President's Star
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A Century of Service (continued)
Our Greatest Strength - The Quality of Our Members
Our Pennsylvania Society has always shown strength in both the quality and number of its members. Its first president was William Wayne, great grandson of the Revolutionary general. Membership quickly expanded from the founding until by 1897 there was an active roster of 1025, 1118 having been elected by that time. Apparently the roll has never fallen below 1000 since then. It was an early custom to call new members to the rostrum at the annual meeting and have them shake the hand of the president. This tradition continues today and includes the receipt of rosette -- a gift of the Board of Managers to the new member.
The Great Depression brought on appointment of the first committee to secure new members. At a meeting of the Board of Managers in February, 1934 it was reported that for the first time in the history of the Society there were no proposals for membership to be presented. The new committee reported in April, 1935 that it had interviewed a hundred and seventy-five persons and that a hundred and four had been admitted. Sixty-four were elected in 1936; seventy-eight in 1937. World War II's influence was akin to that of the First World War, when patriotic spirit increased the number of members. But by the early 1970s, with the Bicentennial spirit approaching, attrition had cut our rolls from more than 1450 in 1956 to just over 1250. A special program for 1974 was instituted, under which membership was increased by almost two hundred persons. The Lancaster County Chapter has been most helpful in membership matters and the creation of junior memberships has been a desirable adjunct. Today, with a roll of about 1100, the Pennsylvania Society is the largest state society, surpassing New York among the twenty-seven state societies.
However, in recent years,
the Board of Managers have been seeking new ways to reach out and attract
new members. We have established an active Younger Members Committee,
a Membership Committee in addition to the Admissions Committee. All these
committees have been working together to seek ways to increase membership.
Chief among the problems was a looser attitude toward genealogical documentation
in the early years of the Society, this has required members who claim
descent from parents or grandparents who were members and accepted prior
to 1963 to re-document their lineage. Also, as time goes on, more generations
must be documented and the remaining documentation gets harder to find.
As a consequence, the Society now has on staff a part-time genealogist
to help prospective members through the documentation process.
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The Pennsylvania Society Headquarters
The 1890s were years of experimentation in meeting places for our Society. The vacating by the city authorities of rooms which they had long occupied in Independence Hall led the Board of Managers to secure an ordinance of City Council giving the Society possession of those rooms beginning in April, 1895. But by March, 1896 all right of occupancy was relinquished because a similar privilege had been granted to the DAR.
The impracticability of joint occupancy "needed no demonstration." For a number of years until 1906 the meetings took place at the New Century Room on South 12th Street. In that year the annual meeting was called to order for the first time in the present building of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at 13th and Locust Streets, which had just been completed. Our headquarters remained there until 1991, when it move to its present location at The Racquet Club at 215 South 16th Street.
From time to time a desire has been expressed by various members of the Society to have its own building. A committee appointed in 1932 to investigate this possibility presented a negative report because of the depression. In 1951 a report complete with pictures of available structures and prices was given to the Board; but hesitation engendered by the prospect of increased overhead expense turned into abstention. In 1962 the subject again became active because of two factors: availability of a portion of the Free Quaker's Meeting House in the new Federal Park at Fifth and Arch Streets -- determined to be physically unsuitable for the purpose -- and the substantial gifts to both the Society and the Color Guard under the will of Herbert C. Rorer, who died in office that year as president after a tragic automobile accident. In 1963 a third committee on the subject was appointed which made an exhaustive investigation. By 1970 it was concluded that "the future of our Society is not dependent" on a headquarters building, but that "its resources can better be applied by educating our youth to a fuller understanding of the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice," the cornerstones on which the founding fathers built our nation. This could better be done, said the report, by such a vehicle as the Valley Forge film then contemplated.
One of the problems inherent
in the selection of a headquarters building has been that of accommodating
the traditional Washington's Birthday reception. Begun in 1905, this was
characterized in the report of the Board of Managers as "the crowning
event of the year" which "promises to be a permanent function of the Society."
At that time the reception was held in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and
was attended by 365 guests. The banners and flags of the Society were
displayed surrounding a portrait of Washington after Stuart, donated in
1896. Indeed, the function has become permanent. In several years the
number of guests has reached 800.
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Society Traditions - Past and Present
Against the background of
the permanence of the memorial church service, the annual dinner, and
the Washington's Birthday reception, other Society customs have come and
gone. Notable among these last was the commemoration of Evacuation Day.
Beginning in 1893 and extending until the 1930s, June 18, 1778, was faithfully
celebrated -- the day on which the Continentals broke camp at Valley Forge.
This was always the occasion for what would now be termed a field trip
to a historic site, with an address and a meal. Another custom, continued
until 1950 but now in disuse, was that of a minute on the anniversary
of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, January 17. Such a minute was prepared
and delivered to the Board of Managers each year by one of its members,
and later printed as part of the Annual Proceedings. However, in the category
of new customs falls the Musket Ball. Upon a re-examination of the yearly
calendar of Society events made in the 1970s, came inauguration in 1977
of a popular autumn dinner dance commemorating the Revolutionary victories
of October 17, 1777, at Saratoga, New York and October 19, 1781, at Yorktown,
Virginia.
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