Last night, another history buff and I enjoyed a lively and enthusiastic talk on the Battle of Gloucester Towne, a Revolutionary event in our own backyard!!
I met Dr. Garry Stone when he was doing his work at the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield, where I was volunteering at that time. His home work site, at Monmouth State Park, was being renovated. He was working on a map of Revolutionary sites in New Jersey, a much needed addition to our information base. We had some lively talks about local history because at the time, I was also volunteering at the James and Ann Whittle House at National Park.
On Tuesday evening, at 7:00, a dozen very interested local history enthusiasts listened as Dr. Stone clearly and concisely described the skirmish that took place in Gloucester Towne in 1776.
AS anyone who has visited or volunteered at any of our many historic sites would know, we had a very active part in the Revolution here in New Jersey, known a the "Crossroads of the Revolution." We had the tea burning in Greenwich, the River Battle on the Delaware between the two forts, on either side of the Delaware, Mercer on our side at National Park, and the meetings held at Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield including the adoption of our state seal.
Whenever I can I like to attend lectures on our local history. It deeply enhances your appreciation of the place where you live to know the history, just as you understand your family better and more deeply when you do family history, another interest of mine.
And often, the two merge, a they did in my case when family history research showed me that I was related to Major Peter Cheesman through the marriage of his daughter Rachel to my ancestor William C. Garwood, a teacher in the Turner School, Turnersville. Through that branch of the family, I also discovered several Revolutionary War veterans in the Chessman family, and a Civil War survivor of Andersonville Prison in the connected Jaggard branch of that family, another marital connection.
Dr. Stone is a well informed history researcher and has written a book, FATAL SUNDAY about Washington at Monmouth. If you ever have a chance to hear one of his lectures, you should take the opportunity, he is a most respected and well informed historian! And a very kind and warm person.
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