Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: April 1939 Volume 2 Number 2, Page 25

Editorial

Howard S. Okie

Page 25

An address made at the 1939 Annual Banquet of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club.

The words - "Do it now" - apply with special force to all attempts to record the history of past events obtainable to any extent from living persons or existing records, and contain the gist of what may be said with profit on the subject. Particular reference may be made however, to a phase of our work where personal recollections of things of the past are still to be had. Nowhere, I suppose, is there a community to equal ours in abundance of historical data as yet uncovered nor one in which a charming country-side has been so little changed by lapse of time, particularly in the Chester Valley.

Here we are, in the middle of a region extending from the Brandywine to Philadelphia and from the Delaware to Pottstown; with our own particular territory surrounded by St. David's Church, the Paoli Camp Ground, St. Peter's Church, Valley Forge and Gulph Mills, and having at its center our headquarters on the old Provincial road leading from the largest city of the colonies to the interior.

We may, perhaps, visualize the Delaware Indians toting their beaver packs along the route of the old road to the Dutch and Swedish settlements on the Delaware and Schuylkill, or a little later when settlers' cabins and clearings have begun to appear, on their way to imbibe the product of the Proprietor's brew house at Pennsbury. Later, we may see the part the road played in military operations in the French and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars and its part in the opening of the settlements to the west. We may see important personages of the community, their homes, churches and inns, and more famous persons, here as occasion warranted. But to see the community as a whole, we must be more specific.

What a picture could be made by supplementing Mr. Burns' interesting history of Old Cockletown with plans of each of the old properties for a mile or so along the old road, securing all available data, and combining all into a comprehensive plan of the neighborhood. Intersecting roads and points of interest to be shown, and the old houses carefully drawn. Several of them, long since gone, are still remembered from Civil War days. Much of this information will be lost if we do not acquire it soon.

For a good many years I have looked down on Valley Forge through notches in the hills. The view, with the camp site in the foreground, is distant and inspiring. And yet, the most impressive part to me is the unbroken skyline of those purple hills in winter. There is something there of the austerity and the unbending integrity and worth of Washington. Thomas Jefferson, in an old letter, tells us what manner of man he was.

"Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man."

This from a man whose political philosophy was entirely different in many ways and who opposed him, even when in his cabinet.

We have come a long way since then, and a long way from the principles of both men. And yet, beyond those hills, the glory of the western sun is still as great; the need for calm detachment in a world of conflict still as strong. To recapture the scenes of the past is our pleasurable duty. If in doing this we can transfuse something of the wisdom and the character and spirit of the persons who enacted those scenes we shall do well. But, to make the most of our opportunities, we should not loiter by the way.