Markerless Quest: Samurai in the White House

I have returned from Zenkaikon and am, however reluctantly, taking up my real-world activities once again. (But I have no reluctance about returning to the blog! On our way home, Kevin and I took a detour to the city of West Chester to collect some markers, so I've got plenty of Chester County content for a while.) Our anniversary was very pleasant and the convention was a lot of fun - the entire week's vacation was a great time in so many ways.

If you're visiting this blog after meeting me at Zenkaikon, hi! Thank you so much for coming to see what I do here! And if you aren't familiar with Zenkaikon and are wondering what exactly it is, here's a video explanation. This documentary was created for the con's 20th anniversary, but I wasn't involved; my contributions to being on the anniversary committee involved the museum and the trivia game we held on Friday night. I was there for the documentary debut on Saturday evening, though, and it's beautifully made.

My presentations all went extremely well, and the one on which I got the most feedback was the one which had a tenuous connection to Lancaster. As you probably know, President James Buchanan was a native of Lancaster. But what you probably don't know is that during his presidency, the White House welcomed a delegation of visitors from Japan, including three actual samurai warriors. Several of the people who attended this presentation mentioned wanting to share it with others, so I thought I'd make it the final blog post of March. This one didn't get filmed; instead, I'm sharing the write-up I used to narrate the slide show, as well as the pictures which appeared in the slides. At least this way I don't have to worry that I'm mangling the pronunciation of Japanese names or words, as I did when presenting.

Also, to make a blog-ish version of my perennial con presentation joke, if you're not completely satisfied with this post, please return the unused portion for a full refund.

James Joseph "Jim" Croce, Lyndell, Chester County

 St. Patrick's Day is my wedding anniversary; Kevin and I are hitting a big milestone this year, 25 years of married nonsense, so we're taking the day for ourselves. Two days later, we leave for Zenkaikon. My annual panic is in full swing. I have my own three presentations to give, plus it's the convention's 20th anniversary and I'm part of the group running events related to that (we have our own museum!) and I'm just a busy, busy girl. To that end, therefore, there will be no blog post next week.

Yesterday, meanwhile, was my best friend Andrea's birthday. We both had the day off, and when I asked how she wanted to spend it, she surprised me by outright requesting that we take a road trip to collect some markers for the blog. I wasn't about to say no, of course, so off we went. This was a marker for which I had wanted to attend the dedication ceremony when it was placed a couple years ago, but I wasn't able to make it for whatever reason.

Harold "Red" Grange, Forksville, Sullivan County

March came in rainy and chilly, which I don't especially like. It's going to be an extremely busy month for me, for multiple reasons, although the panic has not quite set in. Not yet. Probably next week, when it hits me that Zenkaikon is coming up fast and I need to be ready to present. Did you ever hear that advice about how, if you get nervous when public speaking, you should picture audience members in weird costumes? At Zenkaikon I don't have to picture anyone, because half the audience is in costume. I don't get very nervous anyway, but the costumes make it a little easier to relax.

But before I head to Lancaster and prattle about historic buildings and Japanese cherry blossoms and samurai visiting the White House (yes, those are my topics this year), we'll take a run up to lovely Sullivan County and talk about a guy who played football. That is, of course, putting it mildly.

Daniel J. Flood, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this week's quest, I do want to share something of historical interest with my readers. My acquaintance Mary, who manages the Facebook account Photos of the Lehigh Valley, is as passionate about preserving local history as many of us here. She has established a petition to try to save the farm which once belonged to Rev. Abraham Blumer. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because I wrote about him a few years ago; he was one of the courageous farmers who smuggled the Liberty Bell out of Philadelphia and into Allentown for safekeeping. His farm along Lehigh County's Jordan Creek has been neglected and is in danger of being demolished, but we're hoping it can be preserved and restored for use as an educational site. If you'd like to help us with this goal, please check out Mary's petition by clicking here and adding your name.

On with the blog post, then. This week I'm heading up to scenic Luzerne County, which I've not visited in quite some time, to learn about a man whose claims to fame include controversy, folk heroism, and one extraordinary mustache.

Millersville University, Millersville, Lancaster County

I ended up skipping last week's post mainly on account of the weather. My longtime readers may remember that as someone with multiple chronic medical conditions, I tend to be at the mercy of the weather, and the subzero temperatures which have plagued Pennsylvania in recent weeks have really done a number on me. Fortunately, this week things are much more normal for the time of the year, so I can be more myself again.

Speaking of being myself, Zenkaikon is looming next month as it always does. I'll be making three history-themed presentations, and I'm really looking forward to sharing all of them. I think the one about samurai warriors visiting the White House during James Buchanan's presidency will be the most interesting (one of the warriors had a crush on Buchanan's niece!) but hopefully they will all be good, and if they're made available on YouTube I'll be sure to provide links for anyone interested.

In the spirit of the annual trip to Lancaster, we're heading for that county in this week's quest, thanks to some guest photography from one of my fellow congoers. I think this might actually be my first Lancaster County post set outside of the city of the same name. If you've ever heard of a "normal school" and wondered what it was, we're going to answer that question.

Gnadenhütten, Lehighton, Carbon County

As promised, after last week's unusual post, it's back to business as usual. I had hoped to finish my Carbon County book last October, but life has a tendency to get in the way. Between work, health, weather, and the holidays, I haven't gotten it done. But it's almost done. I have two chapters and an afterword left to finish, plus some tweaks I want to make to the finished chapters, and I'm hoping to get it wrapped up in the next few weeks.

So when I was trying to decide what to write about this week, I took a poll on the blog's Facebook account asking if people would rather have a new quest or another sneak peek at the book. It was a close call (things were in a dead heat even when I woke up this morning), but the tie finally broke with one last vote to do a sneak peek. 

The original post about Gnadenhütten remains one of the most popular I've ever done, and I'm extremely proud of how I've fleshed it out in the book. I won't share the entire chapter, but here's a look at some of the detailing, including an image I've never before shared on this blog.

I'd Like to Go Back to Living in Precedented Times, Please

No quest this week. I have something else I feel called to say. I need to get it out there and then next week we can go back to the markers. Please note that the opinions stated in this post (and every post, unless otherwise noted) are entirely my own and I do not claim to represent the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, nor anyone else, when I express them. Thank you.