Summer Meeting Friends' Historical Association

Volume 24, No. 1 Spring Number, 1935 Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association SUMMER MEETING FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION For its summer meeting, held May 18, 1935, the Friends' Historical Association devoted an altogether charming afternoon to early Quaker ,botanists. The meeting proper was held on the lawn back of the old Humphrey Marshall house, at Marshallton, four miles west of West Chester, Pennsylvania ; the customary supper was held across the road, on the grounds of the Bradford Friends' Meeting House. The interest of the papers can only in small degree be estimated from the program which is given below. Individually they contained both biographical and local interest; as a series they were impressive as showing the very real contributions made by early Friends to the scientific study of the young colony 's flora and fauna. It was, moreover, particularly appropriate that the meeting should be held at the Marshall Arboretum, which was laid out by Humphrey Marshall about 150 years ago on a very considerable plot between his house and the public road, and which contains many beautiful and interesting trees. The afternoon meeting was rendered additionally delightful by the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. J. Elliott Newlin, the present owners and occupants of the Humphrey Marshall house, who threw their quaint home open from cellar to attic, from living room to kitchen closet, to the inspection of visitors. The ancient handmade hardware on doors and windows, the immense fireplaces , the brick ovens and other fixtures for colonial cooking in the shed at the end of the house were viewed and admired. After the meeting, the members of the Association strolled through the Arboretum, studying the markers on the trees and 3 4 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION enjoying the stately strangeness of some, the familiar beauty of others1 ; and gradually drifted across the road to the old Bradford Friends' Meeting House, which was also open for inspection. The program of the meeting was as follows: Introductory Remarks Charles Francis Jenkins, President, Friends' Historical Association . Welcome to Marshallton J. Elliott Newlin, owner and occupant of the Marshall House. Welcome to Chester County George B. Johnson, member of The Chester County Historical Society, and Chairman of the Local Committee. Humphrey Marshall, Botanist and Explorer Francis W. Pennell, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Dr. William Darlington, Physician, Botanist, and Public-Spirited Chester Countian Dr. William T. Sharpless. John and William Bartsam Francis Harper, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 1 Mr. Malcolm Berry, of the Berry Nursery, Moylan, Pennsylvania, very kindly copied Mr. Newlin's list of the trees represented in the Arboretum, as follows: Kentucky coffee tree, Gymnocladus dioica sweet buckeye, Aesculus octandra common horse-chestnut, A. hippocastanum common box, Buxus sempervirens edging box, B. s. suffruticosa English yew, Taxus bacata Chinese tree of heaven, Ailanthus grandulosa white mulberry, Morus alba sugar maple, Acer saccarum sycamore maple, A. pseudoplatanus European larch, Larix europaea cucumber tree, Magnolia acuminata Fraser magnolia, M. fraseri slippery elm, Ulmus fulva bird cherry, Prunus avium large-leafed hackberry, Celtis canina common hackberry, C. occidentals sweet birch, Betula lenta hop hornbeam, Ostrya virginiana Bartram oak, Quercus heterophylla mocker nut, Carya alba pignut, C. glabra Indian pawpaw, Asimina triloba Canadian hemlock, Tsuga canadensis sweetgum, Liquidambar stryraciflua white ash, Fraxinus americana Franklinia, Franklinia ahornaba Home of Humphrey Marshall, in Marshallton. Built by him, 1773. Photograph by Gilbert Cope, 1893. Bradford Friends' Meeting House, at Marshallton. Built about 1765. Photograph by Gilbert Cope, 1893. Bradford Friends' Meeting House, at Marshallton. Built about 1765. Photograph by Gilbert Cope, 1893. EARLY DISCIPLINES5 Of the above papers, that on Humphrey Marshall will probably appear in a later number of the Bulletin, and that on Dr. William Darlington has been published in Bartonia (publication of the Philadelphia Botanical Club), No. 14 (1932). The last issue of the Bulletin contained a brief resolution of the Directors on the death of Rayner W. Kelsey, adopted at the annual meeting ; but the Association was unwilling to let the occasion pass with so inadequate recognition. The present issue contains therefore a very brief biographical sketch of Rayner Kelsey, a number of personal tributes of his memory, a few short poems from his pen, and the very considerable list of his writings...