NEWTOWN SQUARE HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER: October 2018 OCTOBER Major General George Meade: The Man, the Engineer, the Soldier"

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1 OCTOBER 2018 Major General George Meade: The Man, the Engineer, the Soldier" Wednesday, October 17 at 7:00 PM NEW LOCATION! The Newtown Square Historical Society invites you to our first monthly program of the new season on Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00 p.m. at a NEW LOCATION, the Newtown Township Building, to hear Gettysburg guide Guillermo Bosch speak on General George Gordon Meade. George Gordon Meade is best remembered for one battle, but had a full life up until those fateful days at Gettysburg, where he led his army to victory in the largest and most decisive battle of the Civil War. He graduated from West Point with an engineering degree, and served in the army in Florida, Mexico and the Great Lakes. He designed several lighthouses that are still standing. He married a girl from his home town of Philadelphia, and they raised seven children together. His Philadelphia grave is the site each year of a well-attended celebration of his life, almost 150 years after his death. Our speaker, Guillermo Bosch, is a trial attorney and licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg, where he has led about 120 tours a year. He has been guest speaker at the annual Meade ceremony at Laurel Hill, and brings a lifelong passion for American history, and a trial attorney s flare for the dramatic, to his talk on Meade. New location: Our programs this year will be held at the Newtown Township Building, 209 Bishop Hollow Rd, Newtown Square, PA beginning at 7:00 p.m. Parking on-site. Admission is free. Refreshments are served. 1

2 NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT After a busy summer of activities, we are now getting into a busy Fall of activities. We hope that you, our members, will be first in line to enjoy what we are planning. On Wednesday, October 17th, we are hosting our first public program of the season with certified Gettysburg battlefield guide Guillermo Bosch speaking on Philadelphia's General George Meade, hero of the battle of Gettysburg, but also a man of many other talents. Bosch has been involved in various capacities with the Meade Society, and has been the featured speaker at the graveside service held every year at Laurel Hill Cemetery on what is Meade s birthday and wedding anniversary, December 31st. After close to 20 years of our public programs being held at Dunwoody Village, this year we will be holding our programs at the community room at the Newtown Township building. Dunwoody is planning renovations that will make the space unavailable. We will miss our friends there and the hospitality, but we are looking forward to our new home in the beautifully renovated Township building. Please join us for this first program of the season. On Saturday, October 20th, from 2:00 5:00 p.m., you and your family and guests are all invited to our Members-Only Crossroads of History event at the Square Tavern. You should have received an invitation by Evite. If not, please drop a note to Megan Timmins [ megabells1@gmail.com ] and let her know if you plan to attend. We have about 40 confirmed guests so far. We will have live music, finger food, other refreshments, and the Tavern will be open for our use. Benjamin West, the Father of American Painting, will be there at the place where he served as a tavern boy for his father, the innkeeper. We would like to see several members-only events each year but need your input on what you would like to do. So this is a chance to simply talk and exchange ideas, on the tavern green at one of the most historic sites in Newtown Square, the crossroads of history where William Penn planned his first New Town west of his capital city. As always, our Members can help by attending and supporting our events and bringing along family and friends, by volunteering for them, by suggesting other activities they would like to see, and by your financial support. Together, we create a better community. John Battista 2

3 CROSSROADS OF HISTORY MEMBERS ONLY EVENT Saturday, October 20th 2:00 5:00 p.m. All Society members, their families and guests are invited to join us at the Square Tavern, Goshen Road and Rt.252, for an afternoon at our historic tavern green behind the 1742 Square Tavern. Square Tavern: The historic tavern building, constructed here in 1742, has been witness to a lot of history of Newtown Square from its perch at this intersection. Will it still be here for our grandchildren to tour? It is up to us to help answer that question. Right now it is a building in search of a purpose. And one that hopefully does not destroy the historic character of the building and the tavern green behind it. We welcome new ideas about how to best care for the building and pay it forward to our grandchildren. Benjamin West: Our own Benjamin West, local sculptor Terry Jones, will be available to discuss the life and work of Benjamin West, and to display his proposed statue of the young West at the time he served as a tavern boy at the Tavern. Music: Early Am erican m usician and historian Mark Carroll will be entertaining us with Colonial era music. Mark performs regularly at the Old City Tavern, and we are thrilled to have him perform for us. Refreshments: Finger foods and drinks will be available. Historic Community: Newtown Square has always been more than a bedroom community. Our history did not begin with the growth of the suburbs, and we have more than 100 historic homes, barns and other structures in the community to prove it. We have so many well preserved old homes because we have had a community that values our historic fabric that ties us to the past. We are seeing explosive growth, and so need to educate the new residents to the history of the community and why it matters. Our Society members have a large role to play in that process, by helping to spread the gospel that we value our history in Newtown Square. 3

4 WHO IS THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON TO HAVE COME FROM NEWTOWN SQUARE? We have had various famous and successful people who have at one time lived in Newtown Square, including well to do families, Olympic champions, a world famous composer, a renowned sculptor, a United States Marine Corps Major General and two time Medal of Honor winner, one of the founders of Gold Medal Flour and General Mills, and even a Pennsylvania governor. But the person who probably surpassed them all is little remembered now in his hometown, though he gained international fame, had a lifetime of accomplishments, and is well known to those in his field who study history. Benjamin West (October 10, 1738 March 11, 1820) was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, at a house still in existence on the Swarthmore College campus. His father was an innkeeper, at a time when every small crossroads town had an inn to accommodate the traveling public, and farmers taking their wares to market. Newtown Square was then a small crossroads town at the intersection of Newtown Street Road and Goshen road. West s father served as the innkeeper at the Square Tavern during the years prior to the American Revolution. Young Benjamin lived there either at the tavern or at the family house that was across the street, and his painting career Benjamin West (1765) is said to have started there when he began drawing pictures of people and nature. The local Indians were quite impressed with his drawings, and taught him about colors. His talent was recognized, and in 1759, wealthy benefactors sent him to Europe to study, at age 21. West studied painting in Italy, and then stopped in London on the way home. He never left. He opened a studio in London, and was a sought after portrait painter, and also painted large historical pieces. He drew the attention of King George III, who named him historical painter to the court. West painted the King and his family several times. He was one of the co-founders of the British Royal Academy of the Arts, and its second president. He painted huge memorable history paintings including Penn s Treaty with the Indians, and the Death of General Wolfe - that secured his reputation. There were no art schools or royal academies in frontier America. So, those young men with talent did what West did found patrons and left for London, where they were welcomed and taught by their fellow countryman, Benjamin West. Every American painter of note from that period passed through West s London studio, including Benjamin West self portrait (1819) Samuel F.B. Morse, Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Matthew Pratt, Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull, and Thomas Sully. West died in London at age 81, and was buried in the Painters Corner of St. Paul s Cathedral. His paintings are treasured by all of the great museums in the world. His work is still studied in art classes. But he is little remembered here in Newtown Square he s been gone too long. But, a few of us in the Society want to change that. We have some ideas on how we might honor Benjamin West in his home town. Stay tuned for more details! 4

5 REMEMBERING GOVERNOR GEORGE EARLE III On Friday September 29, 2018, a crowd of family members, historians, neighbors and friends gathered at the intersection of Malin Road and Earles Lane for the unveiling and dedication of a Pennsylvania historical marker to honor Governor George Earle III. Earle was raised in part on his family s 1000 acre farm that straddled Newtown and Radnor townships. Earles Lane is named for the family, and Earle s Lake was built in the early 1900 s on the farm to control stormwater runoff into nearby Darcy Creek. Earle served as Governor of Pennsylvania from , and then served in a variety of overseas posts for his friend, President Franklin Roosevelt. The event was a lot of fun - as much fun as you can have with history. His grandson George Earle V told about the public man and his accomplishments. The Governor's daughter (by his second wife) told colorful stories about the private man - including when he started a bar fight and international incident with a Nazi officer in Bulgaria by slamming him over the head with a whiskey bottle. When Roosevelt heard of it, he named it the Battle of the Bottle n the Balkans! Doug Humes spoke on behalf of the Society about the generations of talented Earle family members whose substantial contributions to the history of Pennsylvania and the United States have largely gone unrecognized. The Governor was quite a colorful character - he would not pass muster in today's PC world. But he made things happen, and his public deeds are now engraved on a large Pennsylvania Historical Marker at the intersection of Malin Rd and Earle's Lane for all to see. The marker came about as a result of Doug reaching out to George Earle V several years ago about the history of the Earle home in Newtown Square. After collaborating on a program on the family, they continued to work to have this marker approved, sited, funded and dedicated. 5 We ha

6 Alas, Poor Yorick! Aronimink Life and Death Over the last four years, the Historical Society has been given 1-2 pages to write on topics of local history for the monthly Aronimink Life Magazine. But sadly we were just informed that the magazine will not be published after its October 2018 edition. It is difficult for print media to compete with electronic media, and so we are seeing the demise of a whole industry newspapers and magazines. Those of us who grew up with print media mourn its loss. The monthly deadline was always the inspiration for new topics to research and write about. Seeing each edition show up in the mailbox in full color print was its own reward. We will miss both the frantic efforts at each deadline, and the satisfaction of seeing the article in print. Hope springs eternal in the human breast While one magazine passes away, another similar magazine started up in August- Newtown Neighbors & Friends. The publisher has asked whether we can contribute a short article on a monthly basis to this new magazine. We have agreed to do so. The first two articles have been published, and the 3rd one was submitted last week. But the space available to us is much smaller so far, suitable to a quick sketch of a topic rather than a more robust article. If we had a sponsor willing to pay for a monthly ad here, then the publisher could justify giving us more room. The sponsor would receive space for a monthly ad, plus identification as the sponsor of the Society's page presence. A win/win! If you or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring the Society s page in the new magazine, we would be glad to put you in touch with the publisher. It would be a wonderful gift for us to be able to continue to tell our Tales of old Newtown Square to a broad cross-section of the community who might otherwise never be exposed to the rich veins of history in the community where they live. If interested, drop a line to doughumes@alumni.psu.edu. 6