From

the

editors

On July 3, 1975, The Daily Intelligencer published a

98-page magazine which told the story of the Bucks-

Mont’s part in the settlement of the New World and the

fight for independence from Great Britain.

This was the premiere of a four-part series com-

memorating the country’s 200th anniversary.

The first volume of “A Nation Is Forged” covered the

period from the arrival of the first settlers to the

successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War.

This edition presents the story of the epoch between

1800 and the turn of the century.  The third part, which

will be published in February, will deal with the era ex-

tending from the First World War to the present.  The

concluding presentation, which will appear about July

4, 1976, will be a preview of what life will be like at the

end of this century.

This volume’s focal point is the Civil War and the

decades immediately following, during which a struggl-

ing collection of self-interested regions developed

into one of the world’s great powers.  Thus the nation, even

while absorbing wave after wave of immigrants,

developed a standard of living far above its counterparts

in Europe and Asia.

We are holding true to the format established in the

first volume.  The stories deal exclusively with

happenings that occurred in Bucks or Eastern

Montgomery county or involved people who lived in the

sister counties.  Intelligencer writers started work on

this volume in the heat of summer, not too long after the

colonial segment came off the presses.  Long hours of

research were spent in local libraries and museums,

perusing official records, published volumes, diaries

and family records.  Interviews were conducted with

authorities who specialize in the period and those who

possess valuable first-hand accounts from relatives.

The task of producing a 120-page supplement, in addi-

tion to the growing daily workload, was begun several

weeks ago by our composing room, headed by Robert

Williams.

Once again we had invaluable assistance from Terry

McNealy, library director of the Bucks County

Historical Society, and the society itself.  Many other

librarians throughout the Bucks-Mont guided our staff

in its research.

The result is an exclusive collection of stories and pic-

tures that can be matched by no other publication.  For it

is the story of the great and everyday people who lived

in the towns where you now live, who contributed to the

building of a great nation.

This offering starts with the awesome battle of Fair

Oaks, Va., where the men of the 104th Regiment per-

formed with great valor in the ill-fated campaign to

seize Richmond in the early stages of the war.  Our cover

photo shows a memorable event in that battle— the

rescue of the regiment’s colors.  But this is by no means a

military journal.

As in the first volume, we tell the story of our

religious heritage, our schools, farms and industry,

medicine, transportation, government and domestic life.

We see a new theme entering the story of the two

counties just as it did in other parts of the country.  An

awareness of the need to work for social justice was

born.  It was the dawn of a new age.

The Underground Railroad, the network of dedicated

people committed to freeing the slaves and transporting

them to safety, was active here.  Other causes flourishing

across the nation found support among our people. 

These helped to improve the conditions of the im-

migrant laborers, children forced to leave school at an

early age and begin a life of near-servitude, of women

denied the franchise and other fundamental rights of

law.  Not all wrongs were righted in this period, to be

sure, but our people played a role—even if only that of

giving moral support — to virtually all of these

movements.

One reading Volume I may have been impressed by

the “giants” who lived in the two counties.  There were

William Tennent, whose Log College in Warminster was

the forerunner of Princeton and 63 other colleges and

universities; Gen. John Lacey, who risked personal for-

tune to fight for the cause of liberty, only to face in-

glorious defeat in the battle of Crooked Billet, and the

Belgian Jesuit, Theodore Schneider, who gave up a

professorship in Liege to found a church in Haycock

Township more than two centuries ago.

The 19th Century, we thought, could not provide

figures of equal scope and breadth, nor even of romantic

interest.  But the Bucks-Mont, we found, also had its

great citizens in this age.

Far-sighted men built the Delaware Canal, founded

towns and built dwellings, factories, schools and

churches.

It was an era in which the steam train and trolley car

permitted working men to live in the suburbs and com-

mute to jobs in the city.  A bonus: on a pleasant Sunday

afternoon one could take the trolley to Willow Grove

Park for a concert.

And what remarkable women.  There was Mary

Hallowell Hough, born on a Horsham farm, who became

one of Montgomery County’s most prominent

physicians and writer-historians, and Mary Elizabeth

O’Mahoney, of County Cork, Ireland, who emigrated to

America where her children would have the opportuni-

ty to become prosperous.

The 19th Century was a great age for America.  Many

people with diverse backgrounds and interests played

roles in weaving the fabric of which the nation was

fashioned.

This is their story.

James P. McFadden

Managing Editor

Donald P. Davis

News Editor—Features