A year ago today, my friend Jamie shared the following post:
ABANDONED PROPERTY ADVENTURE: We explored the abandoned Sleighton Farm School, which was a reformatory school for girls in Glen Mills.
Originally the Philadelphia House of Refuge, founded in 1826–kind of a reform school. Children at the school, which was first coeducational, had lessons and worked the farm. Eventually this became a girls school.
The school has been closed since 2001 and the buildings are in disrepair. Many of these are old dorms, which they called “cottages”—a misnomer, because many of these buildings are large.
The cottages were designed by Cope and Stewardson (1885-1812), a Philadelphia architectural firm that created many major additions to college campuses, including the Quad at Penn and many buildings at Bryn Mawr College. (Oakwell connection: They were buddies with architect Frank Miles Day, architect of Oakwell structures, and collaborated with him when he designed the Penn Museum).
There is a chapel which was built in the 1960s. A few months ago, one of the cottages burned down in an arson.
Eventually, this property will be demolished. Its fate is up in the air. I fervently hope it doesn’t become something like “The Estates at Sleighton Farm School by [XYZ developer].”
So in a sense this is like a sister school to that horrible Glen Mills School. And I feel almost compelled to go down the rabbit hole of this Sleighton Farm School after looking at a couple of other oddly related things…..
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has reached a settlement agreement with the Clock Tower Schools, clearing the way for the entity to operate at the site of the former Glen Mills Schools….DHS has granted the Clock Tower Schools a provisional two-year license to operate its residential and day treatment programs. The state is also mandating the Clock Tower Schools pay for an independent monitor, Justice By Design.
Yes, I did a little segue here to the old Glenn Mills school now known as something like Clock Tower. But back to Sleighton. And another interesting segue.
Sleighton has a weird connection because of architects’ connection to another cool old house I recently discovered because of the people restoring it putting it on Instagram. It’s called (or was called) Binderton and it’s in Chestnut Hill.
Binderton was built between 1903 and 1906 by Cope & Stewardson Architects. Like Sleighton School. Now I know this is a total tangent, but this house in Chestnut Hill is so cool. It also posts gardens that were designed by the Olmsted Brothers, which in turn ties it also to Stoneleigh and Oakwell. Cool, right?
So yes …..Sleighton….in 2021 the place was being discussed in conjunction with a plan for like 193 townhouses. And remember the property is part Edgemont, part Middletown.
Recently an article about a novelist taking inspiration for her book from Glen Mills/Clock Tower and Sleighton seems to lead me to believe they haven’t started anything much at Sleighton yet?
Now this property seems to be originally about 300 acres? The Sleighton Farm property was originally given to Henry Sleighton by William Penn. So it was also a Penn Land Grant? Newspaper archives have tons of articles about Sleighton ranging from problems, fights, fairs, and astounding amounts of money they got from the county and state.
It’s kind of crazy how much money these institutions used to get right? On July 15, 1957, the Delaware County Daily Times reported that Sleighton was getting $765,000 and Glen Mills School got $770,000! Think of what that would equate to in today’s dollars, right?
In 1970 from the same paper in 1970 I found a notice of an auction of “surplus goods.”
They had fairs, plants sales, and more. In 1974 they had the now deceased Judge Lisa Richette as a speaker and advertised for a farmer.
Like a decade or so ago there was a website post about a “school fixer upper.”
A multi alarm fire at Sleighton according to the Delco Times in June, 2024:
An incendiary fire at the long abandoned Sleighton Farm School for Girls in the 400 block of Valley Road in Middletown and Edgmont townships kept county firefighters busy Sunday night into early Monday…Edgmont Township Fire Marshal Al Mancill said the first call came in at 10:14 p.m. from a neighbor on Forrest Lane who saw flames. Firefighters arrived and found a 100-year-old abandoned dorm on fire and called for additional assistance.
It eventually went to two or more alarms, he said….Nobody was injured in the blaze, which took 90 minutes to control….
There have been numerous large fires over the years at the property, which has been closed for over 20 years.
Elwyn, which now owns the property, has a security patrol, with those members and state police patrolling the property and often making arrests, Mancill said.
Ok that is interesting right? And there were other articles from another fire on the Sleighton property in 2102 which said it was possibly due to a lightening strike…as in a storm.
A public notice posted in Monday’s Daily Times has drawn a rebuttal from Middletown Township.
Middletown Township is disputing a public notice Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware and Rocky Run Development LLC published saying that a tentative plan for a proposed planned residential development submitted to the township in September 2021 has been deemed approved…..
Back to June 2024. Pennsylvania State Police Investigators deemed the fire arson after an investigation. At that time anyone who knew anything was asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police Master Trooper John Stewart at 610-558-7085.
The Abandoned Online post has interesting history on the place. So however many acres are left is owned by Elwyn and they say that was a result of Elwyn merging with Sleighton:
The Sleighton Farm School began as the House of Refuge in Philadelphia in 1826. 1 4 It was founded by the Quakers, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Prison Society, on the basis that juvenile offenders should be treated differently than adults…Male offenders were moved to Glen Mills in Delaware County to the newly formed Glen Mills School in 1889, while the female offenders remained at the House of Refuge. 1
The House of Refuge sought land in the rural Delaware County countryside in 1906 in a shift of curriculum. 1 14 The reformatory school found the belief that students would be better served in a setting that emulated a large family, where the therapeutic power of growing things on a working farm would be better than keeping them in the inner-city hardscape……On April 17, 1931, the school split into two, one for boys and one for girls. The boys’ school kept the Glen Mills name while the girls’ school became known as the Sleighton Farm School for Girls. 1 4 12 By 1949, Sleighton had grown to 350 acres, housing 350 to 360 females. 4…..In 1993, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board purchased the easement to 120 acres owned by Sleighton for $1.62 million. 5 The easement purchase program, introduced in 1989, was designed to protect prime farmland from being developed by selling development rights to the state.
Sleighton merged with Elwyn in February 1998.
And there’s a lot more in that post so people should read it. It’s very interesting. But it’s very convoluted and confusing as to what is actually going on there. The only thing I seem to be able to find is that there is security on the site and I guess walking trails aren’t really open to the public?
I found something on social media from this year. That includes photos from I guess some kind of a firefighter who was on site for some kind of training exercise.
So what happens now? Who knows? Time will tell. As of June 4th unless I am reading this wrong the Justia site says “AND NOW, this 4th day of June, 2025,Elwyn of Pennsylvania and Delaware d/b/a Elwyn and Rocky Run Development, LLC’s appeal is quashed.”
So it seems there is an actual park area that is public, and where the buildings are rotting is private? But I am not sure? I am not going there, but it is an urban explorer favorite apparently, and again, who knows what happens now?
Apotheosis of the Family used to hang in a bank. Photo from 52 Pieces Blogspot
OK, sign me mind blown. The huge mural, Apotheosis of the Family by N.C. Wyeth, newly restored, will be available once again to be viewed thanks to his grandson, Jamie Wyeth, as per the amazingly fabulous article in the New York Times this morning.
A friend of mine sent me the article a little while ago. And I’ve just been sitting here, reading it and almost gasping to myself about the crazy story of this mural.
CLICK AVOVE ⬆️ FOR NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ⬆️
I remember years ago hearing about this mural. Then it came off the wall when the bank, Wilmington Savings Fund Society now known as WSFS, literally took it off the wall. That was 2007, and I remember reading that at the time and it was crazy to me because well the bank had restored it in 1998. BUT and it’s an important but, according to the New York Times, the building was sold for development. Art vs. real estate profit?
Can you imagine owning a building that had a giant mural painted by a Wyeth in it and then just taking it off of the wall and selling the building?
It’s a huge mural. It is 60‘ x 19‘. So 60 feet wide and 19 feet tall. I never saw it when it was in that bank branch for all those years, but it’s one of those things that pops up on postcards and coffee mugs and you can buy a replica of it.
Commissioned in 1932 by the Wilmington Savings Fund Society (WSFS) in Wilmington, Delaware when N C really wanted to do something other than be “just an illustrator”, the mural is made up of five canvas pieces that span a total of 60 feet by 19 feet…..The mural depicts a family standing in front of a house, surrounded by neighbors….Some say this is a theme N.C. Wyeth may have borrowed from his son-in-law, Peter Hurd. Done in the grand manner style of murals from the 19th century, N C also used bright colors, unusual perspectives and powerful abstract forms of clouds, smoke and sea, reflecting Wyeth’s interest in avant- garde Russian art, and works by Marc Chagall.
So again, according to this blog, it was removed off the walls of this bank building in 2007, after being restored in 1998. The work to pull this giant piece of art off a wall and I guess store it was done by some company called Ely Inc. (I found a website for the company. They do some kind of museum services. )
Here I interject a little bit of my own opinion about WSFS. They like taking things off of walls. When they acquired the Bryn Mawr Trust Company a few years ago, they yanked the name and letters embedded in the wall of the historic bank building in Bryn Mawr off. Yeah, sorry that sounds a bit snarky, and I kind of meant it that way because I remember when it happened, it struck me as petty, because so many banks keep the original things of the bank building they acquire on it as part of the history. Wells Fargo did this in Paoli, for example. But I digress.
However, I guess everyone’s lucky that the mural was saved, and now will be able to be viewed at some point this fall. I guess I just feel at this point, that this country in general is somewhat disposable with various aspects of its history at times.
So fast-forward to the New York Times article of today. And apparently this giant mural went into storage for a bunch of years. Now, remember it’s oil on canvas, and paintings can crack and stuff as they age. If you read through the New York Times article, they had to do more restoration as the canvas was unfurled to be prepared for hanging.
According to the New York Times and their research, this is the largest mural in US history ever created for a public space. I like looking at murals, and if you think about it, it’s pretty cool that an American treasure of an artist also did one. No, this was done during the depression, and apparently the money received at the time translated to today’s dollars was fairly significant.
Now thanks to Jamie Wyeth, soon if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to take a shuttle bus from the Brandywine River Museum of Art to a special round barn on his property to view it. The farm is called Point Look Out Farm.
Apparently, this work of art celebrates family. N.C. Wyeth’s family is worked into the mural. His son Andrew is the naked boy with the bow, and interestingly enough, the Times reports his sister Carolyn is portrayed as a little girl, although she was eight years older than Andrew. According to Jamie Wyeth, as recounted to the New York Times, point of the mural was to depict two things that were very important to his grandfather, a deep love for family and the land. (OK, I’m going to interject again. What would N.C. Wyeth think of all the development in the area he calls home today?)
I think this is very exciting. And I’m going to hope I can get a ticket to see this in person. N.C. Wyeth was known first as an illustrator. He illustrated a lot of children’s books for example.
This if you like art, and you appreciate the art from the various members of the Wyeth family, is pretty freaking amazing. the Delaware Historical Society had this mural before it came back to Jamie Wyeth’s farm. it sounds like they could never find a place for it. I think from a restoration point of view it’s probably very lucky for the world that this place has been made for this giant mural because it sounds like it wasn’t rolled up right when it was stored. Thank goodness it was given to the Wyeth Foundation.
The Wyeth family has had a history of fabulous art and great tragedy. After all, the creator of this fabulous mural, we are all about to see for the first time in many years, N.C. Wyeth died in a tragic accident in 1945. His grandson, Newell, who was four at the time also died with him in the crash.
Of course, this is not the only tragedy that this family suffered, as there have been many twisted tales of complicated lives of this often larger than life amazingly talented family of artists whom we loosely call our own in this area. And thanks to the generosity of Jamie Wyeth will be able to see this mural now.
There is actually a giant Wikipedia page devoted to N.C. Wyeth which is pretty interesting and has many links about his life and work. I really wish I could meet Jamie Wyeth and ask him what it was like growing up in this family except how many writers and reporters and others have done this over the years?
Anyway, read the article in the New York Times. It’s amazing from start to finish and it’s also kind of sad that a New York paper is breaking major art news from this area.
I drove past the historic Joseph Price house at Clover Mill and S. Whitford Rd. in West Whiteland today.
It continues to fall into more and more disrepair. Yes, it is technically a historic asset and it is federally, locally, and state recognized as being such, but that basically isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on in Pennsylvania.
This house is built from the most fabulous looking funky green stone that was quarried nearby at the time. I think it is called green serpentine limestone from what I remember.
This house is a wonderful quirky example of Victorian architecture. it is called a rural Queen Ann Gothic style. Built around 1878 and altered around 1894.
Supposedly a developer is in the process of acquiring the property, only it doesn’t show a transfer occurring yet.
At this point in time if this developer is indeed buying this property, it would be nice if they stepped forward into the light and told us they were saving it or whatever they’re planning for the property.
It is also important to note that I do not trespass on this property. Everything was viewed from across the road.
I don’t write much these days about national politics. In some aspects I think women have to be careful because we’re being targeted. That sounds paranoid, but is it really?
So there’s a headline that’s been bothering me and it concerns the seemingly pickled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
So Hegseth has reposted and shared an interview from some Christian Nationalist pastor or minister of some militant Christian church who says women shouldn’t be able to vote. Essentially it should be up to our husbands. And there are other cuckoo ministers who seem to agree with this man.
OK, I’m going to curse here and if you don’t like it, turn away from this blog now, but what the actual F people?
None of this is OK. Even having to talk about it is not OK for all that the suffragettes went through with all of the people involved in the suffragist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries I can’t even believe we are here again? This guy actually has said out loud in an interview for CNN that women shouldn’t vote and the Secretary of Defence for the United States of America in 2025 re-shared this which is his implied agreement and consent.
And this tool also says things that women are people that people come out of, yet apparently according to him we all shouldn’t do that either because I guess he must have parameters on how women should spawn?
It doesn’t really matter what your political persuasion is. I think we can all agree that we all should have the right to vote in this country as US citizens.
Until the National Park Service is forced to take it down, they have a nice list of suffragists we should know. (CLICK HERE)
People we are not all Mississippi on this bus. Why do I mention Mississippi? Simple – Mississippi didn’t ratify the 19th Amendment or woman’s right to vote until 1984!
I guess people take for granted that English common law saw a woman with no legal status of her own and women was legally considered indistinct from their husbands.
The demand for women’s suffrage has roots in the 18th century, but it really didn’t take hold until the 19th century.
The first women’s rights convention was around 1848. It was called the Seneca Falls convention and was an upstate New York in the finger lakes region. Then there was the Rochester Women’s Rights convention the same year also in New York State. In 1850 there was the Ohio Women’s Convention. Also that year there was the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts.
The Civil War interrupted suffrage movements in the United States. After the war was over, there was another National Women’s Rights Convention. In the 1870s the suffragist movement grew.
In the 1870s Susan B Anthony was taken to court for trying to cast her vote in a presidential election. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for violating the Enforcement Act of 1870 by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election.
During Susan B Anthony’s trial, the judge apparently instructed the jury to find her guilty.
When [the judge] asked Anthony, who had not been permitted to speak during the trial, if she had anything to say, she responded with what one historian has called “the most famous speech in the history of the agitation for woman suffrage”.[120]She called “this high-handed outrage upon my citizen’s rights”, saying, “… you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored.”[128] The judge sentenced Anthony to pay a fine of $100, she responded, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty”, and she never did.[120]However the judge did not order her to be imprisoned until she paid the fine, for Anthony could have appealed her case.[126]
So how ironic is it really the Donald Trump during his first administration pardoned Susan B Anthony? Yep it’s true, On August 18, 2020 he pardoned her on the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The ones so-called women’s suffrage amendment was introduced Congress in 1878. It was not ratified until it became the 19th amendment in 1919.
So now Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is supportive of a minister who wants to roll back the clock on women? Is this a drinking game or something?
No one should be OK with this.
For more information on what it took to get women the right to vote I found many interesting pieces to read. Here is one that’s stuck with me:
I’ve been meaning to write about this and I just have had time get away from me, and not enough hours in the day. Historic Yellow Springs is one of my favorite places in Chester County. I was introduced to the village many moons ago by my late father who loved this little piece of Chester County. (He also loved the antique show they used to have that they should bring back.)
Anyway, it’s no joke that we keep having these series of thunderstorms with accompanying winds and more that are wreaking havoc on places. And the ones just after Fourth of July did significant damage to Historic Yellow Springs.
They are working their way through it, but I never saw any local media pick up the fact that this beautiful historic village was a storm victim. They showed lots of other storm damage, why not Historic Yellow Springs Village?
For example, the poor library experienced damage from a storm in February, it sustained more damage in early July.
According to what they wrote, and I will share screenshots and their photos more than 100 trees were damaged or destroyed. That’s a significant amount and this is a place with very old growth trees as well. Cleanup is going to take months, and they are in a township that I think leaves a lot to be desired as far as being clear about anything, and if West Pikeland can’t be trusted with keeping a police force, how can they be trusted with the village?
So I think Yellow springs is doing a marvelous job of navigating the process of doing what they have to do to take care of the structures that were damaged and storm cleanup, but I’m sure that right now they could use a little extra help in the donation department because as homeowners we know how expensive this work is, let alone being responsible for an entire village of historic assets.
Chester County has a lot of deep pockets who could help one of our county treasures, so I’m putting this out there with their words to follow in the hopes that people can even give a small contribution.
Now to follow, is life in the village in their own words published on their socials yesterday after this storm in early July:
Storm Impact Update
Having climbed the fields of shattered and fallen trees, and listened to the chainsaws for days on end, we feel incredibly fortunate for the relatively limited damage to buildings that occurred with the dangerous storm on July 7th. Additionally, I am incredibly thankful for the forethought of our programs team to heed weather warnings, and decide to cancel classes proactively, likely saving lives, given the severity of the event.
This storm tore through our property with extraordinary force. Estimates are showing nearly 100 trees were destroyed or badly damaged, with cleanup efforts likely to continue for months.
The days following the storm were focused on safety assessments and clearing access. Staff and volunteers mobilized quickly, working tirelessly to make the village safe again. Every tool in our arsenal was leveraged just to try to move enough limbs to uncover all corners of the village and reach some sense of normalcy.
Once paths were cleared, hidden structural damage began to emerge:
The glazing space behind the old studio barn was smashed.
The courtyard fountain, power supply, and roofing on the Washington Building suffered major hits from a fallen sycamore limbs.
The Chester Springs Library, sustained new roof damage that allowed water infiltration.
As you may recall, a previous extreme weather event in February, led to structural damage to the roof of the Library. Since then, HYS and the Library have worked closely with insurers, engineers, and contractors to bring this historic structure up to code and safely reopen the Library. We empathize with the public for the loss of resources during the library’s closure and have offered alternate village spaces for free programs whenever possible.
While the temporary protection applied to the roof after the February event held up impressively, wind torn limbs and the fierce rain from the most recent storm punctured new holes on the opposite side of the roof and allowed water to reach inside the building. Within a day of forging a path through the storm debris, we had professional carpentry crews on site ensuring the roof was watertight and not in danger of falling, and commercial-grade air handlers and dehumidifiers were added to move out moisture. Cleanup continues and collaboration between HYS, the Library, engineers, and insurers is ongoing with the goal of getting this historic building bustling again.
During this recovery period, programs continue in unaffected buildings across the village, and we maintain a robust calendar of events to keep our community engaged and inspired. We are constantly discussing new opportunities with partners, and looking for creative ways to make programs happen.
We are deeply grateful to those who have already offered time, talent, and funds. We will keep you informed about progress and ways you can help as we restore every facet of the village for a vibrant future.
Now I’m going to show you the screenshots I took today off of Facebook and everything is from the village’s social media, including their photos. This place is a little slice of heaven, and if you can help them out with a small donation, it would be great. You can also maybe let the county commissioners know when they’re finished designing bad logos, and hiring lots of people that this is a historic asset worth supporting. (sorry not sorry, sometimes I think they need to get out of the Borough of West Chester more.)
With the United States having a big birthday in 2026, and Chester County being a big focus, we want this jewel shining bright and strong.
So recently, Chester County released via their socials a new logo.
Personally, I think it’s lame. Apparently they designed it “in house” and with “community stakeholders“ or some such nonsense and I wonder did those people have glasses on? It’s not modern, it’s not fresh, and it’s definitely not versatile.
People said it looked like the Comedy Central logo, or the copyright mark, etc. One person put a screenshot on the Chester County Facebook page all the things it looks like from the Internet that they found:
One of my favorite comments was:
This is awful. It looks like a bad corporate logo and does nothing to honor our county’s history. We were one of the three original counties in Pennsylvania. Why are you trying to wipe out our history?
Next (below) also was a comment well worth reading, and it provided me with an impetus to plug something into ChatGPT quite literally and asked ChatGPT how they would design a new logo for Chester county and here is the comment:
Our current seal pays homage to our founding and agriculture. The American Farmer, is one of the most iconic symbols of freedom in the United States.
It was American farmers that put down their shovels and hoes, picked up rifles and went off to war to fight for our independence during the Revolutionary War. Many historians estimate that farmers made up more than 50 percent of the militiamen during the Revolutionary War. Without them, it’s likely we would have no reason to celebrate this week at all. Farmers have answered the call to go war since the beginning of country and continue to today.
That sense of fierce independence lead to the settling of the west, the establishment of a dependable food system, and thriving economy. Every day, everywhere, your life is touched by a farmer.
From the battlefields to farm fields, farmers are our past, our present, and our future. Support local agriculture and its history, so much is owed to those who came before us.
So why does Chester County Government feel the need to erase them?
So I asked ChatGPT how they would design it. And I don’t really use AI, but I was curious to see if AI would be worse or better. this is what I got from artificial intelligence:
So I know all of the county commissioners aren’t unified on this, but when you’re the minority commissioner, what you say doesn’t matter does it?
What I don’t understand is how people could create something so generic and Walmart for a county with as much history as Chester County.
As I close this post, I have to ask what was wrong with the beautiful county seal?
Here’s hoping they get rid of their infantile spirograph logo.
It is time for the annual unveiling of the Declaration of Independence everywhere as July 4 is nigh.
Allow me:
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
So here we are in 2025. It’s been a very long year and it’s only July 1.
We live in a fractious, infighting country, and I had to ask myself today an honest question. My question is simple: are we living up to what are forefathers fought, blood, and died for? Are we what they envisioned just months away from our Semiquincentennial?
I don’t think we are. And I think we are turning into an embarrassment on the world stage. Do people still hold us in high regard in other countries or are we people to be pitied or scorned?
Since when did our freedoms become subjective and don’t tell me they’re not because we all know they are. We are a country founded on the hard work of immigrants, with no respect for immigrants a lot of the time.
One of our more challenged rights are our First Amendment Rights. As a blogger, I’ve certainly experienced that over the years. And it is sad because people in this country have lost the ability to have conversations. You can’t respectfully disagree, you have to destroy the other person. We see this destruction attempted on social media every day. People will tell other people that I am a bully for standing up for myself or choosing not to interact with certain people and how is that being a bully? If you are of a different opinion compared to someone else, are you then supposed to be a doormat for their ire?
Is this post all about me? No, it’s not but as a blogger I am opinion based so these are the things I think about. Today I am thinking about it in context with what we all see happening in this country.
I think about all these people that like to stand up and tell the next guy or gal that they are a better American than someone else. What makes them a better American what makes someone else a worse American? What makes someone judge, jury, and executioner on what it is to be American exactly?
When was it we were all supposed to be the same? Didn’t our forefathers fight for us to have freedoms and rights so we didn’t have to be exactly like the person standing next to us?
I’ve almost stopped watching and reading the news in a lot of cases because it’s not good. And I’m not going to change the world. I can only be myself. I’m not going to go march in protests not because I don’t think people should have the right to protest or shouldn’t protest, it’s just I don’t feel that in my bones. What I feel in my bones is a deep sadness and weariness to be an American.
I love the history of this country in all its imperfect glory. And today, I wonder what kids are actually being taught? Are they being taught the true history or the sanitized versions of our history that other people are more comfortable with and what is that saying regarding if you don’t reflect upon your history, you’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past?
In this country today, are we on the precipice of repeating some of the most heinous mistakes of our past?
OK, I had to go look the quote up and here it is:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
~ George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.
I know people who legally immigrated to this country who have left or or thinking of leaving. Like those of us who may be a few generations in or a couple of hundred years in to living here, they are disillusioned and sad.
We have shitty healthcare. Sometimes I wonder if we are living the robber barons of our past? Currently on HBO it is being romanticized in the series called The Gilded Age, but it was a time of strife and wide disparity between classes, inequality, racism, monopolies, unethical business practices, exploitation of workers. sexism and wow sounds like 2025? Captains of industry or feudal lords much?
(I guess this is where someone will roll up and say I’m either a communist or socialist and I am neither. I’m just being a student of history.)
I don’t pretend to have answers. I’m just kind of speaking my truth out here in the wilderness.
But when you celebrate the Fourth of July this year, try to remember why it exists and don’t be a bunch of asshats.
Be an American the way our forefathers intended us to be. Hoist the flag, and remember to bring it in if it rains.
Happy almost July 4th. Happy Independence Day as opposed to happy indentured servitude day.
This week I had the pleasure and privilege of going to Immaculata to listen to the Watson brothers and their team announce another mass grave discovery to the west of the original mass grave. The precise location is not divulged, it’s somewhere near Northwood Cemetery in Downingtown.
Duffy’s Cut and the continuation of the history of what happened with these Irish rail workers is important.
When I was growing up, my late maternal grandfather was Irish. Irish American, not Irish born, but he told me about Duffy’s Cut. he also told me about being a little boy at the turn of the 20th century in Philadelphia and seeing signs in the windows that said “No Irish Need Apply.” I remember being like 11 or 12 and asking a history teacher about it and the teacher said yes there were the signs in the windows but graves of murdered railroad workers never existed and Duffy’s Cut wasn’t real.
And here we are today. Those men, and that one woman we knew of, existed. They mattered. The history mattered.
If you are curious about the history, there is a museum within Immaculata library devoted to this. But please, whatever you do don’t go running around ghost hunting. These discoveries have occurred on private property and it is a privilege not a right that that the archaeological team under the direction of the Watson Brothers are doing this important work.
Habemus Papam. He is an American, was an Augustinian and a graduate of Villanova University. Leo XIV.
I honestly never thought in my lifetime that you would have a Pope from the United States.
He’s 69 years old and actually the sister of someone I know was in his class at Villanova.
I am not a big fan of members of the Augustinian order, but I liked what he had to say when he appeared after he was elected Pope by the Cardinals in conclave.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Prevost now Leo XIV dedicated his early clerical career to the Order of Saint Augustine. The media has reported that he was the least American of the American Cardinals. It has also been reported that he was a long shot.
The new Pope has a missionary focus, which I like, and I think is needed in this time.
Gifted New York Times Article
I hope Pope Leo XIV continues a lot of what Pope Francis did.
I also heard an interesting fact the other day that 82% of American Catholics do not go to church. I hope he also as Pope continues to clean up the American Church. And among other things, I hope he gets someone to put the anxious former head of the church in Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput out to pasture for good.
His one brother John was interviewed by ABC News. He seems amiable but unsure as what to say exactly but you know what? The lives of everyone in Pope Leo XIV’s family is also going to change. Will that mean they get things like Secret Service keeping an eye on them or do they just live normal lives? We’ve never had an American Pope, so you have to wonder how does becoming Pope affect the families of the Popes? Especially in a modern world.
His other brother Lou, however, is a cat of a different kind. Sadly.
I’m guessing that is why I have already seen some unpleasant memes from the highly politicized about the new Pope which I think is really sad.
This is kind of a historic moment and I hope he’s a good Pope. I don’t think he’s going to make me more of a devout Catholic per se, but as a catholic, I will be paying attention because he’s the first American Pope.
I hope his tenure is safe for him and his family in the US, and I wonder will he come to the US semiquincentennial next year?
And that is my final thought. Next year this country turns 250 and we have an American Pope for the very first time.
