Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1922-03-03
Should Be Preserved.

Yorktown has been spoken of as
tottering village. 1t is more than bit
decrepit with age, but its years have
been honorable and in this lie the
hope and belief that the American
people will exert themselves TO save
the historic places in the village from
the decay that more than threatens.
Here and there in Yorktown are
substantial old dwellings of the colo
NAL period. They will outlast the build
ings Of later day, for they were
founded on the rock of honest con-
struction.
One old place has towering CHM
neys that, with the rest of the house,
have a time-weary look, but dissolu-
ton is not in sight because the build
ers builded WELL This is the Thomas
Nelson house, and for a time Corn
wallis made it his headquarters,
fact which came to the knowledge of
the owner, who was with Washington
in the ranks of the beseigers.
Colonel Nelson went to the COM
mander-in-chief and told him that the
British general was in his house. and
that if guns could be brought to bear
with the residence as a mark Corn
wallis might be crushed under the
falling walls IL there was a good
heavy-gun marksman in the American
army. They tell you today In York
town that Colonel Nelson told his
chief that he would sacrifice fifty
homesteads If he owned them to put
| CORVALLIS on the hospital list.
The American gunners fired away
at the walls of the Nelson home and
hit them three or four times. Corn
wallis was there, but it did not take
him long to learn the drift of the
shooting, and he too; refuge In cave
under parapet of brickwork and
sand, and there he lay safely. Knowl-
edge of the change of headquarters
came to Washington and the mouths
of the old smooth-bore cannon were
turned away from the Nelson resi-
dence, which today bears the marks
of the firing.
Monument Marks Historic Spot.
The monument which the United
States government erected at York
town to mark the site of the British
defeat that gave liberty to the col
onies rises to the height of 100 feet.
and its summit is surmounted by an
heroic figure of the Goddess of Lib
erty looking eastward to the sea. The
base of the monument bears the in.
scription: zone Country, One Con-
stitution, One Destiny"
One mile from Yorktown is a peace
full, fertile stretch of fields and wood
land, known as the Temple farm. On
the old Moore house. in which the
articles of the surrender at Yorktown
were drawn up and signed The Tenn
pie farm has seen much of war. The
army of CORVALLIS occupied it; years
later, during the second war with
Great Britain, the redcoats swept over
it, and in the days of civil strife the
federal and confederate forces strug-
gIed together for its possessio 1t is
red ground.
There is too much hat is ancient
and interesting in Yorktown and its
vicinity TO be seen tsatisfyingly In the
day which the Ordinary visitor who
loves the old places has to spare from
his vacation time. If man happily
has enough of leisure, he can pass
a week in colonial day revelings.
The country has holding charm In
it's natural features. Add to this the
fact that it is tut with history and
you have reason enough for tarrying
yet awhile, if the time call or the
labor call it not too strong of voice.