West Point & Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River
Trip to & from Lower Hudson River Valley
New York, April 17-24, 2017
Introduction by Ted Lollis: As a graduate of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at Yale University, I was invited to attend a 1-1/2 day symposium at the US Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, on April 21-22, 2017. Schera & I decided to drive our van about 2,000 miles in 8 days to & from the symposium & to visit peace monuments & other sites of personal interest en route, e.g. where we had lived in Beltsville, Maryland (recently demolished for new highway construction). This web page is a record of our trip. The total distance driven was 1,853 miles/2,982 km round trip (average 232 miles/373 km per day).
In addition to West Point & Beltsville, we visited the headquarters of the World Peace Prayer Society in Wassaic, New York, and we "discovered" several unanticipated peace monuments, notably "Freedom Court" & a Japanese bell at the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York, & a small peace park in Kingston, New York. We also visited an old friend (Marjorie Ewbank at a Quaker retirement community in Newtown, Pennsylvania) & met three longstanding "email friends" (Doug Martin Sturomski in Hopewell Junction, New York, plus Laurel Hessing & Sylvia Heerens in Free Acres, a 1910 intentional community in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey) for the first time face-to-face.
This web page contains 29 little descriptions of people & places we visited on our trip. The descriptions use a format (image(s) + flags + date + name + location + notes) adapted from my website Peace Monuments Around the World, but the subjects are more diverse. Although 7 of the descriptions are about peace poles (Doug Martin Sturomski x2 in Hopewell Junction, NY, Peace Prayer Sanctuary x2 in Wassaic, NY, the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, Samoa & our home in Knoxville) and 9 are about other peace monuments (Mohonk Mountain House near New Paltz, NY, FDR grave in Hyde Park, NY, Freedom Court in Hyde Park, Four Freedoms Kinetic Sculpture in Hyde Park, Reconciliation Plaza at USMA, Kingston Peace Park in Kingston, NY, Sojourner Truth monument in Kingston, NY, Friends Meeting House in Newtown, PA , Benjamin Lundy marker in Greeneville, TN), 7 relate to personal history (Beltsville, MD, Princeton University, Thayer Hotel at USMA, Civ-Mil Symposium at USMA x2, Marjorie Ewbank & Edinburg Mill), 5 to family history (Carvin's Cove, Free Acres x3 & George Alexander Campbell II grave at USMA), and 1 to general US history (Robert E. Lee grave in Lexington, VA).
Our trip began & ended in Knoxville, Tennessee (at "13" on the left map)
but focused on the Hudson River Valley (at "3" on the left map).
The right map names most (but not all) of the places we visited in the Hudson River Valley.
   DAY #1 - Monday, April 17, 2017 - Fill up at Marathon station in Knoxville, TN. (165,718). Late start. Drive c.366 miles from Knoxville, TN, via Bristol, Roanoke & Staunton to HARRISONBURG, VA. Dinner at Red Lobster in Staunton, VA. Sleep at Walmart in HARRISONBURG, VA [about "8" on left map].
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|  Drive past Carvin's Cove, near Roanoke, Virginia (USA). This place is sacred to me because my Lollis ancestors lived here before moving to Indiana. The cove was flooded in 1926-1946 (long after they moved) to create reservoir for Roanoke city water supply. Farms & about 60 homes were destroyed, but some graves survived, including those of John A. Board [1826-1912] & Sarah Elizabeth (Sallie) Board [1864-1950] - recently photographed & put on-line (lower 2 images). John co-owned the Cove Alum Springs Hotel (but perhaps only after it burned in 1877). Sallie maried Nero Beverley Padgett [c1860-1936], bought land from Ed Lollis in 1897 & was last to leave Roanoke watershed (about 1943) but was buried there in 1950. ///
"Cove Alum Springs was a popular mid-19th century springs resort. It was located on a 160 acre land tract northeast of Bennett Springs [and] included...a ballroom & individual cottages. When the hotel burned in 1877, the land was sold to the John Board family who sold it to the City of Roanoke in 1939 as a part of the city purchasing the necessary land to complete construction of the Carvin's Cove Water Reservoir." /// From an aticle by Marilyn Moriarty (English professor at Hollins University): "The Cove Alum Springs resort once stood on the regular stagecoach route from Salem [seat of Roanoke County] to Fincastle [seat of Botetourt County]. The resort burned down in 1877, and few signs of it remain, but we found [the foundation stones] the day we went out for a long hike... Rows of daffodils continued to bloom. Once they would have lined the hotel’s base & entrance, but now there’s nothing there. The built structure long ago dissolved into nothingness. It was odd to see those lines of yellow flowers in the middle of the woods, embodying a moral about how nature persists." // On April 17, 2017, we did not enter the unimproved cove reservation (said to be the 2nd largest municipal park in the USA) but merely drove past. The first image shows the highway (I-81) & Roanoke airport in the upper left, just south of the reservoir & north of the city.
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   DAY #2 - Tuesday, April 18, 2017 - Drive c.372 miles from Harrisonburg, VA, to Free Acres, NJ.
Visit site of our former home in Beltsville, MD [just north of little box on left map which represents Washington, DC]. Visit Laurel & Shlomo Hessing in Free Acres, NJ [in green area of northern New Jersey on left map]. Walk around Free Acres with Sylvia Heerens. Pizza dinner chez Hessing. Sleep in Hessing driveway in FREE ACRES, NJ.
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| - Visit 12700 Virginia Manor Road, Beltsville Maryland (USA). We lived nearly three years at this address in a many times revived "farmhouse." Just before we rented it, it served (we were told) as the office & parking lot of a bus company. We lived upstairs and used the ground floor as a secondary map store & warehouse for the National Map Gallery & Travel Center, our seven day a week retail store in Union Station, Washington, DC (20.3 miles away). Schera built up our consulting business (Geovisual Business Services) here. After we moved (first to Doylestown, PA, then to Washington state & Tennessee), the state of Maryland condemned the property, tore down the house, widened Virginia Manor Road (2 lanes to 5), changed its name to Konterra Road & used the property to support construction of the "Intercounty Connector." /// Left image is house site on April 18, 2017, with new highway (& our cat's unmarked grave) in background. Right image by Google Streetview shows our house shortly after it was condemned by the state & some trees were cut down.
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| - Visit Free Acres, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Free Acres is an intentional community started in 1910 by Bolton Hall [1854-1938] - 30.5 road miles to/from Times Square, New York City. Three of my collateral cousins moved there from Public Landing, Maryland. After their deaths in 1982, 1982 & 1990, Laurel Field Hessing & Sylvia Heerens found out that an abandoned cabin was full of old family letters & other documents which they painstakingly transcribed & published on-line under the title of "Treasures of the Little Cabin: A Free Acres Cabin Tells the Stories of Those who Loved it and Sought its Shelter." I am greatly indebted to Laurel & Sylvia but had never actually met them. So I had to make this stop on the current trip. /// See my three web pages if you want to see & learn more of this long & fascinating multigenerational history. ///
Left image is the community's "old farmhouse." Right image is Laurel in her living room on April 18, 2017. (Our van is visible just over her head.)
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| - Original paintings in home of Laurel & Shlomo Hessing, Free Acres, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Left image is painting by Mary Ingels de Guibert [1862-1932] of the old home she & her husband purchased on Chincoteague Bay in Public Landing, Maryland. Right image is professional portrait of their second daughter Davida De Guibert [1885-1947], a "raving beauty" & artist's model, by
renowned painter Kenneth Frazier [1867-1949] in 1912.
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 DAY #3 - Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - Breakfast chez Sylvia & Don Heerens in Free Acres. NJ. Drive 140 miles from Free Acres, NJ, via Hyde Park & Rhinebeck to Kingston, NY.
Visit Hyde Park, NY. Shop at TOPS supermarket in Rhinebeck. Dinner? Sleep at Walmart in KINGSTON, NY.
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| - Breakfast in home of Sylvia & Don Heerens, Free Acres, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Images show paintings by Mary Ingels de Guibert [1862-1932] of Chincoteague Bay & wharf in Public Landing, Maryland.
Text of note by Jane EBERLEIN Hall [1911-1982] on back of the left painting:
"Oil painting by Mary De Guibert. View of public landing shore line pier and
Cinnepuksen Bay [sic] from De Guibert house - home garden and ivy clad
building in foreground."
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| Year? - "Chinese Bell," in living room of "Springwood" (Birthplace & Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt), Hyde Park, New York (USA). About 3 feet/1 meter tall. EWL visited on April 19, 2017. National Park Service guide called this a "Chinese bell" & said the Roosevelt family rang it to call guests to dinner. He disputed that it looks more Japanese than Chinese. IMO, the bell is shaped like a typical Japanese bell, and it has many "knobs" which are common on Japanese bells but NOT on Chinese bells. I wonder when & how it was acquired by the Roosevelt family. Click here to compare "peace bells" from Japan, China & other countries. Note how similar bells were brought to the USA from Japan as trophies of WW-II. But FDR [1882-1945] was Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1913-1920, and maybe this bell was given to him at that time. /// From a visitor's blog: "FUN ROOSEVELT FACTS: Among gifts in Springwood is a bell from a Buddhist monastery; FDR's mom [Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, 1854-1941] used it respectfully and with the utmost dignity as a dinner bell. Since all dinners were formal, the first bell was a 30-minute warning; those who were not dressed in time had to eat dinner alone in their rooms, and then would be beaten thoroughly [sic] by the servants." /// From "[Joseph] Stillwell & the American Experience in China, 1911-1945" by Barbara W. Tuchman (2001): "At Hyde Park [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [1882-1945] was brought up among Chinese furnishings, among them a large blue & white porcelain garden pot in the library which according to family tradition had been used at Rose Hill ["the home the Delanos would occupy in Hong Kong"] for bathing the children. A bronze Chinese bell used as a dinner gong had been acquired by Roosevelt's grand- father from two coolies who were carrying it away from the sack at Soochow in 1863. Roosevelts's stamp collection was founded on Chinese & Hong Kong issues given to him by his mother when he was ten..." /// COMMENT BY EWL: Each of the three accounts given here appears to be a typical tour guide simplification further removed from the truth by anonymous & amateur scribes. More reliable is the Wikipedia account that Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, her mother Catherine & six brothers & sisters "lived in Hong Kong 1862-1865...where they joined Warren Delano who had resumed his business of trading in opium, then still legal." My hunch is that the bell's origin is poorly documented but that it has been in the home for so many decades that few if any visitors have questioned its source. Its Japanese origin is obvious to me but apparently has never been investigated by the National Park Service. /// Lower image shows the front of "Springwood,"
birthplace & lifelong home of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.  
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| April 15, 1945 - Grave of Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945], in Rose Garden of Springwood, Hyde Park, New York (USA). "After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt's body was transported to Hyde Park by train, guarded by four servicemen, one each from the Army, Navy, Marines & Coast Guard. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home, birthplace & lifelong home of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.
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 | October 28, 1945 - May 14, 1994 - June 15, 2007 - Freedom Court," Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (Springwood Estate), Hyde Park, New York (USA). This is a complicated monument because it consists of three parts erected over a span of 62 years (not to mention the adjacent library & museum). "Freedom Court" includes (1) 1945 bust of FDR by Walter Russell [1871-1963], (2) 1994 "BreakFree" by artist Edwina Sandys (grand-daughter of Churchill) & (3) 2007 bust of Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon [1906-1985]. /// Made from four segments of the Berlin Wall [1961-1989], "'BreakFree' shows the figures of a man & a woman emerging from symbolic, giant barbed wire, expressing Man's irresistible quest for freedom. Appropriately, this sculpture stands on a podium inscribed around the base with Roosevelt's 'Four Freedoms':"
Freedom of speech,
Freedom of worship,
Freedom from want &
Freedom from fear.
/// Right image shows Sandys & Nemon's daughter Aurelia at 2007 dedication of the Churchill bust during a conference whose theme was "Roosevelt & Churchill: The Legacy of Two Statesmen." In foreground is the 1945 bust of FDR by Walter Russell. (Sandys' "Breakthrough" [qv] was also made from the Berlin Wall & placed at Fulton, Missouri, in 1990.)
Visited by EWL on April 19, 2017.
  FOUR_FREEDOMS BERLIN_WALL 1945 1994 2007 NY FDR US-UK
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|  November 9, 1990 - "Breakthrough," Latshaw Plaza, adjacent to Winston Churchill Memorial (in a reconstructed Christopher Wren church), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri (USA). By artist Edwina Sandys (grand-daughter of Churchill).
Fulton is "Where Churchill first coined the historic phrase the 'Iron Curtain' [in March 1946]. [This] has been called the most significant monument to be constructed on American soil since the Vietnam [Veterans] Memorial. Created from eight massive sections of the Berlin Wall. Features male & female forms cut out from the wall's concrete surface, symbolizing a passage through the wall to freedom." /// Right image shows how four segments were cut off & separately erected in Hyde Park, New York.
/// Also see the 2000 MS&T Millennium Arch by Edwina Sandys in Rolla, Missouri. Visited by EWL.
 1990 MISSOURI
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| November 2006 - Four Freedoms Kinetic Sculpture, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum, Hyde Park, New York (USA). By Henry Philippe Loustau. "Captures the
essence of the Four
Freedoms and the
meaning of American
patriotism through the
sculptor’s use of such
familiar symbols as gold
stars, bold stripes, and the
incorporation of colors
red, white and blue. The
work’s use of the number
four, and its reference to a
wheelchair and a sail set
in constant motion by the
wind, recall the inspiring
and heroic nature of
Franklin D. Roosevelt – a
man who, in spite of his
own struggle with
disability, lifted a
paralyzed nation out of the
despair of the Great
Depression and led us to
victory in the greatest
conflict in history. This sculpture will
travel the world to encourage young people to appreciate
the legacy of freedom as
expressed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
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DAY #4 - Thursday, April 20, 2017 - Visit Kingston Peace Park. Drive 89 miles from Kingston, NY, via New Paltz & Hopewell Junction to Millbrook, NY. Try to visit Mohonk Mountain House near New Paltz, NY. Fill up at Sunoco station in New Paltz, NY . (166,619). Visit Doug Martin Sturomski in Hopewell Junction, NY.
Dinner at diner in Millbrook, NY. Sleep on street in MILLBROOK, NY.
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| October 19, 1996 - Kingston Peace Park, 64 North Front Street (at Crown Street), Stockade Historic District, Kingston, Stockade Historic District, Ulster County, New York (USA). Apparently constructed on a small vacant lot (site of home of Jacobus S. Bruyn [1749-1823]) near historic center of town (which was fortified during the American Revolution). Connection to "peace" is unclear (except for a small, wooden plaque - right image - erected by supporters of Sri Chinmoy [1931-2007] to one side of the principle plaque designating this to be a "Peace Blossom Park"). /// Mural by Matthew Pleva on overlooking wall is entitled "The Hobgoblin of Old Dutch." /// Visited by EWL on April 20, 2017. /// FYI, Kingston became the first capital of New York state in 1777 but was almost immediately burned by British troops. PARKS SRI_CHINMOY NY 1996
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 | 1976 - Monument for Sojourner Truth, Stockade Historic District, Kingston, Ulster County, New York (USA).
"A marker honoring the life of Sojourner Truth [c1797-1883] stands on the front lawn of the Ulster County Courthouse." She was born into slavery in Ulster County. NY 1976 TRUTH SLAVERY
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| August 30, 1921 - Albert K. Smiley Memorial Tower, Sky Top Mohonk, above Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York (USA). In Shawangunk Mountains. "Smiley's Quaker beliefs led him to...the cause of peace. In 1895, he convened the first of many annual conferences on International Arbitration, held at Mohonk Mountain House. Their purpose was to provide a forum for national & international leaders to meet & discuss world problems in an effort to find alternatives to war. The conferences continued through 1916, & included notable attendees such as President William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan & Secretaries of State of successive administrations. These conferences highlighted a concern for peaceful conflict resolution that has been credited with giving impetus to the Hague Conference movement. The United Nations of today can trace its roots back to the Hague Conferences." Click here for source of this information. /// On April 20, 2017, we tried to drive to the hotel, but a guard refused our entry because we did not have a reservation. He gave us a glossy brochure which does not mention's the hotel's history.
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| - Visit Doug Martin Sturomski at his home & office in Hopewell Junction, New York (USA). As talented musicians, Doug & his wife (left image) use hand bells (& other instruments) to perform peace concerts. They plant many peace poles & operate the World Wide Peace Bell Foundation from their home, and Doug is an active Rotarian. /// Middle image is the foundation logo. Right image is "Our Signature Hudson Valley View with Peace Pole from the Top of Downing Park Newburgh."
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DAY #5 - Friday, April 21, 2017 - Drive c.90 miles from Millbrook, NY, via Wassaic, Newburgh & Storm King Mountain to West Point, NY. Visit Peace Sanctuary in Wassaic, NY.
Visit grave of George Alexander Campbell II in West Point, NY. Attend opening reception & dinner of Yale-West Point Symposium. Sleep at Thayer Hotel, US Military Academy in WEST POINT, NY.
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| 1991 - World Peace Sanctuary, World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS), 26 Benton Road, Wassaic, Town of Amenia, Dutchess County, New York (USA). In Taconic Mountains.
"Occupies 154 acres. The office building [upper left image] was renovated from a cow barn to an office which now serves as the international headquarters of the WPPS, the Peace Pole Project & Peace Pals International [for children].
The annual 'A Call To Peace' gathering is presented in the Sacred Grove [lower left image]. [The gathering] celebrates the
International Day of Peace [with] highlighting ceremonies &
rituals to bless the Native American Nations, the 50 US States & its territories & the countries of the world in a colorful
procession of flag Ceremonies."
Entry #626 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). /// When EWL visited on April 21, 2017, he met Ann Marie Robustelli
(Executive Director Assistant & Peace Pole Project Coordinator) & James (Jim) Dugan
(Sanctuary Manager & peace pole fabricator) - upper middle image - & learned that no annual festival has been held since 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001). Robustelli said "instead of expecting our many supporters to come to this remote location, we now travel to them." /// "Founded in Japan in 1955, the WPPS has its headquarters in Wassaic including [sic] offices in Japan, Germany, Scotland & San Francisco." /// Images #2, #3 & #5 courtesy of Jim Dugan 24Apr2017.  
| Vendors
In addition to four-sided white vinyl peace poles made on the premises by Jim Dugan, the World Peace Sanc- tuary displays World Peace Prayer products of many other vendors, including Peace Pole Makers USA of Maple City, Michigan, Painted Peace of Bellingham, Washington, Hank Kaminski of Fayetteville, Arkansas, & World Wide Peace Bell Foundation of Hopewell Junction, New York. See all of these on my peace pole web page.
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| | 1991 - Peace Path, World Peace Sanctuary, World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS), 26 Benton Road, Wassaic, New York (USA). "Lined with Peace Poles on both sides, representing each of the 192 UN member nations in the world."
Entry #626 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). /// When EWL visited on April 21, 2017, he found that the wooden poles have been replaced with starkly white vinyl poles & that the "path" has been rearranged into a curve.
 POLES 1991 UN
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| September 2000 - Peace Pole, Chapel, Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia (USA).
"At [the dedication] in the Secretary of the Army's Conference Room, a little eight-year old girl stated her intention of starting a long narrow children's peace quilt that would contain the children's love & their feelings of what 'peace on earth' would be like for them. (It would follow a similar model made mostly by adults & conceived by [Portland folksinger] James Twyman.)" /// Information courtest of Ann Marie Robustelli who said 21Apr2017 that the peace pole inside the Pentagon exerts its influence whether or not its existence is widely known in the world at large. 2000 VA POLES
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September 21, 2013 - Peace Pole, foot of Broadway, Newburgh, New York (USA). "The Newburgh Rotary & World Wide Peace Bell Foundation, in cooperation with Newburgh Mayor Judy Kennedy's office, are dedicating a new, more substantial Peace Pole... at 11 a.m. Saturday, International Peace Day. The symbol will be dedicated to two late peace advocates: John McConnell [1915-2012], 96, the founder of Earth Day in 1970, and Toshi Seeger [1922-2013], 91, for 70 years a devoted wife to Pete Seeger [1919-2014] who also was a loving mother and friend to everyone she met.
During the ceremony, Newburgh will be designated a Rotary Peace City & an International City of Peace, and Kennedy will be honored as a Mayor of Peace. Following the dedication, a short Peace Promenade will take place, ending at 11:45 a.m. Among the community leaders participating will be the Rev. Bill Scafidi, Doug Martin Sturomski & Rotarians Pete Sukeena & Bill Bassett, past district governor." /// Image shows Doug Martin Sturomski (far right) & Hudson River (in backround).
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| 1948 - Visit grave of my first cousin George Alexander Campbell II [1929-1948], grave VIII-F-305, USMA Cemetery, US Military Academy, West Point, New York (USA). George was the only male in my mother's family to bear the family name. He entered west Point in 1947 &, at the very beginning of his second year, broke his neck while swimming at Camp Buckner & died 12 days later in the Station Hospital in West Point. On April 21, 2017, I obtained a copy of General Orders No. 44. signed by MAXWELL D. TAYLOR, Major General, U.S.A., Superintendent, concerning his death. /// Right image is the entire Campbell family in St. Louis, Missouri, on Christmas Day 1937. George is seated in front of a female cousin in right rear, Jane (George's sister who will marry his upperclass "sponsor" at West Point) wears a prominent white collar in left rear, & Ted is asleep on his mother's lap at extreme right.
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| 2001 - Reconciliation Plaza, US Military Academy, West Point, New York (USA). Central marker inscribed "The Class of 1961 presents this memorial to the United States Military Academy on the occasion of its 40th reunion and one hundred forty years after the graduation of the Classes of May and June 1861. We commemorate the reconciliation betweeen North and South and dedicate this memorial to our classmates who died in service to our Nation." NY 2001 CIVIL_WAR RECONCILIATION
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| Date? - Thayer Hotel, US Military Academy, West Point, New York (USA). Officially opened May 27, 1926. This is where the 52 American hostages were sequestered for three days immediatelly after flying home from Iran in 1981 ("the longest hostage crisis in recorded history") via Algiers (Algeria), Wiesbaden (Germany), Shannon (Ireland) & Newburgh (New York). [In Algiers they were received by US ambassador Ulric Haynes who had been my freshman counselor at Yale in 1955-56.] 
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DAY #6 - Saturday, April 22, 2017 -
Attend full day of "Yale-West Point Civ-Mil Service Symposium" at West Point. Drive c.98 miles from West Point, NY, to Princeton, NJ. Dinner at "Tiger's Tale" restaurant in Princeton, NJ. Sleep on street in PRINCETON, NJ.
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| April 21-22, 2017 - "Yale-West Point Civ-Mil Service Symposium," Eisenhower Hall, US Military Academy, West Point, New York (USA). "The latest undertaking in a series of major collaborations between Yale & West Point that was catalyzed by the 2015 Yale Veterans Summit, the first national veterans/military conference of its kind within the Ivy League.
Marking the 100th Anniversary of America’s entry into World War I & a century of US global leadership, the Symposium will address & advance the ongoing national dialogue about the way forward in U.S. civil-military relations; substantive issues, challenges & opportunities affecting veterans & actively-serving members of the Armed Forces; & America’s role, status &influence in an increasingly complex & multipolar world."
YALE
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| April 22, 2017 - Lunch in Cadet Mess Hall, Washington Hall, US Military Academy, West Point New York (USA). The academy is on the "west point" of the Hudson River. "In the Cadet Mess Hall [which seats 4,400 cadets 3 times a day] is the huge [2,450 square feet, 70 x 35 foot 1936] mural ["Panorama of Military History" by [WPA artist] T. Loftin Johnson] that depicts decisive battles from the Babylonians to WW I. The battles & leaders that count are the ones that are important to American Civilization. The legacy of Western Civilization’s defining wars, none other’s, serves to inspire West Point cadets. Filling the very center is the banner of the Christian cross with the Crusader King Richard I. Richard, Coeur de Lion, dominates the mural, not Richard the multi-cultural, PC appeaser for Human Secularism [sic]."
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 DAY #7 - Sunday, April 23, 2017 -
Visit two houses I'd lived in in Princeton, Guyot Hall (home of the geology department) & the Princeton University Infirmary (where I recovered from hepatitus contracted in Dominican Republic in 1959). Drive 382 miles from Princeton, NJ, via Newtown, Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore to Lexington, VA. Visit Marjorie Ewbank in Newtown, PA. Fill up at Exxon station in Langhorne, PA (166,902). Stop at the pre-Civil War (1848) mill in Edinburg, VA (near Camp Strawderman which Cynthia attended several summers). Dinner at "Southern Inn" in LEXINGTON, VA. Sleep in light rain on street in LEXINGTON, VA.
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| - Visit Guyot Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (USA). "The last academic building constructed during Woodrow Wilson's tenure [as university president]. Constructed 1908-09 [10 years before the Treaty of Versailles], this building provided space for the geology & biology departments [with] the new Museum of Natural History on the ground floor. It was named in honor of Professor Arnold Henry Guyot [1807-1884], who had built the geological collections & curriculum in the 1870's & 1880's." /// As a navy officer during WW-II, Princeon Professor Harry Hess [1906-1969] crossed the Pacific many times & - by keeping his transport ship's echo sounder turned on - was surprised to discover isolated underwater volcanic mountains (seamounts) with a flat top over 200 m (660 ft) below sea level which he named "guyots". // I was a graduate student under Hess for one summer (1959) & two semesters (1959-61).
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| - Newtown Friends Meeting, Newtown, Pennsylvania (USA). "Organized in 1815 by Edward Hicks [1780-1849] & a number of his Bucks County neighbors & friends. They met in the County Court House, then at the corner of Centre Avenue & Court Street. In 1817, largely through Edward Hicks’ efforts, the present meetinghouse was built on Court Street, close by his home on Penn Street.
A carriage & sign painter by profession, Hicks was respected during his lifetime more for his powerful ministry in Friends’ meetings than for his art, but to him his paintings were undoubtedly 'sermons in oils,' as George Haynes, a respected member of our Meeting, called them in his monograph on Hicks. Inspired by words in the 11th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, he painted more than 100 versions of 'The Peaceable Kingdom,' his best known work.
Today he is recognized as one of America’s great primitive painters. Copies of his 'Peaceable Kingdom,' 'The Twining Farm,' 'Noah’s Ark' & other paintings now nationally known, are in the Hicks room on the 2nd floor of our meetinghouse...
Edward Hicks’ grave, with the low headstone preferred by Friends, may be found near the sycamore tree across from the front porch of the meeting house that he loved so much."
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| - Visit Marjorie Ewbank in her room at Pennswood Village (retirement community), Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Marjorie & her husband John were our best friends after we joined Bryn Gweled Homesteads (intentional community) in Upper Southampton, Pennsylvania. Before we knew them, they had been active world federalists, and I put John's "A History of the World Government Movement" at the end of the federalism web page of my peace monuments website. Marjorie is now 102 years old. We talked about old times, mutual friends & a 1974 world federalist monument we saw in Hirosihima Peace Memorial Park in 2008. After we left, Marjorie sent us an email describing an impressive peace pole dedication ceremony which she & John attended either in American Samoa or Independent Samoa in [year unknown]. /// Left image shows Marjorie & John several years ago. Right image shows Marjorie & Schera on April 23, 2017.
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|   - Peace Pole in Samoa (Independent State of Samoa or American Samoa?). All information in email from 102-year old Marjorie Ewbank April 24, 2017:
"One of the things that I could have told you about [yesterday] was our trip to Samoa. During the conference that we attended, the mayor of the town (now I can't remember the name) arranged for the celebration and planting of the PEACE POLE. All the school children, the towns people & the 200 hundred conference people gathered in a circle around the edge of a very large field. At one point the mayor and a few of the notables stayed, planted the pole and had everyone repeat "May Peace Prevail on Earth" as we marched around the edge of the circle. The words were repeated in every language of the world and the march continued for hours. It was a blistering hot day and how we all managed to survive is a mystery. There were a few trees around the edge of the circle and some folks did stop to rest."
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| 1848 - Visit Edinburg Mill, Edinburg, Virginia (USA). In Shenandoah Valley [see map above]. Saved from being burned by the Union army in 1864. Operated as a grist mill until 1978. Was a nice restaurent when Cynthia attended nearby Camp Strawderman. Now a museum, shop & sandwich restaurant in the basement. We read the menu & decided not to eat there.
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| - Pass by Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia (USA). Robert E. Lee [1807-1870], West Point class of 1829, retired here after the Civil War & served as president of Washington College until his death in 1870. He is buried underneith Lee Chapel (left image) on the university campus, his horse Traveller is bured just outside, and the college was renamed in his memory. Monuments to Lee & other representations of the Confederacy are currently being removed (or debated) in New Orleans, Charlottesville (72 road miles from Lexington) & other southern cities, but it is hard to imagine their being totally removed from Lexington.
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DAY #8 - Monday, April 24, 2017 - Drive 316 miles from Lexington, VA, to Knoxville, TN. Fill up in Daleville, VA (167295). Van repair in Greeneville, TN. Arrive HOME.
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| - Front wheel bearings of our van come disintegrated. Image shows Schera & our van on a wrecker just prior to being carried for repairs at Dodge dealer in Greeneville, Tennessee (USA).
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E | Fall 2005 - Four-sided Peace Pole on driveway of a private home, George Williams Road, Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). This pole has "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in English, Espagnol / Spanish, Francais / French & Tsalagi / Cherokee. Photo by EWL.
Click here for more information about peace poles.
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