Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: April 2000 Volume 38 Number 2, Pages 74–76

Notes and Comments

• Lincoln Scholar Honored
• Open Space Acquired
• February Was Black History Month
• An Interesting Connection
• Club Officers

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Lincoln Scholar Honored

Allen C. Guelzo, Ph.D., of Paoli, head of the Department of History at Eastern College, will share the 10th annual Lincoln Prize awarded the best work in Civil War history for his book, "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President". Co-authors John Hope Franklin of Duke University, and Loren Schweninger of the University of North Carolina, also received a similar honor for their work, "Runaway Slaves: Rebels in the Plantation". The selections for this year were announced in February. Each book will earn a $20,000 prize.

Professor Guelzo's book is an intellectual biography of the 16th president. Although Lincoln often has been portrayed as a man of the people or merely as a lawyer and politician, he was also uniquely a man of ideas. Guelzo delves into this essential truth about Lincoln which is often missed. Book reviewer B. L. Stephens concludes, "Out of the countless volumes written about [Lincoln], it ranks quite simply among the best."

Open Space Acquired

Tredyffrin Township in late February acquired the 9.6-acre Brandis Tract located west of Bodine Road and south of the Trenton Cut-off. It will be added to adjacent Walnut Lane Park. The land is very steeply sloped and collects the waters that become the Crabby Creek, flowing north into the

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Valley. Like Walnut Lane Park, the Brandis Tract will not be developed but will be set aside for passive recreation. The site was included in the 1994 Township Open Space and Recreation Plan.

February Was Black History Month

The Underground Railroad was remembered in a talk presented on February 7, 2000 at the Trinity Presbyterian Church hall in Berwyn by William Kashatus, director of public programs for Chester County Historical Society. The presentation, organized by the Easttown Library as part of the observance of Black History Month, told of the county's role in the movement that helped many slaves find their way to freedom during the pre-Civil War years, and pointed up a spirit of racial cooperation.

Much of the program took the form of a live history drama in which Kashatus portrayed Thomas Garrett, a Quaker merchant from Wilmington, Delaware, who was active in harboring and guiding slaves to freedom. In his characterization, Kashatus pointed out Garrett's firm anti-slavery beliefs, and reflected upon his experiences. In conclusion, Kashatus gave a slide presentation which provided further insight into the background of slavery in the United States, and the history of the Underground Railroad.

An Interesting Connection

An article about the history of Old Forge Crossing Condominium in a recent issue of the Quarterly (Vol. 37, No. 3, July 1 999) mentions Dr. George Clapp Vaillant, director of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and his wife Suzannah, as one-time owners of Old Orchard Farm on which today's condo stands.

Author Susan Hertog's new biography of the life of Anne Morrow Lind­bergh, wife of noted aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, has revealed the existence of a friendship between Anne Morrow and Suzannah Beck, which no doubt was forged in the late 1920s when Anne's father was U. S. Ambassador to Mexico and Suzannah's father was an American banker living there.

After Charles Lindbergh's historic trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, he visited Mexico City where he met Anne. They were married in 1929. About the same time, George Vaillant was doing archaeological research in Mexico for his doctoral dissertation at Harvard. He met Suzannah, and they were

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married in 1930, the same year he became associate curator of Mexican archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Vaillant spent the next decade organizing his Mexican studies, and in part­time teaching and writing. His major work, "The Aztecs of Mexico," was published in 1941, and was the summation of his research career. It was in the pre-war years 1940 and early 1941 when the Lindberghs were living at Lloyd Neck, Long Island, and receiving much bad press for their pacifistic leanings, that they and the Vaillants spent time together.

Vaillant was named director of the University Museum in Philadelphia in 1941, and purchased Old Orchard Farm in Devon. Lindbergh moved from Lloyd Neck to Martha's Vineyard the same year. On May 13, 1945, amid the cataclysmic events which signaled the end of the war in Europe, George Valliant, for reasons unknown and seemingly without premeditation, took his life at Old Orchard Farm at age 44.

The editor of the Quarterly first heard of this tragedy in 1999 when the Easttown police called with a question about George Vaillant. Another doctoral candidate writing a dissertation was seeking information. Investigation disclosed the tragic death. Vaillant was a contemporary of John Alden Mason, long-time curator of the American Section of the University Museum. Mason lived in Berwyn, was president of the History Club in 1944, and devoted himself to his local community. Surely Vaillant and Mason were acquainted as associates at Penn, but as far as is known this story has not previously been revealed locally.

Club Officers

At its meeting on January 28, 2000, Club members elected officers for the Year 2000-2001 term. All incumbents, as listed on the "Table of Contents" page of this Quarterly, were reelected. However, less than a full slate of candidates was presented to the members for a vote. Messrs. Eichner and Fry, and Ms. Rafner, have expressed a desire to retire from their present offices, and have agreed to continue their present duties only until such time as a replacement is identified and placed before the membership for a vote.