerant and cau tious, too. Tradition rules our region, custom is king. Always we prefer ancient habits and well-tried folk-ways to novelty and innovation. That is why no social institution that has ever proved its worth is allowed to wither on the vine. Still fiourishing in Montgomery County are associations for the catching of horse thieves, meeting solemnly each spring as though to re-assure THE MEANING OF VALLEY FORGE 101 themselves that they are still alive, although none of the wide- waisted members has moved to snare a thief in half a centu^. The,Daughters of the American Revolution hold their solemn conclaves, though the irreverent suggest that each and every one would promptly faint at the sight of a determined rebel. We live in calm placidity that smacks of Quaker retire ment, of Pennsylvania German quietism, of the social aloof- hies's and the uniqueness of the individual that grows out of wide acres that needed no protection against'enemies. Each IbcM community prides itself upon its own peculiarities but in a gentle, unobstrusive way that is quite free from brashness or ffOm boasting but which is, none the lessj the height of social snobbery. Look, for example, at the smug superiority shown by "Whit'emarsh and the Gwynedd Valley toward the Lower IVlerionite, and, to be quite fair, vice versa. Strangers new coihe into the County sometimes find,themselves baffled by what seems stiff aloofness; they cannot understand our reluct ance to experiment. ' Yet, withal, we are modest; we do not boast. We sit back, complacently and let others search out our merits. It was New Orleans, not Philadelphia, that discovered Corporal Albert Schmid, greatest of our war heroes. It was Blair Niles, of Vir ginia, who, in Passenger to Mexico, celebrated the work of Sara York Stevenson, and Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, of Brown Universnty, who wrote Rebels and Gentlemen to praise our past. It was Carl Van Doren, of New York, who talked about the uprising of Pennsylvania's Continental Army in his Mutiny in January. :' Not for well nigh two hundred years after his birth was there a full length biography of Anthony Wayne; not for a century after his death did Stephen Girard achieve a complete life history. Nicholas Biddle has not as yet been honored, though a book is even now in preparation on this greatest of American financiers. » , . .> We seem, indeed, not to hate our past so much as to ignore it. We lay small stress upon our proud early history; above the elementary grades we do not speak of William Penn nor of James Logan, of Robert Morris, Jay Cooke nor Tom McKean. 1Q2 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY We start our history teaching all too often at the finish ofthe Revolutionary War; the Pennsylvania Department of Educa tion is even at this moment recommending that we abandon all mention of colonial history for every student in the public schools beyond the age of thirteen.. True, there is a Pennsylvania law requiring that every public school insist on Pennsylvania history, but how well is that law enforced? Has your small son come home this week closely clutching a new History of Pennsylvania and, if he has, have you glanced into it? For the only histories that are avail able skip through the story of the state with such lightning speed, omitting almost all essential facts and carelessly mis spelling names, that almost all the schools, and certainly the largest institutions, defy the law. Compulsory teaching of Pennsylvania history boils down to a half-joking recommen dation that the teachers be sure to mention Pennsylvania once or twice a week in order to obey the letter of the law. We decry our history; we play it down as though it were something to regret. It is a pity, for this southeastern section of the state has a proud past that is unequalled in the country. We built a nation here; we set the pattern for a culture. No other area in all America has done so much to be commended. No other locality so decries its past. Every colonial skir mish in New England receives abundant recognition in that history-conscious area; Virginians are extolled; New Yorkers insist that even their minor incidents must be infiated into magnitude. Pennsylvanians, however, are modest people, they hide their glory well. Unhappily, others take us at the valuation that we seem to set upon ourselves. I have been studying of late the contents of the history textbooks used in public schools, twenty-seven of the dreariest and most uninspiring volumes known to mod ern man. Judged solely by what the authors say in these volumes, the sole source of knowledge for so many thousand Pennsylvanians, the commonwealth has been of small impor tance while Montgomery County did not, so far as these books are concerned, exist at all.

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