The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-26

Thfngs-Of Lnte Years Like Desert.
cd Village.
At Valley Forge the Washington Inn
and number of dwelling houses are ia
be sold at auction at the end of the
month. These sales close a long chap
ter of decline in the history of the pic.
turesque old village, and the friends of
the place hope that the new chapter
soon to begin will be one of prosperity
They have ground for their hope In the
public park that will soon be estab-
lished on the historic campgrounds and
in the trolley line that will run through
Valley Forge.
To the lover of old and picturesque
things Valley Forge appeals. There are
three mills long since deserted falling
into ruins. There are rows of deserted
houses. In clump of bushes some
broken boats lie.
Two or three acres make "a space suf-
fictent to hold all that, to hold also the
hotel, the two gray. empty streets and
the for sale or rent" signs Of this tiny
village. The place Is STEPPED in an at
mosphere unimaginably calm and still.
"A billygoat, the beard under his chin
stuck full Of burrs, loafs at the lonely
corners where two streets meet, and if
strangers happen along he will pursue
them. A poet should be able to do good
work here.
Nature has been very kind to Valley
Forge. She shows her utmost beauty
to the village. The airs that blow
through it are clear and pure. The sky
seems bluer there than elsewhere. A
noble forest rises upon one side, and on
the other flows the schuyllSill, a blue
stream, winding between green banks
And thus Enclosed by sky and stream
mad forest, the deserted mills, the de-
serted houses, the "to LETT signs, the
totel and the billygoat dream.
The history of Valley Forge, it's rise
its fall and it's expected second rise may
be gathered at the hotel, which Albin
Shaw keeps. Its Revolutionary history,
set forth in a familiar colloquial way,
may be gathered at the old Potts house,
where Washington's headquarters were,
and where e. r. Hampton Is care
taker. Albin Shaw told all he knew
of Valley Forge in the bar-room of the
hotel yesterday afternoon, and Benja-
min Rossiter, a veteran Of the civil
war, helped him out when his memory
failed. Shaw darted into an inner room
every little while and returned with
armloads of relics-old lamps, hatchets,
cannon-bal1s and pieces of wood. Be
fore he was done talking the bar was
piled so high with these ancient things
. that only the top of the young mans
head was visible behind them.
Many years ago before, Valley Forge
had either name or being, certain adj
venturous and brave men settled there, |
built houses and began to till the soil. |
These were the families of the Potts,
the Browns, the Stephens, the Har
wards the Matsons the Moores, the |
-Merrises and the Willlinsons. These
families owned farms during the en-
campment of the Continental troops,
and their descendants, very prosperous
people, still own, in some cases. the
same farms. OF the Stephens, the
Moores and the Harvard families this
is true
A Stephens, long before the Revolu-
ton, built forge in the neighborhood.
1t was a power forge, and it was put up
ON the shore of Valley Greek. Steph-
ems made merchant iron there and AL
bin Shaw had a piece of the water
wheel he used-a worm eaten gray
board, four or five yards long.
Albin brought the board from his
archives yesterday and thumped it
down on the bar with pride. He would
not part with it, he says, at any price.
"A professor last summer desired to buy
it ardently. The grooves can still be
seen in it where the water buckets
hung, and it's big-headed nails have the
and roughness that give in
dividuality and charm to all hand
made things. Those nails, says Benja-
min Rosstter, are better than modern
ones. They would split the mean wood :
which modern men use. From the
forge upon Valley Creek it is easy to !
see how the name of Valley Forge was
born.
The rise of Valley Forge was due to 6
the building of three mills there. A big
white mill on Valley Creek, with kind ?
Of belfry like that upon meeting
house, was built first A brick mill, q
lower down the creek and nearer to
the river was built next, and after 6
ward ehoddy mill was erected over
against the railroad station. AT the \
time when these three plants were run
ming Valley Forge had over five hum A
7red inhabitants. Tt has now not more
than one hundred and twenty-five n
There was at one time, Furthermore,
gun factory there, where flint-locked T
lilies and horse pistols were turned out.
The brick mill was built by Nathan G
and Caleb Jones' They made flour in
t and turned it into paper mill. Ar D
.er some years John Pennypacker sue
,eeded Isaiah Knauer, and he in his q
urn was succeeded by the American
pulp and Paper company. This COM Q
oany enlarged the mill and began on a
huge scale and with many flourishes to c,
make paper by some strange process
ut of palm leaf. The palm-leaf paper rs
vas to have been a very wonderful and
lucrative stuff, but it showed, unfortu- te
lately, upon being made, certain imper-
glazed spots. The rs
american Pulp and Paper company
ried earnestly to do away with the ii
Iazed spots, but it could not. There
ore they gave up the mill, which John nj
lay bought.
the place was run in turn then by G
lay, by John Knapp & Co., and by