[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 11, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY: 125 YEARS OF HONORING THE 
 MEMORY OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN NEW 
                                 JERSEY

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                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 1998

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize and pay 
tribute to the Washington Association of New Jersey. As the keepers of 
the Ford Mansion, also known as Washington's Headquarters, and the 
guardians of Morristown National Historical Park, the support of the 
Washington Association and its members has been extraordinary. This 
year, the Association celebrates its 125th year of service to honoring 
the memory of George Washington and preserving Washington's 
Headquarters and the park's historical sites for future generations.
  The Ford Mansion, built in Morristown between 1772-74, was the home 
of Colonel Jacob Ford, Jr., a landowner, iron manufacturer and ardent 
patriot of Morris County. As Colonel of the Eastern Battalion of New 
Jersey's militia forces, Jacob Ford participated in the first Battle of 
Springfield. However, shortly thereafter, he fell ill with pneumonia 
and died on January 10, 1777. Even so, Colonel Ford's widow, Theodosia, 
who was left with five children, offered the mansion to General George 
Washington to use as his headquarters during the very harsh winters of 
1777 and 1779-80 in New Jersey. Unlike the areas of New Jersey nearer 
to New York City, Morristown had fewer loyalists and its surrounding 
hills provided natural defenses for a winter refuge where the next 
summer campaign could be planned. In addition, the Continental Army and 
various militias could be maneuvered quickly to either Manhattan or 
Philadelphia from their primitive and difficult encampment at Jockey 
Hollow.
  In this grand home, Washington, along with his aide-de-camp Alexander 
Hamilton, would lay out the strategy for much of the Revolution's 
greatest campaigns. At a tall secretary desk, which still graces the 
mansion, Washington penned some of the most important letters of the 
Revolution. Some of the greatest heroes of the war, including the 
Marquis de Lafayette, General Schuyler, General Greene, General Knox, 
and even the infamous traitor General Benedict Arnold, walked through 
the Ford Mansion's front door and graced Martha Washington's wartime 
dining room with their conversations about victory, defeat and the 
battles yet to come. It has been said that under the Ford Mansion's 
roof have been gathered more figures known to the military history of 
our Revolution than any other house in America. It is no wonder that 
Morristown is considered the Military Capital of the Revolution.
  Nearly a century later, the Washington Association of New Jersey was 
founded in Morristown in June of 1873, in order to save the Ford 
Mansion as it was offered for sale by the heirs of Colonel Ford's 
grandson, the Honorable Henry Ford. Four New Jersey gentlemen, former 
Governor Theodore F. Randolph, William Van Vleck Lidgerwood of 
Morristown, and George A. Halsey and General Norris Halsted of Newark, 
were responsible for leading this great effort. The Association was 
chartered by an act of the New Jersey State Legislature on March 20, 
1874 as a stock-granting corporation in New Jersey.
  The Association maintained the Ford Mansion in Morristown until 1933, 
and in the process accumulated a remarkable collection of Revolutionary 
War memorabilia. Through the influence of the Washington Association, 
Mayor Clyde Potts of Morristown and Mr. Lloyd Waddell Smith, member and 
sometime president of the Association, the Ford Mansion was donated to 
the Federal government on March 2, 1933, creating Morristown National 
Historic Park, the nation's first historic park. Also included in the 
park were Fort Nonsense in Morristown and certain parcels of land in 
Jockey Hollow where the troops were encamped during the horrible winter 
of 1779-80.
  Today, the Washington Association of New Jersey supports Morristown 
National Historic Park by acquiring rare books and manuscripts 
pertaining to the Revolution or George Washington, contributing 
financially to the park and, by Federal statute, is the official 
consultant to the National Park Service in Morristown. The Association 
also acts as an advocate for the park when the property is threatened 
by any inappropriate development.
  In 1998-99, the Washington Association of New Jersey will be 
celebrating the 125th anniversary of its foundation and incorporation. 
Planned activities include updating and reprinting ``A Certain Splendid 
House'' (the history of the Ford Mansion), publication of a scholarly 
catalog on ``War Comes to Morristown'', the new, permanent exhibit at 
Washington's Headquarters Museum, a lecture series which will bring 
distinguished scholars into Morristown, and the eventual expansion of 
Washington's Headquarters Museum so that more of the 400,000 items in 
the collections at Morristown can be properly exhibited.
  Although the mansion is now part of a National Historic Park, the 
Association's work is appreciated most by the residents of Morris 
County. Washington's Headquarters, as it is called by most, is the Town 
of Morristown's common denominator. It is what the people of Morristown 
identify themselves with, what they remember most when they leave and 
the first thing they want to see when they return. It is our public 
treasure and the Washington Association of New Jersey is its entrusted 
guardian.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me as I salute the 
Washington Association of New Jersey on the occasion of their 125th 
anniversary and for their great work in preserving our nation's first 
National Historic Park, the memory of our nation's greatest citizen and 
Morristown's most famous and dearest house.

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