Society Saturday: DAR Presents Sword to General Joseph Wheeler

In 1898, the Cumberland Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution presented a sword to General Joseph Wheeler. Wheeler was the senior cavalry general in the Confederate Army of Tennessee during the Civil War. He was also a general in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War.

Nashville American, 4 May 1898, page 3

Nashville American, 6 October 1898, page 3 

Nashville American, 7 November 1898, page 6

  Nashville American, 9 November 1898, page 5

Nashville American, 10 November 1898, page 5

Society Saturday: Friends of Wayne Historic Museums

Schuyler-Colfax House. 25 June 1936. Photo by Nathaniel R. Ewan [Public domain]. Available from Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons.

The Friends of Wayne Historic Museums is a service organization which is dedicated to preserving and creating awareness of the heritage of Wayne, New Jersey.

Three museums are owned and operated by the Wayne Township Parks and Recreation Department: Schuyler-Colfax Historic House Museum, Van Riper-Hopper House, and Van Duyne House. More information is available on the Historic House Museums page of Wayne Township's Web site.

I am a member of the Hester Schuyler Colfax Chapter, NSDAR. The chapter has planted bulbs at the Schuyler-Colfax House, and is working on raising money for the restoration of the house, which is the oldest in Wayne. The house was built by Arent Schuyler in 1695.

Members of the Hester Schuyler Colfax Chapter are pictured on the Volunteer page of Wayne Township's Web site.

A Friends of Wayne Historic Museums membership application is available online.

Those Places Thursday: Fort Nashborough

In 1780, James Robertson, John Donelson, and their party of settlers (including my ancestors Abel Gower Sr., Obedience Blakely Gower, Abel Gower Jr., Nancy Gower, and Andrew Lucas) built a settlement at the French Lick along the Cumberland River. They named it Fort Nashborough after General Francis Nash. It was the first settlement in what became Nashville, Tennessee.

Fort Nashborough was reconstructed in 1930 and rebuilt in 1962.The reconstruction was funded by the local Daughters of the American Revolution. In July 2011, the fort was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Fort Nashborough is currently closed for renovations. It is scheduled to reopen in 2015, and will be an open plaza rather than an enclosed structure.

I visited Fort Nashborough in 2007. The photos were taken on that trip.

 

References
Fort Nashborough
Fort Nashborough
Fort Nashborough History
Revamped Fort Nashborough set to open in 2015

DAR Elias Van Bunschooten Museum

I visited the DAR Elias Van Bunschooten Museum in Wantage, New Jersey over the weekend, during the museum's annual Christmas in July. Tours of the museum were given, and there were vendors, demonstrators, and re-enactors. The house was owned by Reverend Elias Van Bunschooten, a Dutch Reformed minister.

 

Links
The DAR Van Bunschooten Museum
Van Bunschooten Museum
Elias Van Bunschooten Museum

CelebrateHAMILTON events, July 13, 2014

 Alexander Hamilton. Oil on canvas portrait by John Trumbull, 1806.

Today I attended the July 13 CelebrateHAMILTON events, which were organized by the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. The day began at 12:00 PM, at the Paterson Great Falls Historical National Park in Paterson, New Jersey, at the Alexander Hamilton statue.

Paterson Great Falls

Hamilton and other investors founded the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, which developed Paterson into the first planned industrial city.

Schuyler-Hamilton House

At 2:00 PM, I headed over to the Schuyler-Hamilton House (also known as the Jabez Campfield House) in Morristown, New Jersey. The house is owned by the Morristown chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I took a tour of the house and listened to a presentation on Alexander Hamilton's love letters.

Washington's Headquarters Museum, Morristown National Historical Park

At 3:30 PM, I went to Washington's Headquarters Museum at Morristown National Historical Park to hear the talk "The Indispensable Founder." The contributions of the Founding Fathers to the economic system, judicial branch, legislative branch, executive branch, the Constitution and ratification were analyzed. Hamilton had the greatest overall contributions.

Society Saturday: Hester Schuyler Colfax Chapter, NSDAR

In October 2012, I became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I joined the Hester Schuyler Colfax Chapter, which is based in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. The chapter was named after Hester Schuyler, who married William Colfax, Captain of George Washington's Life Guard.

Every year, local students receive Good Citizenship awards and are honored at an awards tea and ceremony. Sometimes there are guest speakers at meetings (for example, Bob Bracken from the Titanic International Society and Judy Sullivan from the Ramapough Conservancy) at meetings. We visited the historic Van Allen House in Oakland, New Jersey.

The chapter is helping with the restoration of the Wyckoff Union Cemetery in Wyckoff, New Jersey (my hometown), and collects Box Tops for Education.

The chapter also has a Facebook page.