Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: April 1996 Volume 34 Number 2, Page 46

Foreword

Page 46

From our vantage point a hundred years later, it may be difficult to visualize the arrival from overseas of a shepherd hired to tend the sheep on Chesterbrook Farm. In our first article Barbara Fry tells the story of the shepherd, Alexander Murdoch, his family, and his employer, A. J. Cassatt.

The library of the Chester County Historical Society contains a treasure trove of history of our townships. One such nugget found at CCHS is the story of the Clintonville-Tredyffrin paper mill written by the late Arthur E. James. Permission to print it here as our second article was graciously given by Dr. James' daughter, Barbara, who lives in West Chester.

At the January club meeting, Herb Fry presented a tribute to Franklin L. Burns, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. It is included here as our next article, and is followed by Burns' own recollections of Valley Forge in the 1880s which first appeared in the October 1944 "Picket Post." The Valley Forge Historical Society has kindly granted permission to reprint the latter article here.

With the 200th anniversary of the death of Easttown's most famous native son, Gen. Anthony Wayne, to be celebrated this year, we close this issue with two articles on the history of Old St. David's Church at Radnor, his final resting place. They are the "prefatory setting" reprinted from Henry Pleasants' 1915 bicentennial history of the church, followed by some random observations on the early years of what is argueably one of the oldest churches in our community.