Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: April 1992 Volume 30 Number 2, Page 40

Foreword

Page 40

In our first article we recognize the 200th anniversary of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, chartered by the Legislature in April 1792 "for making an artificial road between the City of Philadelphia and the Borough of Lancaster". It was both the first major toll road in America and the first to be built of layers of crushed stone on the MacAdam principle.

Most of the early settlers of Tredyffrin and Easttown were farmers. In the next article is a discussion of farming in the Great Valley and southeastern Pennsylvania in the 18th century. It was presented at one of the Club's meetings earlier this year.

In the 19th century the sheriff had the impossible responsibility of maintaining law and order for the entire county, some 760 square miles. To assist him, in many places the citizens formed their own protective associations, or "horse companies", as they were called. In our next feature Herb Fry describes one such organization "for the recovery of stolen property", the Tredyffrin Association.

And in our final article various club members recall some of the "simple pleasures" they enjoyed as they grew up in a world somewhat less complicated than today's. It is the tenth in our series of "oral history" recollections of a half century or so ago, and was the program at one of the Club's meetings late last fall.