The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-04-19
HISTORIC HOUSE
TN MORRISTOWN

AASuAA3 NAiOONA Wy NAAf1o AANiOAA ~
Bixby, daughter of G.. F. Bixby,
editor of that paper, which follows :
1t being so largely the result of the
energy and persistence of women that
Fraunce's Tavern has been purchased
by the City of New York, the fact
calls attention to another Washington
tavern which was saved from destruc-
tion by woman.
The first real fight that we gave the
British was when they found that the
rebel farmer soldiers had a General
who knew enough to see the strategic
key of situation. And when
Washington marched his army into
Morristown Europe began to sit up,
for the "Pass of the Mountains " had
already caught its eye.
The house in Morristown known as
the !" Headquarters was the resi-
dence of Colonel Jacob Ford, Jr., and
was purchased by the Washington
Association of New Jersey. Here
Washington lived during the winter
of 1779-SO, but when he came first to
Morristown in TIT, the Arnold Tavern
was his home. This was big wooden
building with huge tiny-paned win
dows and veranda the length of the
front; sturdy and good style after a
hundred years, but modern improve
ments claimed the site and it was to
be torn down. Its days at the last be-
gan to be numbered very small, and
then it was rescued by Mrs. Julia
Reese COLES, (who is granddaughter
of the late Richard Reese of Reese
vile, N. Y, and at her suggestion re-
moved to land on the COLES estate,
where it now stands in honorable con-
tentment with it's face appropriately
set toward the old Baskingridge road
of Revolutionary fame.
In her book, " Authors and Writers
Associated with Morristown, Mrs.
COLES has a sketch of "Historic Nor
ristown, and she describes the tavern
which has recently been purchased
for hospital by the All Souls Hos
pital Association Though extend
ed and enlarged, it. is still the same
building and retains many of the dis
tinctive features which characterized
it when the residence of Washington.
Here is still the bedroom which Wash
ington occupied, the parlor, the dining
room and the ballroom where he re-
ceived his Generals, Greene, Knox,
Schuyler, Gates, Lee, deKalb, Steuben,
Wayne, Winds, Putnam, Sullivan and
others, besides distinguished visitors
from abroad, all of whom met here
continually during the winter of 1777.
One of these visitors and one of our
authors, the Marquis de Chastellux,
gives an interesting account of his
experience and impressions. In one of
the bedrooms of this old house, has
been seen within the last few years,
between the floor and the ceiling be-
low, a long case for guns, above
which was painted on the floor, in very
large squares, covering the entire
opening, checker-board, about which
in an emergency, evidently the SOL
diers expected to sit and so conceal
from the enemy the trap door of their
arsenal"
During the winter of 1777 smallpox
broke out in camp and the First
Church (Presbyterian) and the Bap-
fist Church were given up to the use
of the the sick soldiers. Services were
held out of doors, in hollow behind
the parsonage. Washington attended,
and on the occasion of the semi-annu-
al communion partook of the sacra-
ment, for the first and only time, as it
is said, during his public career. The
invitation of Pastor Johnes was that
"Ours is not the Presbyterian table,
but the Lords table and we give the
Lords invitation to all his followers
of whatever name." Mrs. COLES re-
peats a statement made to her by a
Morristown man My aunt, Huldah
Lindsey, sister of Judge Silas Con-
dict, and born in Morristown, gave
me, in the most distinct and definite
manner, an account of General Wash
ington's having communed with the
Presbyterian church on the occasion
of the enca mpment in Morristown
My aunt told me that the congrega-
tion sat out of doors, even in the win
ter, but were shielded from the severe
winds by surrounding high ground,
that benches were placed in circular
position, that the pastor occupied a
central point and that it was in this
out-of-door place, muffied in their
thickest clothing Z and many of
them warmed by footStOves and
other arrangements for keeping the
feet warm, with nothing overhead but
the wintry sky, that the congrega-
tion, among them General Washing
ton partook of the Lords Supper"
In our history there is certainly no
dearth of pictures that typify what
we should stand for as nation. But if
any one is inclined to trifie with the
good name of the country, or with his
own honor as citizen of the Repub-
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