Fort Rosecrans

Fort Rosecrans Marker

Naval Base Point Loma - Ballast Point

San Diego, CA 92106

(Near Building #601)

Fort Rosecrans was a U.S. Army base that was located on present day Naval Base Point Loma. The land upon which Fort Rosecrans was built was set aside by American President Millard Fillmore in 1852 for military purposes. The area was later assigned to the U.S. Army, and named Fort Rosecrans in 1899. The fort was named after Union Civil War General and congressman from California William S. Rosecrans. In 1898 the Army built a coast artillery installation on the site which remained active until 1945. In 1932, the site of Fort Rosecrans was registered as California Historical Landmark. In 1959 Fort Rosecrans was turned over to the U.S. Navy.

Below is a link to the San Diego History Center website where you can read more about the history of Fort Rosecrans. I also posted a couple photos that I took of the Fort Rosecrans marker during a recent visit to San Diego:

https://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/59october/fortrosecrans.htm

MW

Selma Mansion

Selma Mansion

1301 W. Airy St.

Norristown, PA 19401

A Google search of the Selma Mansion in Norristown, PA will provide you with links to numerous websites covering alleged paranormal activity in the mansion. The local historic preservation society, the Norristown Preservation Society, hosted a ghost hunt last fall to raise money for future preservation efforts in the home. The history of the mansion dates back to 1794, when it was built by Revolutionary War hero and Pennsylvania native General Andrew Porter. Many of Porter's descendants were successful in the military, law and politics. One of his descendants includes Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln. The home passed through marriage to the Knox family in 1821. The home remained in the Knox family until it was sold to the Fornance family. The home remained in the hands of the Fornance family until Ruth Fornance died in the home in 1982.

A majority of the ghost stories that circulate around the mansion pertain to the Knox and Fornance families. Andrew Knox's wife and three children died of yellow fever in the home. The final member of the Fornance family to own the home, Ruth Fornance, passed away in the home in 1982. Mansion staff and visitors have reported disembodied voices, full body apparitions and ghostly shadows in the home. Paranormal investigators have captured an assortment of EVP recordings in the building. 

Below are some photos that I took during a recent visit to the Selma Mansion:

MW

Timothy Matlack

Timothy Matlack Marker
Pawlings Road near Audubon Road
Audubon, PA 19403

Timothy Matlack was a New Jersey born Pennsylvania Patriot during the American Revolution. Matlack was a controversial figure in Pennsylvania over the span of his adulthood. He enjoyed gambling, horseracing and cock fighting. After falling into debt, he was thrown into debtor's prison. The Quakers secured his release from prison, only to disown him after he failed to reform. Matlack's "hobbies" provided him with the opportunity to interact and socialize with people of all classes. These interactions would later serve him well as he proved to be a skilled organizer of men in his home colony and state.

Matlack served in a variety of positions during America's struggle for independence, to include clerk to the secretary of the Second Continental Congress, storekeeper of military supplies, delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, member of the state Council of Safety and militia officer. Matlack fought in the Battle of the Assunpink Creek (the Second Battle of Trenton) and the Battle of Princeton. Matlack is best known for his fine penmanship, and is believed to be the individual who inscribed the Declaration of Independence on parchment. Matlack passed away at age 93 in Holmesburg, PA. He is buried at the Wetherills Cemetery (aka Free Quaker Cemetery) in Audubon, PA.

Below is a write up on Timothy Matlack from the Explore PA History website, along with a few photos that I took of Timothy Matlack's marker:

"When Philadelphia's radical leaders organized their committees for resistance to British imperial policy in 1774, only one of them intended to instigate a revolution: former Quaker Timothy Matlack. Fiercely opposed to the conservative leadership of John Dickinson and the Pennsylvania Assembly, Matlack, a merchant and brewer turned revolutionary, served on the extra legal Council of Public Safety. A committed political and social radical, Matlack kept regular company with people from the 'poorer sorts.' In an era when wealthy Pennsylvanians worked hard to display refined cultural profiles, supported by goods and activities imported from England, Matlack reveled in the popular culture of the colony and its combative, competitive entertainments. For this reason, his ascent to political prominence is all the more interesting.

Born in New Jersey in 1736, Matlack grew up in a Quaker family. In the late 1740s, he moved to Philadelphia, where he developed a penchant for gambling, horseracing, and the lower-class sport of cockfighting. When his business affairs fell into ruin, wealthier Quakers redeemed him from debtor's prison. But Matlack's refusal to reform his ways - and his criticism of those Friends who held slaves - resulted in his disownment from the Society of Friends in 1765.

Matlack's poor record and restless temperament did not make him a good candidate for elective public service, but he took readily to the mechanical and organizational political tasks that all successful revolutions require to remain dynamic and vital. He became a clerk to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Second Continental Congress. He thrived on committee work in the radical Philadelphia community that constructed a de facto shadow government that prepared to take over in the city and state if the regular provincial government faltered.

Matlack served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania provincial convention that wrote the radical 1776 state constitution, and associated with such confirmed radicals as James Cannon and David Rittenhouse. He also served with Philadelphia's artisan-dominated militia battalion, and saw some military service in New Jersey in late 1776 and early 1777. He became secretary to the powerful unicameral Pennsylvania assembly under the new constitution, and remained in that office until the end of the Revolution. He served in a similar capacity with Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, which filled the function of a governor in more conventional political systems.

Driven from office by conservative enemies at the end of the war, Matlack became a leader of the Free Quakers, a group of disowned Friends who had supported the Revolution in violation of the Quaker Peace Testimony, and resumed his public diatribes against political foes. In 1781, his heckling of Whitehead Humphreys, a conservative member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, resulted in a public fistfight. The vengeful Humphreys subsequently wrote and distributed a poetic broadside that reflected some of the upper class's contempt for Matlack.

'Altho' dear Tim you've rose so great,
 From trimming cocks to trim the state;
 Yet to a brother, lend an ear,
 A moment - tho" in humble sphere . . .
 Did you forget in days of yore
 When you, like Price, was wretched poor?
 But all at once you've raised so high,
 Quakers can't safely pass you by!'

Although Matlack returned to public life in the 1790s, mostly in the capacity of a clerk and functionary, he was not as effective in building governments as he was in tearing them down. He spent his final years in rural Philadelphia County, where he died in 1829. He is buried in Audubon, on the Schuylkill River, not far from Valley Forge.

Timothy Matlack's contribution to American independence was critical in mobilizing public support for the patriot cause. Since the eighteenth century, every modern revolution in the western world has depended on actors like him, men of conviction and resilience willing to work on mundane tasks and smaller functions in the service of a greater goal."
(http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-156)

MW

Upcoming Event - Burrowes Mansion Interview

The Matt Ward History Experience will travel to the Burrowes Mansion in Matawan, NJ on Sunday, July 19, 2015. This visit will be part of the launching of the blog's monthly podcast. Three Burrowes Mansion Museum docents will be interviewed. The interview will focus on the history of the Burrowes Mansion and the people who lived there. If you have any questions that you would like answered by the panel, please post them in the comments of this blog entry or send them to me via Twitter @RevWarBuff23.

The Burrowes Mansion is located at 94 Main Street in historic Matawan, NJ. The mansion will be open next weekend for tours from 2-4pm. For more information on the Burrowes Mansion, please visit the following links:

Burrowes Mansion Official Website:

http://burrowesmansion.org/

Matawan Historical Society Official Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matawan-Historical-Society-NJ/278556882255492

Revolutionary War New Jersey:

http://www.revolutionarywarnewjersey.com/new_jersey_revolutionary_war_sites/towns/matawan_nj_revolutionary_war_sites.htm

MW

Philip Freneau's Grave

Philip Freneau's Grave
Poet Drive
Matawan, NJ 07747

Having grown up in Matawan, NJ, I am very familiar with the story of Philip Freneau. Freneau is known as the "Poet of the American Revolution." He wrote a number of poems during his lifetime, to include the History of the Prophet Jonah. He supported the Patriot cause as a militiaman and privateer. Freneau was a friend and supporter of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. His work as a journalist following the American Revolution was partisan in nature and often attacked Federalist politicians to include George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Washington in particular took a strong dislike to Freneau. Freneau froze to death at age 80 while trying to find his way home in a snow storm.

A section of my hometown is named in his honor, and his final home still stands in Matawan. Freneau's grave is located in the middle of a quiet residential street called Poet Drive in the section of the town that bears his name. I have had the opportunity to visit Freneau's grave site on numerous occasions over the years. The below photos were taken during a January 2014 visit.

Along with my photos, I included a write up on Freneau from the Poetry Foundation website:

"Known as the poet of the American Revolution, Philip Freneau was influenced by both the political situation of his time and the full, active life he led. He attended Princeton University, where James Madison was his roommate, and planned to become a minister. However, at Princeton he became engaged in political debates with fellow students and pursued his interest in writing.

Freneau was torn between his involvement in the social turmoil of his times and the more solitary life of writing. After graduation, he wrote a series of anti-British satires. In 1776 Freneau travelled to the West Indies, where he studied navigation and wrote, largely about his surroundings. In 1778 he returned to New Jersey, joined the militia, and served as a ship’s captain. He was eventually captured by the British and spent six weeks on a prison ship. By 1790, Freneau had published two collections of poetry. Encouraged by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Freneau established a newspaper, the National Gazette, in Philadelphia, which promoted Jefferson’s principles. By the early 1800s, Freneau had retired to his farm to write essays and poetry.

As a journalist and poet, Freneau was prolific. His poetry covers a variety of subjects, including the political situation, American Indians, nature, the sea, and naval battles. His political poems are often satiric, but his nature poetry is marked by lyricism and close observation of the details of the American landscape. Freneau’s work displays some of the characteristics of Romanticism—especially in its close attention to, and feeling for, nature."  (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/philip-freneau)

MW

Richie Ashburn's Grave

Richie Ashburn's Grave

Gladwyne United Methodist Church Cemetery
316 Righters Mill Road
Gladwyne, PA 19035

If you are a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, or baseball in general, you have heard the name Richie Ashburn. Don Richard Ashburn was a center fielder for the Phillies from 1948-1959, and later became a long time television and radio commentator for the team in 1963. Ashburn's accomplishments on the baseball field were recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995. Ashburn passed away in New York City on September 9, 1997, during a Phillies road trip against the New York Mets. I had the opportunity to pay my respects to Richie this past May. He is buried in the Gladwyne United Methodist Church Cemetery in Gladwyne, PA. His grave is located directly behind the main church building.

Below is a write up on Richie Ashburn from the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum website. I also included some photos I took at Ashburn's grave site of and of his Hall of Fame plaque at the Baseball Hall Fame Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

"A fleet-footed baseball player that used his athletic gifts to get on base and chase down fly balls on the field, then a broadcaster that used his oratory skills to become a much beloved voice off the field, Richie Ashburn would become a fixture on the Philadelphia sports scene for a half century.

Because he played in an era that featured such stalwart center fielders as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider, Ashburn was sometimes overlooked by fans of the game. But during a 15-year big league career, the lefty swinging Ashburn twice won the National League batting title, finished second three times, and nine times batted over .300. A lifetime .308 hitter, his 1,198 walks and 2,574 hits helped him finish with a .397 on-base percentage.

'Ashburn is the fastest man I’ve ever seen getting down to first base,' said Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher in 1948. 'He’s even faster than Pete Reiser in his prime. Anybody who’s faster than Ashburn isn’t running. He’s flying.'

Short and slight, the 5-foot-10, 170 pound Ashburn excelled from 1948 to 1959 as the prototypical leadoff hitter and center fielder with the Phillies. In possession of an excellent eye at the plate, he led the league in walks on four separate occasions and his 1958 season marked the first time a leadoff hitter paced the league in both batting average and bases on balls. Defensively, Ashburn set outfield marks with nine years of 400 or more putouts and four years with 500 or more.

'Richie was very serious when it came to playing the game,' said longtime Phillies teammate and Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts. 'He would play cards and was a fun guy off the field, but on the field he really teed it up.'

'The only complaint I have about him is he wasn’t tall enough to catch the balls that went into the seats,' he joked. 'He caught everything else.'

After spending two seasons (1960-61) with the Chicago Cubs, Ashburn ended his playing career as a member of the expansion New York Mets for their inaugural 1962 season. Despite hitting .306 and being the lone All-Star representative for a team that lost a record 120 games, he become one of the few regulars to ever retire following a season in which they batted at least .300.

Though he left the field of play, Ashburn soon began a second career when he returned to Philadelphia as a member of the media. He joined the Phillies’ television-radio broadcasting team in 1963, where he would combine perceptive commentary with a wry sense of humor for 35 years."

(http://baseballhall.org/hof/ashburn-richie)

MW

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July from the Matt Ward History Experience!

Be on the look out for new posts and photos from my recent visits to historic sites. I am also in the process of setting up a monthly or weekly podcast to discuss all things HISTORY!

MW