Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, Montgomery County

First of all, it's July. I did not sign off on that. Also, we're in the midst of a dangerous heat wave, and I really didn't sign off on that. Most importantly, I'm sending best wishes to my pal The Hometown Historian, who is currently out of commission due to health concerns but will hopefully be back to pursuing his love of history before long.

Last week, before all this disgusting heat showed up, I had a reunion with my two closest friends from the brief Kutztown University era of my life. AmyBeth, Christine, and I all live roughly an hour's drive away from one another, so we don't get together terribly often, but we try to do it every several months. We spent the morning at the Elmwood Park Zoo, which I had never seen, and then it was proposed that they take me marker hunting. (I have such wonderfully supportive friends!)

We ended up in the historic little community of Trappe, which is home to three markers all related to the Muhlenberg family. Two of them are located at houses, and one at a church, which is what we're discussing this week. Apologies to my mobile readers, this one has a few more pictures than usual. We were wandering around the church property, examining things and taking these pictures, when we came across something I don't usually encounter when I'm on the hunt - an actual human being.

New Hanover Lutheran Church, Gilbertsville, Montgomery County

Today is April Fool's Day, but this is not a prank: the hit count on this blog in the month of February was over 28,000, which was an all-time high. But in March? You crazy history fiends smashed that number! March ended with a monthly hit count of 39,726, and I was stunned speechless. That's a rare event, as many people could tell you. So whoever has been coming here and reading what I have to say, thank you so very much. It means a lot.

There are a lot of history-related events happening around here in the coming weeks, now that the onion snow has fallen and winter is finally leaving us. In particular, on April 11th and 12th, the community of Trappe will be dedicating the Speaker's House, which was the home of Frederick Muhlenberg and his family. He has a connection to today's blog post. The community has spent the last 25 years (no, that's not a typo) restoring the house to its colonial glory and preparing it to be a jewel of the historic community. The event is free to the public and you can find details here.

Also, one month from today - May 1st - will be the grand opening of the Stevens & Smith Center for History and Democracy in Lancaster. I'm hoping I can be there! The festivities will begin at 9 in the morning, though, so the odds are not in my favor. If you're interested in being there too, get the details here.

Meanwhile, it's time to get back into the regular flow of blogging and kick off this month with a return to scenic Montgomery County. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going.

Falkner Swamp Reformed Church, Gilbertsville, Montgomery County

Welcome to November! Louisa May Alcott, in her novel Little Women, had the character of Meg remark that "I do believe November is the most disagreeable month of the year." So far, it hasn't been that bad - the fall colors are still quite brilliant around here - but it has been rather on the blustery side. My neighborhood has lost power multiple times in the past week due to the wind, which is not at all usual for us. I'm hoping that it will continue to be tolerable for a little while longer, at least, because I've got to get out of here and collect some more markers to get me through the winter. I only have the rest of November to go for the blog, and then I'll be taking my usual December hiatus after detailing the year's interesting facts, but I want to be prepared for January and February with a decent stockpile.

For this week, though, we're going to take a ride down to Montgomery County, where I had stumbled across one of my favorite things to include in this blog. I love talking about subjects from colonial times, and especially churches from the time period, because they tend to have really unique stories behind them. This one is no exception.

John F. Hartranft, Fagleysville, Montgomery County

I ended up skipping last week, and as my Facebook followers may have seen, I blamed it on the holiday. That was only partly the reason. It had more to do with the fact that my beloved great-aunt Gene, the last surviving sibling of either of my maternal grandparents, was in her final days. A true patriot who loved her country, she was born on Memorial Day and died on the Fourth of July, one hundred years old (plus a few weeks) and feisty to the end. She was also a great reader and fond of history, so while she didn't read this blog, she enjoyed my book about Laury's Island and loved to hear about my adventures when I would be out doing research for my posts. I visited her often and I already miss her.

I would have liked to tell her about my little adventure from this past weekend, when I collected the marker of today's post. I was able to get three in all, but they were actually a side quest for a change, because I was in Montgomery County for a completely different reason. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I attended Kutztown University, and during that time I was a member of the (now defunct) Medieval & Renaissance Club. It's been several years since I had seen most of them, literal decades in some cases, but on Sunday there was an enormous reunion party and that was what lured me down that way. It was a truly extraordinary gathering, and in some respects it was as though no time had passed at all. There was a universal agreement that we can't let so much time pass again, and I think we'll be holding reunions a few times a year going forward. Thanks, everyone, I don't think I realized how much I had missed the club until you were all in front of me like that.

But before the party got started, I picked up this marker about one of our governors. The location mentioned on the marker is a bit of a mystery, though, which is interesting.

Abington Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Abington Township, Montgomery County

Recently I had a message from my good friend Brian. He saw my lament a short time ago, about running out of markers, and kindly sent me some pictures he took of one that he spotted in his neck of the woods. Thanks, Brian!

(Brian is one of the reasons I really need to get back into podcasting, as he's a particular fan of the show. But there turned out to be a lot of things happening in 2024 that were not on my bingo card, and every time I think I'm going to be able to make new episodes, something gets in the way.)

So to kick off October, we're heading down to beautiful Montgomery County to have a look at a cemetery. My longtime readers know I'm rather fond of cemeteries, and this is a lovely old one from the pre-Revolutionary days.

Frank N. D. Buchman, Pennsburg, Montgomery County

Happy Valentine's Day! It's also Ash Wednesday, for those who observe the Easter holidays. We got hit with a fast-moving snowstorm yesterday which dumped an entire foot of snow on my neighborhood, but fortunately, we never lost power so here I am.

I invited the followers of the blog's Facebook account to vote on this week's topic. It was very nearly a three-way tie, but by a margin of one vote, we had a winner. He gained international renown for his rather unusual approach to world peace.

Philo T. Farnsworth, Glenside, Montgomery County

This week's quest is rather a fun one, with a marker photo courtesy of my friend and former coworker Sheila. (She said she saw it and thought of me - thank you!) Of course, as I've said many times in the past, we in Pennsylvania do like our firsts and oldests. We're the home of America's first zoo and the world's oldest roller coaster, to name but two. We're also, up in Schuylkill County, the birthplace of cable television, which I'll be talking about in a future post. But today, I'm going to tell you about Pennsylvania's role in the creation of electronic television, which came before cable.

New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, East Greenville, Montgomery County

We're kicking off the fifth month of the year, and thus far I've managed to do a marker from a different county every week. This is the last week I'll be able to say that, but it's still kind of exciting!

Speaking of exciting, if you haven't already heard, the big news I promised last week has been unveiled on social media and in the monthly newsletter. This month marks the blog's fifth birthday! To celebrate the "fiveaversary," as I've dubbed it, I've launched a virtual scavenger hunt. You don't have to go anywhere or hunt down any physical objects; you just have to go through the blog and find the answers to questions about the people featured on markers or in the stories behind them. There's some silliness and some shameless self-promotion and some great prizes too! Head over to this page to read all the guidelines and find out how to get started. Good luck!

Meanwhile, for today's quest, my bff Andrea and I took a drive down to Montgomery County last week to grab a couple of markers, since I hadn't done anything there in quite a while. We found this beautiful church tucked out of the way in East Greenville, and if I'd been alone I probably would have spent an hour or two looking through their old churchyard at the 18th century headstones. 

Abolition Hall, Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County

As you may have seen in the latest newsletter (please forgive the typos I only noticed after it went out, it was an emotional one for me), I'm spending this week in the company of one of my dearest friends. Rachel, who has contributed to a number of the Bethlehem posts on the blog, is back with us for the occasion of my birthday week, and it takes some of the sting out of getting older. We're having plenty of good nerdy fun with my usual wrecking crew, including having spent Labor Day at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. There's nothing quite like having random strangers in funny costumes walk up to you and start singing birthday songs.

I wanted to give a quick plug here for the upcoming Museum Day, which will be all day long on Saturday, September 17th. Anyone carrying a Museum Day ticket will be granted free admission to participating museums throughout the country! You can download one free ticket per email address, so to get instructions and find out which Pennsylvania museums are taking part in the event, click here. (Not going to be in Pennsylvania? Just uncheck it from the box on the left to see participating museums across the United States.) 

As for today, we're going to meander back down to Montgomery County and pay a visit to a beautiful still-standing structure from the anti-slavery movement. Many thanks to my new contacts at the Historical Society of Montgomery County for their kind remarks and helpful information!

Anna Morris Holstein, King of Prussia, Montgomery County

It's a new first for the blog, the first quest in Montgomery County!

I went down to the King of Prussia Mall recently to have lunch with Christine, one of my friends from the old college days. Roughly half a million years ago, we were baby freshmen at Kutztown University, and we hadn't seen each other in quite a while so we had plenty of catching up to do. Christine's a food blogger (she's on my Quest Links page) and also an editor at MontCo Today, so she knows plenty about what goes on in Montgomery County. As a result, she was the one who had first alerted me to a marker dedication happening last fall. Specifically, she's the author of this article about it. Unfortunately, we both had something come up to prevent us from going to the ceremony.

Since we were eating so close to its location, though, I was able to head over there after our fabulous lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy. Christine had to get back to work, but we're talking about going together to get another MontCo marker sometime this summer, so she can see how I do this. (My work is probably less glamorous than anyone thinks. The number one rule: don't get hit by a car. I did that already, a long time ago, and I definitely do not recommend it.)

Much to my surprise, this marker hadn't yet been added to the Historical Marker Database, which my regular readers know I link in every post. I've created a page for it there, but as of this writing it hasn't gone live yet, so I'll have to come back and add the link once it does. Edited 5/20/2022: The page is now live and the link is in the sources section at the end of the post.