The United States celebrated its 200th birthday in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1976. The Bicentennial was a stone in the pond, whose ripples continue to be felt. In Newtown Square, some history-minded people got excited about their own history, noticed that Newtown Township would be 300 years old in 1981, and ended up writing a thorough local history book, “Historic Newtown Township”, reinvigorating their historic society, and then planning and hosting one of the largest parades in the history of Delaware County, 1981’s Tricentennial Parade.
The ripples reached to Oak Lodge on Middletown Road in Gradyville, where long-time resident Jane Levis Carter had been keeping research notes and records on Edgmont Township since her childhood. Born in 1909, she recalled hearing local history the old fashioned way, from conversations among customers in the busy nearby general store. The Bicentennial announcement spurred her to action with her lifetime of research – she began to weave it all together for a planned book.
With no Internet, she researched in local libraries, reviewing documents, maps, photos and records. But she also talked with people: “I’ve talked to six generations of people and their memories go way back. The oldest woman I talked to was Mrs. Lydia Ann Baker. She was born in 1838.”
wife authors of “Historic Newtown Township”
in their home in Newtown Square, circa 1976.
Jane’s previous writing effort was a book of poetry published in 1966. She tried to infuse her history book with the same style: “I think it is documentarily accurate, but written with poetry and lyricism.” Her book, “Edgmont: The Story of a Township” was published in 1976, just in time for the Bicentennial.
Long-time resident Bob Steiner met Jane several years before her death in 2004, as he had questions about his historic home. He remembers her as “a lovely lady, passionate for what she did.” He asked whether she was a Quaker – because of the Quaker values that permeate her book, and still seem to be rooted in the Township. Interviewed in 1976, Jane described what she found in the writing effort:
“I found my own book screaming back at me, saying “Look at what we’ve lost”. …There is a tremendous lesson to be learned here. Somehow we must find this sense of purpose again. Through the book I see that the great strengths of the past have been when man was unified with a common purpose. We need to find that again.”
It’s a timely lesson for today’s generations as well. The Newtown history book closed with the following prescient forecast: “(G)reat changes await us in the near future. If these expectations are realized, even the modest town of today will be in large measure obliterated, or vastly changed. This book and our Mill House Museum will remain for future generations to contemplate, to bring to life again the bygone days as a record for all time to come.”
For more history on Newtown Square, Delaware County, and membership information, please visit our website at www.nshistory.org.
