Mormon Hollow

Last week we went to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and met Daniel N. Rolph, Ph.D.  (We were introduced to him as Dr. Dan)  He is a long time employee at the Society and full of information and seemed genuinely pleased to help us. He is LDS and had put together a wonderful exhibit on display of some of the artifacts at the facility concerning Mormons in the Philadelphia area.  I will try to take photos of that when we go back.  It is a timely exhibit with the  temple open house. "Dr. Dan" also shared the name of the Greater Philadelphia Area Seminary and Institute Coordinator, Charles Muldowney as one who has lots of details and info about Church history in the area.  I emailed Brother Muldowney to get more information about Mormon Hollow.  He gave me a lot of information so Ed and I headed out today (Tuesday, Sep 6, 2016) to find what is probably the place of "Mormon Hollow". 

Probably "Mormon Hollow"

The Hollow is on the large property of Edward Hunter who was a prominent land owner and leader in the community now called Glenmoore in Chester County, PA. He was pivotal in helping to keep the missionaries who came to preach there safe from the locals. Hunter had built the church being used by the other local churches with the provision that all who wanted to preach would be welcomed there.  When he learned that the local people did not let the Mormon missionaries use the building he threatened to not let them use his building any more.  

This is the little building he built for the community on his property when the original building burned down.  It was called the Nantmeal Seminary at one time. The LDS Church and the Presbyterian Church have both put markers at this property.

There is more to the story, but that is it in a nutshell.  

The LDS Church put up a marker plaque at one corner of the large property he owned: 

Edward joined the Church along with 200+ others from the area which is why the name "Mormon Hollow" came to be used.  Hunter was baptized by Orson Hyde in the creek on his property at a “hollow” which is probably the place shown above, close by his Springton Mill building. Orson Hyde stopped by this area when he was on his way to the Holy Land.  

Among those baptized, probably in the same place or very nearby, were ancestors from our Mousley (my mother’s side) line: Baums, Clowards, Mendenhalls and others.  

Of course there are other Church historical names from the "Hollow":  (Brigham) Young, Wooley’s, Bitner’s, Dilworth’s and Orrin Porter Rockwell to name a few. 

There is much history here and it was wonderful to visit the area.  It is beautiful and peaceful now, but sadly most of the saints who lived here left the area, including Edward Hunter, in 1842 due to persecution.  

It seems to me that many of those who joined the Church during these times endured much persecution for their choices.  Selling property and sacrificing much to be with the Saints in Zion.   This was true for the Mousley ancestors as well, even though they were in a different area closer to Wilmington on the Delaware, Pennsylvania border.  I am so grateful for the heritage and example they have left me.  My life has been so much easier than theirs but I am enjoying the search to learn more of them now so I will recognize them when I meet them after I die.  I hope they will be proud of me in some way. 

Searching for Sharples

We have had a wonderful day.  It has been sunny and cool.  We have enjoyed a light breeze and it looks like Hermine will miss us although they keep saying the storm could always make a sudden change.

After attending a local ward for church this morning we decided we would spend the afternoon doing some serious detective work to find the famous ”Sharples Rock”.  This is what we knew about the location:

            - it was 2 miles north or northwest of Chester but in one of the documents we read it was in an area called Waterville

            - we could not find any area called Waterville

            - we had a 1683 map showing the property with the house close by Ridley Creek

            - using that map overlaid onto a current map of the area Ed discovered it was at an intersection of two roads, Brookhaven and Waterville!

With our optimism and technology (our trusty GPS) we went to that location and found Ridley Creek and …………a Jewish Cemetery!

We were not discouraged.  We drove around finding spots along Ridley Creek but didn’t find anything that was promising so we had to come up with another plan.  What to do?  Find the police!  Off we went to find the nearest police station for that area.  At the second station (the first one was closed on weekends…..what????) Nora spoke with an officer who was willing to use his computer to look for the name Sharples.  He found a Joel Sharples in a neighboring township and gave us directions. It wasn’t far from where we had been looking before, so we anxiously went to the place he told us.  We didn’t find what we thought we were going to see so we kept driving up the road and suddenly I said, “Stop! There it is!”

This is what I saw first:

Ed backed up and we drove into what we thought was a driveway past a fairly modern house and then we saw it.....beautiful!!  Don't have a clue what Wolley Stille means to the family, but I'm hoping we will be able to discover much more detail about the house later on. 

These are the plaques to the left and right of the front door. 

Joseph Sharples was the youngest son of John Sharples and was quite young when his father died in 1685.  He is the ancestor from whom our family descends. 

I loved seeing this above the front door.....

Looking at the stone work we can tell that the house was added on but since no on was home I don't know what was added when and by whom.  Hopefully I will learn more later.  I am happy we did this during the first week here.  We have plenty of time to try and make contact with the owners/residents and learn more of the details of this living legacy from our ancestors. 

So......our next adventure will be to travel along Ridley Creek and see if we can find the actual Rock!! Ed has found a photo on Ancestry of the rock where the first house was built.  

We will put on proper trekking shoes for tomorrow and (weather permitting) head out and see what we can find. 

All in all it has been a wonderful day indeed! 

 

Connections to the Past

My sister, Leslie, asked me in a phone conversation a few days ago if I was posting photos to my blog.  Since I have not posted anything on my blog for over 2 years now I was reminded by her comment that I had neglected recording my life and adventures for way to long.  So, I will attempt to begin again and over time to recreate some of the exciting events over the past 2 years, which have been many.

I am very excited today to begin with a brief note about our discoveries yesterday at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in downtown Philadelphia.  My mother has requested that I go in search of the "Sharples Rock", the spot where a line of her ancestors came with William Penn and began their new life in the New World.  It is an actual rock and I think we may be able to find it tomorrow.

In the historical society vaults, there is an old map, probably from 1687 (although Ed and disagree as to the actual date written on the document) that is "A Map Of The Improved Part Of The Province Of Pennsilvania In America" (spelling from the map).  This includes Chester, Philadelphia and Bucks counties.  On this map I discovered three parcels of land designated for John Sharples.

Another smaller and less detailed map from 1683 showed three different plots of land for him. Two of them right next to each other.  The man who prepared this map also drew in where the homes where on the property.  This has helped us to guess where we can go to find the "Sharples Rock" by comparing (overlaying if you will) a current map with this map.  We also have some descriptions that tell the recent roads, so we are optimistic.



Tomorrow or Monday we will have the time to search out this spot.  We were also told by one of the employees of the historical society that sometime in the last couple of years there was a big ceremony by the Sharples family where they actually put a plaque of some kind on the rock.

We are very excited.

We also found out that one of Ed's cousins is also related by marriage to the same original Sharples!! Can it get much better than this??

More next time.