🌿 Friendship Day at the Depreciation Lands Museum! 🌿 📅 Sunday, May 18th⏰ 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM📍 Depreciation Lands Museum Join us for Friendship Day, our annual free admission event where history comes to life! Explore our historic village, browse unique finds from local vendors, enjoy live music, and take part in fun activities for the whole family. 🎶 Live music filling the air🛍️ Artisan vendors with handcrafted goods⚔️ Hands-on activities & historic demonstrations🏡 Step back in time and explore our 18th-century village Bring your friends and family for an afternoon of history, community, and fun! Mark your calendars and help us spread the word.
The battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, were the first military engagements of the American Revolution. These battles marked the beginning of open conflict between the American colonies and Britain, setting the stage for the fight for independence. Come join us for a deeper discussion of these battles on Thursday, April 17th, 2025 at 7:00pm at the Deacon’s Tavern at the Museum. Cost is $10.00 for DLMA Members; $12.00 for non-members. Volunteer members pay $5.00 for this event.
Are you interested in how early settlers to western Pennsylvania survived and thrived in the years following the American Revolution? Do you want to contribute your skills? Or maybe learn new “old” skills? Come volunteer with us! CLICK HERE to register The Depreciation Lands Museum will host an orientation for new volunteers where you can find out what you’ll need to know and do to support our museum. You can serve as a costumed interpreter, or not! There are many ways to share your talents and we welcome all volunteers.
Join us as we begin our 2025 Season on Founder’s Day Sunday, May 4, 2025 The Museum will open at 1:00pm Visit with the villagers of Talley Cavey as they go about their daily lives in the early years of settlement in the Depreciation Lands. We will also have a special presentation in the Deacon’s Tavern outlining some of the highlights of the early years of our Museum and the dedicated Board Members who started it all in 1973! Regular Admission is $5.00 for visitors 12 yrs+, $3.00 for children ages 2-11 yrs, children under 2 yrs are FREE Admission can be paid at the door, or you can now pre-pay online!
THE STORY OF TALLEY CAVEY: THE ROOTS OF HAMPTON TOWNSHIP By Jonathan Klemens, MSLBE Author and Historian With the granting of the Depreciation Lands in 1783, settlers began westward migration into the western Pennsylvania wilderness (the Ohio Country). The Depreciation Lands were divided into five districts from west to east, and eight surveyors were appointed to lay out the land in lots of 200 to 350 acres. Talley Cavey was one of the first villages settled and named after a village in Northern Ireland, which means “hill over the borough” in Gaelic. In the 1780s, James Cunningham, a surveyor, bought much of the Depreciation Lands, and built a log cabin on Talley Cavey Circle (off Wildwood Extension). James McCaslin, a hunter and fur trapper, settled “Castle Town” (later “Oak Hill Farms”) along Mt. Royal Blvd in 1794. Early settlers included Scots-Irish, Irish, Welsh, and Germans. Some of these brave pioneers and their families included John Walters, Alex McDonald, Frank Black Jacob Burkhardt, Robert and John Sample, Robert Hardie, Charles Anderson, and John McNeal. The first school, the Wildwood-Hardies School, was built in 1800. Armstrong Family The Armstrong family built their log house in 1803 along Middle Road near McNeal Road. This original log house is now proudly displayed at the Depreciation Lands Museum. Talley Cavey was incorporated in 1805. It was the first village in the area to have a post office and general store. It was divided into Upper and Lower Talley Cavey. The first mill in the area was built on Pine Creek by Philip Mowery in 1808. Charles and Sarah Anderson, natives of Ireland, moved the family from Baltimore to Talley Cavey in 1837. The Parcel of land was known as the “Green Grove Tract” (along Route 8, Allison Park). The Andersons operated a brickyard to supply bricks for his house and the Pine Creek Covenanter Church. (Reformed Presbyterian). Talley Cavey In the 1850s, Talley Cavey was flourishing along the Butler Plank Road (now William Flinn Highway, in the honor of Senator William Flinn). The community became an integral part of Hampton Township in 1861 when the Honorable Moses Hampton, a well-respected judge and member of Congress, signed incorporation documents, making Hampton Township a municipal entity encompassing sections of Indiana, McCandless, and West Deer Townships.
By Jonathan Klemens, FSA-Scot Author and Historian Marquis de Lafayette Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born in 1757 into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac, south-central France. He had no siblings. He once joked, “I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.” At the age of twelve, his mother and grandfather died, leaving him a young, very wealthy orphan. He followed the family’s martial tradition and was commissioned an officer at age 13. When he was sixteen, Lafayette married Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles (age 14), allying with one of France’s wealthiest families. On June 13, 1777, the 19-year-old French aristocrat left his home against the King’s order. He sailed on the La Victoire and eluded two British ships sailing into Charlestown, SC. He intended to serve as General Washington’s second-in-command. He asked for two favors: to serve as a volunteer and at his own expense. Meeting George Washington George Washington, at age 45 (26 years his senior), first met the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette at City Tavern in Philadelphia on July 31, 1777. They immediately became friends, but more like a father-son relationship. On August 5, 1777, the Continental Congress appointed Lafayette as a volunteer Major General, assigning the Marquis to serve on Washington’s staff as his aide-de-camp. The Marquis later named his only son George Washington Lafayette out of respect for Washington. After recovering from a leg wound during the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777, Lafayette returned to aid the American war effort in Virginia, serving in the successful siege of Yorktown in 1781. After maneuvering more than a thousand miles, Lafayette cornered Cornwallis at Yorktown. On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered after nine days of intense artillery fire. Visiting Pittsburgh On Lafayette’s nostalgic return trip, he was greeted by massive crowds of citizens. From August 1824 to September 1825, Lafayette visited all 24 states of the Union, covering over 6,000 miles. He visited the tomb of his dear friend and comrade George Washington at Mount Vernon, a testament to their enduring friendship. In Massachusetts, he renewed his friendship with John Adams, and in Virginia, he spent a week visiting Thomas Jefferson. He traveled through Lawrenceville, the Allegheny Arsenal, into Pittsburgh. Lafayette passed through the future Shaler and Hampton townships via the “Pittsburgh-Butler Turnpike” section on Mt. Royal Blvd. He traveled in his coach up S. Pioneer Road, past what is now the Depreciation Lands Museum entrance. To see more of Jonathan’s writing or to send him a comment, contact him below. [email protected] Facebook: Ravencrest Historical Writing
