Summer Meeting of Friends' Historical Association, 1932: Commemorating the First Arrival of William Penn in America

Volume 21, No. 2 Autumn Number, 1932 Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association SUMMER MEETING . OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 1932 Commemorating the First Arrival of William Penn in America The program printed on a following page sets forth the activities of another interesting and inspiring meeting of Friends' Historical Association. The historical papers printed herewith are permanent memoirs of the occasion. Yet to give the reader a real picture of the pilgrimage the Bulletin reproduces also the following descriptive paragraphs from a valuable account of it by our fellow member , C. Wilfred Conard.1 " Not only was the weather marvelously favorable to the occasion , but the municipality of Chester contributed much to its completeness. The gracious welcome of Mayor Ward, delivered in the old town hall, offered us the freedom of the City. Our great cavalcade of automobiles (more than a hundred of them and twice as many as were expected) was escorted through the streets by the Chief of Police, in person, and his presence was an adequate assurance against red lights and traffic regulations. And so our visit to the ancient landmarks of Penn's coming to Pennsylvania was made under most fortunate conditions. " The march of that which we call civilization has dealt hardly with the things of the past. The monument which marks the spot where Penn first set foot on the land of his new possession stands well away from the water, and beside the tracks of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The site of Robert Wade's ' Essex House,' where he welcomed the great visitor, is now a barren and treeless street, built up with narrow brick dwellings. The noble trees which were there are forever gone. The Roadstead in front of Wade's Wharf, in which the ships of the emigrants swung at anchor, is now ' made land,' and given over to the call of big busi1As printed in The Friend (Phila.), 6 mo. 2, 1932, pp. 581-582. 49 50 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ness. The waters of the Delaware and of Chester Creek, then sweet and pure, and alive with fish and wild game, in their season, are now polluted with the foul waste of our age of industry and material progress. As one gazes at the sordid desolation of the place, which is unfortunately typical of so much of our industrial community, and reflects on all of the beauty that has been, and that has been so ruthlessly destroyed, he wonders when mankind will so far advance in the slow climb toward intelligence that consideration of the things that are lovely and worthy to be engaged will take an equal place with mechanical utility and efficiency—when the purity and beauty of our landscape and our surroundings will weigh equally with the productivity of our mills and the cost of our machine-made merchandise. " The same thoughts came to us as we looked on the fine old meeting-house built in 1736 of imported English bricks, and still substantial though in ill repair, and no longer used by Friends. Once it was in the center of the city's activities, just off the market square, and with a good view of the river. But Friends have long ago moved their residences from Market Square, and the river has ceased to be a thing of beauty. The old meeting-house site maintains a faded dignity, amid dilapidated surroundings—a monument to a past and well-nigh forgotten age. Nearby in the Old Swedes' Burying Ground, is the grave and monument to John Morton, a leading citizen of the Province, and chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the convention which adopted the Declaration of Independence. It is said that his was the deciding vote cast on that memorable day. Across the street, in what was formerly the Episcopal Churchyard, was the grave of James Sandelands , one of those first citizens of Chester who welcomed Penn, and under his leadership did noble service in laying the foundations of the new commonwealth. His mural gravestone, once in the old yard, but later moved to another location, was very well described in a paper read by George Norman Highley. Evangeline L. Harvey read an interesting...