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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 25 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: October 1987 Volume 25 Number 4, Pages 135–140 Reminiscences of the Great Valley These recollections of the Great Valley of Chester County and the Valley Forge area are really only an informal "chat" with friends and neighbors. It seems like a long time ago since 1926 when Robert and Frances Ligget came to live in the Great Valley in the Valley Forge area on his new 245-acre, four-house property. It opened up a brand new book of life. The former quarters of General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, housed us on the rim of the 1777-1778 Valley Forge winter encampment of General George Washington and his valiant men. The Rev. William Currie was host to General Stirling during the encampment. Parson Currie was also a very interesting person, the last Missionary from England to Old St. David's Church, St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley, and St. James Church, Perkiomen. In this area there was also a cluster of houses that had been used as the quarters of other American generals -- and also several used as quarters by British and Hessian generals before the capture of Philadelphia. Our home looked out on the terrain of the Great Valley, possibly as it looked in the days of the early settlers, many of whom were Welsh and farmed the land. From the wooded hills sloping into the Valley, gentle wild life abounded. The Pickering Hunt rode our fields. Yellow Springs Road, full of pot holes, was all right for riders and equestrians, but a bane to anyone venturesome enough to be a motorist! Coach and fours were not uncommon along it, the staff men's notes echoing into our woods. Peddlers with packs on their backs came to our door. That was 1926. The area was history-filled, and many descendants of the early settlers were still available - not only to meet and become friends but delighted to impart, by informal tape interviews, their family facts and traditions to newcomers. These informal tapes have been typed and compiled into book form, and are available at the Paoli Library. One is called "Great Valley Days", in which 15 narrators gave informal interviews about everyday life, old quarries, mills, and customs, while in the other, "Distant Drums", eleven narrators told of their family histories and facts and traditions of their Revolutionary soldier ancestors. The original tapes, very informal of course, are in the Chester County Library at Exton, in the Oral History Department. We also discovered a variety of long-lamented challenges when we first arrived here, waiting to be solved, and we felt that volunteering to help was the order of the day. Despite frustrations, good hard work brought about results. In the 1930s, two of these projects came under the umbrella of the Valley Forge Division of the National Farm and Garden Association, of which I was the current chairman. Howellville was a pre-Revolutioneiry settlement in the Valley. Its residents in the 1930s were multi-national unemployed quarry workers, living in despair. The Valley Forge Farm and Garden members, with courage and cooperation, certainly changed this attitude. A clean-up project was started, and local businessmen came to our assistance. Houses were white-washed, and fourteen truck loads of surface debris were carted away. (To our amazement, in this debris some cannonballs of the Revolutionary period were discovered; later on we gave them to the Valley Forge Historical Society. Major General Grey had used the already-crumbling old Howellville Inn for his temporary quarters in the fall of 1777.) The project at Howellville gained momentum, and the State provided medical assistance and sewing, knitting and cooking classes, to name just a few of their services, plus a nursery school. Weaving, on an ancient loom, was taught by Lettie Esherick, the wife of the famous Wharton Esherick, who lived just above the Diamond Rock School House. A women's club was started, and, above all, pride was apparent. In the spring ground was broken for gardens, and seeds were distributed gratis. Interest ran high - and so did the prizes! It was amazing to see the up-lift in spirit. I was later asked to give a talk to the Chester County Health Association and to the Chester County Medical Society in Coatesville on the Howellville project. Howellville still stands at the intersection of the widened Swedesford Road and Bear Hill Road, traffic lights flashing. Gone is the historic Howellville Inn; alas, it stood in the path of highway progress. But still standing with pride are the tiny white-washed houses. In 1926 I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with Miss Ella Wersler and her brother George, of Diamond Rock Farm. She told me that her ancestors had given the land at the foot of Diamond Rock Hill for the Diamond Rock School to be built on. The school was erected in 1818, the first free school in eastern Chester County, and was closed in 1864. (In 1863-1864 the Tredyffrin School Board began building several new school houses, and the Diamond Rock School was closed. The Walker family, on Yellow Springs Road, sold 72 perches of their land for the Walker School, about two miles east of the Diamond Rock School, and no doubt most of the pupils at Diamond Rock went there. In 1923 it was closed because of hurricane damage. I should add that in 1926 the Walker School property became part of Robert C. Ligget's land, and was used as a farmer's house until the Pennsylvania Turnpike cut through the property. In 1952 it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Harry O'Neil; their daughter Margaretta still lives there.) The Diamond Rock School is now kept up by the Diamond Rock Old Pupils' Association. In the 1930s it gave the Valley Forge Farm and Garden Association the green light to sponsor spring and fall sales at the school of home-grown vegetables, flowers, and baked goods, the product of the local farm wives. In the fall and summer months the Farm and Garden Association members also held square dances on their lawns or in their barns, and in this way added to the coffers of our projects. Chester County's famous Chris Sanderson and his Boys supplied the rustic music for the dances, with fun for all -- for the great price of 75 cents a ticket! At Diamond Rock School we helped to pay for repairs to the roof and gave money toward the purchase of some of the original school furniture. Now we come to Colonel Edward Buchanan Cassatt's Chesterbrook Farm of more than 800 acres in the heart of the Great Valley and the Valley Forge area. His fabulous racing stables, prize-winning Guernseys, and amazing tobacco and corn crops were well known, and we could go on and on. (To get a closer view, Mrs. Peter Boland, the widow of the late general manager of Chesterbrook who had come to Chesterbrook Farm in 1909, gave me an interview in 1965. Her daughter Helen showed us pictures of the Cassatt carriages and four-in-hands; Col. Cassatt was well known for galloping his horses up Berwyn hill en route to the Berwyn station. Mrs. Boland told stories galore of Revolutionary War officers having quartered in the houses on the property -- and of a British spy who was caught in the old spring house. It's all in "Great Valley Days".) Coming more up-to-date, she also reminded us that in more recent years the Radnor Hunt races were held at Chesterbrook Farm, before transferring to the Radnor Hunt's own property at Malvern. This I remember very well, as Robert and I had attended those races at Chesterbrook, and maintained Box No. 20 for the Radnor Hunt races held each year in the middle of May. After the death of Col. Cassatt in 1922 his lovely widow, later Mrs. Packard Laird, carried on the family traditions. But time marches on, and the Cassatt's colonial home has disappeared. Fire. Not a trace of it to be seen today, nor even the little spring house mentioned just a little while ago. Chesterbrook today is a growing metropolis. What would Col. Cassatt have thought? Town houses, various corporate headquarters, a hotel, a shopping center, on and on. I mentioned to an owner of one of the houses now kindly called "town houses" the fact that my husband and I used to ride horseback in the mornings over these fields. He looked at me, absolutely aghast, and said, "Why, I can't imagine this place ever having been fields." Well, of course I replied to him that I have difficulty imagining it ever having been anything but fields! The pendulum swings, and we again are back at Stirling's Quarters. Many interesting items have been discovered there over the years, such as old English coins, parts of Revolutionary-period iron devices, a spoon mold, a hand-forged iron stirrup, a lady's slipper and, of all things, a skeleton! And I remember sleigh rides, in the moonlight, across Valley Forge Park, two great police dogs racing by our side. It was great! In 1926, very shortly after Robert and I had moved into Stirling's Quarters, several young men from the Frank Bovell clan, who lived in a pre-Revolution house on the Valley Forge hills above Stirling's Quarters, came down to inquire after any farm jobs that might be available from the new owner of Echo Valley Farms. Since that time the Frank Bovells have been staunch friends of the Liggets, serving in many capacities -- from part-time farm help to farm manager, while Mrs. Bovell also served as a house-keeper and her daughter succeeded her. Over the years there have been 19 membners of the family in all helping out. Mrs. Lillian Frank Bovell gave me an interview -- I think it was in 1965 -- on the interesting life in the Valley Forge hills when she had first moved here as a little girl with her parents in 1902, to live in a pre-Revolutionary house south of the old Nike site on the hills overlooking Yellow Springs Road. While her mother, Annetta Frank, was still trying to get settled in their new home, she looked up one day and was surprised to see a part-Indian standing on the threshhold, a slender 6' man with high cheek bones, a long pointed nose, black greying hair parted in the middle and worn shoulder length. His black eyes looked out into the world from under a high-crowned, short-brimmed hat. (At that precise moment I would have not been the least bit surprised if Mrs. Frank had not wanted to scoop up her children and flee!) His name was Bright Star -- he was also known as Aaron Coleman -- and he became an interesting part of the Frank Bovell family's life. He lived alone in what was known as a "company house" owned by the Phoenix Iron Works at nearby Phoenixville. As time went on, the family received hand-loomed blankets made of material which he had dyed, and hand-made toys. He rode bare-back, of course, with a rope bridle and no bit. He also knew of a secret spot in the hills, learned from his grandfather, where he could obtain coal; its location he never disclosed. He fashioned arrow heads for his sassafras bow, and could aim straight for his target. I am not going to tell you any more about him because it would be much more fun for you to go to the Paoli Library and read about him for yourself in "Great Valley Days", under the heading "Hills of Home". I will tell you this, though: he did have special medicine magic. One day Mrs. Bovell told me, Bright Star took her parents up the hill to an Indian burying ground. On each mound was placed a flint stone, ranging in size from large ones to small ones according to the age of those who had gone beyond. Just where those mounds are today I don't know. With the first booming of the guns of World War II, both Robert and I became active with the American Red Cross and in other wartime activities. During World War II Robert was on the Red Cross Disaster Committee and served as chairman of his area Rationing Board and scrap drives. (He had always been very much interested in the community to which we moved in 1926, and for many years served as a director and president of the Joint Schools of Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships; as secretary of the Tredyffrin School Board; and as chairman of the Pennsylvania Economy League.) In World War II, I also became interested in the Red Cross and eventually was chairman of the Camp and Hospital Council for southeastern Pennsylvania. My work consisted of checking the services at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, Swarthmore Annex, the Coatesville facility, and the new Valley Forge General Hospital. (it housed German and Italian P.O.W.s as well as wounded American soldiers.) What fabulous stories of untold courage could certainly be told by the men there! Among some of the many interesting V.I. P. visitors to the Valley Forge General Hospital were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In 1949 the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge made its patriotic entrance into the area. (Although it is not in the Great Valley proper, it certainly comes under the umbrella of patriotism associated with Valley Forge.) It was located on the former property of Frederick and Anna Harjes, on Route 23 between Valley Forge and Phoenixville. Robert and I were one of the first neighbors to call on Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth D. Wells, and we always had a special interest in the Freedoms Foundation. For a number of years colonial-costumed guides led tours of Stirling's Quarters, where we held teas for the wives of the State Supreme Court justices and others who came from all around the country to the Freedoms Foundation to judge the material submitted for its national awards. At Stirling's Quarters we often shared history with our fellow citizens -- various civic and patriotic organizations; groups of school children both local and from out of the state; & national and international VIPs of military, civilian, or diplomatic corps personnel from Washington. We were also hosts to a number of direct or collateral descendants of General Washington, Major General Lord Stirling, and James Monroe, who as a young major was Lord Stirling's aide when he was quartered here during the 1777-1778 encampment and later was the fifth president of the United States. (In 1975 the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution placed a grantie marker on the lawn honoring Lord Stirling and his aide, Major James Monroe.) In 1973 the Penn's Grant Chapter of the Society of Colonial Dames 17th Century was organized at Stirling's Quarters, and in 1974 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. In 1976 it was opened for the various bicentennial festivities and for Chester County Day, and many of the descendants of the Great Valley area's settlers assisted the colonial-costumed, well-briefed hostesses in welcoming the guests. In 1978 Stirling's Quarters, with approximately 145 acres of land, was bought from Robert C. Ligget's estate by the National Park Services and added to the Valley Forge National Historical Park -- and thus my role as "stand-in" hostess for Lady Stirling came to an end. What heart-felt memories! In 1984 when M.G.M. and C.B.S.TV were making the mini-series of George Washington, the exterior of Stirling's Quarters was used as a substitute for Washington's Valley Forge headquarters, which could not be closed to the public for the length of time needed to film the Valley Forge part of the story. What a treat it was to see Stirling's Quarters alive with soldiers of 1777/1778 coming in and out of the house and on the grounds, albeit a 1984 version! In the early 1950s I served as first chairman for the renovation of the Valley Forge Historical Society's museum. (Robert had served many years as solicitor for the Valley Forge Historical Society.) What fabulous treasures came to life as I delved into the vault storage of the museum, amidst clouds of dust, I must add. It took only one step more to become organizing chairman of the Women's Auxiliary of the Museum. Two projects were started: colonial-costumed volunteer guides to serve as hostesses at the museum, and the cooperation of local garden clubs to furnish continuous floral arrangements there. What a joy it is to have witnessed the Auxiliary's growth throughout the years, from an acorn to the giant-sized oak tree that it is today. (I will go one step further and add that since 1985, at the entrance to the small rear garden of the Washington Memorial Chapel, are two wrought iron gates from the garden at Stirling's Quarters, and its marble benches, a Ligget memorial gift, as well as three new granite acorn finials on top of the garden wall.) This has been just a quick visit to a small section of the Valley Forge area of the Great Valley, now a part of the jet-propelled life of 1987. But what a privilege it has been to have lived here, and to have been able to re-live its historic earlier years. May those who follow cherish it and bear the torch of interest high!
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