For those of you who are regular readers, you know that the town of Mercersburg, PA has been the scene of a struggle to save an important historic structure, the Justice William Smith House. On Thursday, November 11, I drove there to see the house for myself and hear the story from Karen Ramsburg, who is leading the fight to save the building from demolition.
I met with Karen and with Tim McCown another leader in the fight to save the house, at Karen’s house in Mercersburg, which is actually quite near the Smith House. They have amassed quite a bit of information regarding the Smiths and their importance to Pennsylvania as well as to the nation as a whole. Indeed, their actions may have begun the movement for independence from England.
For example, as noted by historians John W. Thompson and Calvin Bricker, “Justice Smith, and his cousin (and brother-in-law) James Smith, worked intricately together, along with most of the other Colonial Justices on the frontier, to thwart illegal war supplies from being traded to the Indians that were under a trade ban issued by Lt. Governor John Penn. The Smiths and their supporters managed for nearly four months during the spring and summer of 1765 to prevent this illicit trade from happening by destroying any contraband (illegal war supplies such as gunpowder, tomahawks and scalping knives) they found being transported west.” (http://savesmithhouse.com/?page_id=650) In addition to stopping the illegal trade goods Justice William Smith comes to a conclusion 8 years before residents in Boston that Americans could govern themselves.
This dissatisfaction with the Crown’s rule was a new element in the colonies and one that continued to spread. ” Although Smith passed away in 1775, this Rebel with a Cause may have created a strong sentiment along the frontier that Americans needed to have the right to protection by their government, and in the absence of that protection, the right to self-defense. ”
Justice William Smith’s brother, James was also an important figure in these events. Later, he was elected to Congress and was involved in writing the 2nd Amendment as part of the militia Bill. James Madison grafted the Virginia Bill on the Smith’s version to create the amendment. This was, of course related to the fear of standing armies and the need for Americans to defend themselves.
As you can see this was an influential family. The events that transpired in this area and in this house were of great significance. Hence, the dismay when the local volunteer fire department bought the house and announced they were going to demolish it to build a parking lot. (How many treasures across the country have been sacrificed to parking lots?)
Numerous plans were proposed to save the house, but the fire department refused them all. When bids were taken to demolish the house, a doctor who is an admitted history buff, stepped forward and offered to buy the house and move it at his own expense in order to save it. At first his bid was rejected because it wasn’t in the ‘proper’ format. However, there has been a storm of publicity about this situation – from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and hopefully this will have some effect. As of my visit, the Fire Department had recently had a closed door meeting with the doctor. Hopefully good sense will prevail and this will occur.
Please take some time and visit Karen’s website and you will probably learn some things about colonial history that you did not know.
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