WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE
Colonial Army’s time at Perkiomen farm to be detailed in Sept. 26 talk
PERKIOMEN» Alan Keyser got a lot more than he bargained for when he purchased an old Goschenhoppen Church register from a book dealer a few years ago.
Tucked in the back, were the handwritten pages of a memory.
The memories were 69 years old and belong to Maria Keeley, who wrote them down in 1846 at the age of 83.
She had been 14 years old when George Washington and his soldiers came to stay at her father’s farm off Township Line Road, making this literally a “Washington slept here” story.
She remembered the soldiers, and the general who became the father of a country.
And you can hear all about Keeley’s memories at a special program at the Perkiomen Township Building at 1 Trappe Road on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.
That’s when Keyser, a member of the Goschenhoppen Historians, will give a talk on Washington’s time in Perkiomen on property that is now owned by the township, according to longtime Supervisor Richard Kratz, a self-described local history junkie who arranged for Keyser’s talk.
Washington visited the Keeley farm twice in 1777.
As Michael Snyder wrote in the Nov. 8, 2004 edition of The Mercury, the British had sailed into Chesapeake Bay in August of 1777 and landed 18,000 troops that were to march north to take Philadelphia, the colonial capital.
On Sept. 11, Washington’s troops tried to block the British advance at the Battle of Brandywine. Thinks didn’t go too well for the Ameri-- cans.
Five days later, Washington tried again in Chester County, near what is now the intersection of Route 202 and Route 30 near Exton, but heavy rain diffused the battle.
So Washington marched his troops to Warwick Furnace, to replace sodden ammunition, then east along what is now Route 23 to try to intercept the British, who had reached Tredyffrin Township, just three miles outside Valley Forge.
Washington was trying to prevent the British from crossing the Schuylkill, and thus threaten Philadelphia, but he also wanted to protect the forges and furnaces further up the valley and a significant store of supplies in Reading.
The Continentals crossed the Schuylkill at Parker’s Ford and then marched up Linfield Road to what is now Ridge Pike, forded Perkiomen Creek and then spread out to several locations to try and scout where the British would try to cross the Schuylkill.
But on Sept. 21, British
Commander William Howe fooled Washington with a feint north, sending his troops tomake it look like he would cross at Phoenixville.
Washington’s counter move was to move upstream into what is later known as Camp Pottsgrove, which brought Washington to the farm of Henry Keeley on Sept. 22, where Maria Keeley’s remembrance begins.
“He stayed overnight, and in the morning he got up right away and went to Camp Pottsgrove,” Keyser said, referencing Keeley’s memoir.
Washington’s headquarters at Camp Potts grove was the home of Henry Antes on Colonial Road, a building that still stands and is the centerpiece of the annual Goshenhoppen Folk Festival every August, and where Keyser volunteers as a historic reenactor.
Howe’s diversion worked and his entire force crossed into Montgomery County between Phoenixville and Valley Forge on Sept. 23, and on Sept. 26, they had marched into Philadelphia, taking possession of the city.
The same day the British marched into the fledgling nation’s capital, Washington returned to the Keeley farm and it was here, Keyser said, that some believe the planning for the upcoming Battle of Germantown was begun.
“When he met with the other commanders at Pennypacker’s Mill a few days later, much of the plan was already worked out,” Keyser said.
While there, the soldiers did what hungry soldiers do in an encampment, they took what they needed, including Pennypacker’s grain, and chickens and eggs.
However, Kratz said there is a story, not confirmed through any documents, of Washington sitting with his foot braced against the door to the Keeley’s farmhouse, making sure every bag of grain taken was accounted for and the farmer was then paid, although with the less valuable Continental currency.
The Battle of Germantown was fought on Oct. 4, 1777 and was a surprise attack on Howe’s encampment of troops there. However, Washington’s army could not execute “his complex battle plan” and the British drove the Americans off and inflicted twice as many casualties as they received, according to History.com.
Many of those wounded were returned to Keeley’s farm and are buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery on Limerick Road, just outside Schwenksville, and now overseen jointly by the Heidelberg United Church of Christ and Jerusalem Lutheran Church.
Nearly 100 graves marked only with small stones are adjacent to a small monument placed there in 1927 by the Valley Forge Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
It was the casual mention of American graves from the Battle of Germantown at Pennypacker Mills which sparked Katz’s interest in local history, and he’s been hooked ever since, he said.
Around the corner from the cemetery, off Township Line Road, is what’s left of the 150-acre Keeley Farm.
The 150-acre farm was founded in 1724 by Valentine Keeley, an immigrant from Germany, said Katz and the land for the cemetery, and the wooden church that once stood there andwas used as a hospital after the Battle of Germantown, was donated by him.
Another donation, this one in the early 1980s, resulted in the township taking possession of a 19-acre parcel and 10 years ago, another 16 acres was donated and is where, Katz and Keyser suspect, Keeley’s original farmhouse once stood.
Forays by archeology students from Kutztown University, who used groundpenetrating radar to search for the home’s foundations, have not yet yielded any results, but Katz said theyhave not yet checked the area of the parcel where Keyser suspects the foundation may lie.
In the meantime, Katz remains fascinated by local history andthe idea that key moments of the American Revolution happened here in the Schuylkill Valley — a fascination he hopes people will share by attending Keyser’s Sept .26 presentation.