Covering the Mid-Atlantic States: I was much younger then

The 1990s were a time to cover a lot of territory I guess. After the trip "Out West" in 1991, the Prall Reunion in 1992, NJ & SI in 1993, wanderlust struck again and I  headed West again in '94. That brings us to the crazy summer of 1995.

I had learned of a summer "Revolutionary War" workshop sponsored by the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge. The weeklong event was for history teachers and offered college credit. The program was one of three, "The Revolution in the Delaware Valley," "The Revolution in the North" and "The Revolution in the South."

The Delaware Valley "campaign" would cover the Pennsylvania & New Jersey Rev War sites. We stayed on the Freedoms Foundation campus. Washington's Crossing, the Trenton Barracks, Princeton & Monmouth Battlefields, Princeton University [for a lecture & lunch], Paoli Massacre Monument, Brandywine Battlefield, Cliveden, Fort Mifflin, Valley Forge, Independence Historic Park in Philly, Ben Franklin sites, Landis Valley Farm Museum, Hopewell Furnace  Village, Peter Wentz Farmstead, Robert Morris House, & the Betsy Ross House among others. We also visited Lancaster, PA's Amish market.

It should be noted that I took this vacation during one of the hottest summers in recent Delaware Valley history. Temperatures in the low 90s marked a cold-snap! About half of the teachers were from California. They suffered mightily. I was used to the heat, being from Florida at the time.

Before the Freedoms Foundation workshop, I took on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hershey Park, Kingston &New Paltz, NY. Those were my primary research targets - excluding Hershey Park, of course.

In Philly, the Historical and Genealogical Societies were stops for Prall and Rittenhouse research. The libraryKingston and Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz were for the Prall, DuBois and Whittaker families. The latter proved much more fruitful. 

I took in some of the sights in the Pocono Mountains and visited Hershey Park. Historic Rittenhouse Town, near Germantown, was also on my list since ancestor Wilhelm Rittenhouse built his paper mill there. My primary targets in New Paltz were the DuBois home and the Dutch Reformed Church.

Pictures: Top: Louis DuBois marker at the Huguenot Memorial Church [Louis' grave is now covered by the church!]; center: The DuBois Fort - Louis' home in New Paltz; bottom: the 1710 Rittenhouse homestead