Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods

Posted by Rebecca Gross on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Clinton County: Still Part of Penn’s Woods Clinton County, one of the sixth-class counties of Pennsyl­vania, occupies 900 square miles of river valley and mountain land near the geographical center of the state. Nearly two-thirds of the area re­mains forested, al though most of the trees are second growth after a near denuding of the land by a booming lumber industry in the second half of the last century. It was in the wood­lands of...
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William Penn’s Pennsylvania: A Legacy of Religious Freedom

Posted by John Fea on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on William Penn’s Pennsylvania: A Legacy of Religious Freedom In a letter written August 25, 1681, William Penn (1644–1718) described his new colony to friend and fellow Quaker James Harrison (circa 1628–1687). He hoped that in the development of Pennsylvania “an example may be set up to the nations.” The colony would serve as a “holy experiment,” a place where people of different ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs would find a peaceful home. His...
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Cultivating Piety: The Religious World of Joseph Price

Posted by John Fea on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Cultivating Piety: The Religious World of Joseph Price Joseph Price (1752-1828) was a carpenter, coffin-maker, sawmill operator, innkeeper, turnpike supervisor, and farmer who lived in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County. His daily activities were governed, like most ordinary men living in the early American republic, by the relentless regularity of the agricultural calendar and the market economy. Price’s economic activities, recorded...
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Benjamin Franklin and His Religious Beliefs

Posted by John Fea on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Benjamin Franklin and His Religious Beliefs Ezra Stiles (1727-1795), the Calvinist president of Yale College, was curious about Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his faith. In 1790, he asked the nation’s senior statesman if he would commit his religious beliefs to paper. Franklin agreed. He was nearing the end of his life – he died six weeks later – and possibly believed this was as good a time as any to summarize the...
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