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Linda > Solebury Friends Meeting, where Jim's grandparents were married in 1907.
Linda > This house is not far from the Vasey Farm and was once known as the "Michener Post Office".
Linda > The farm in Carversville where Bill grew up.
Linda > This former farmhouse is the centerpiece of Solebury School, a private school, grades 7-12, founded in 1925, located in Solebury Township. Jim's grandfather, Hugh, was the last farmer who owned this property, raising his family in the house you see pictured here.
Linda > This is the front courtyard of the farmhouse.
Linda > Burgess Lea Farm on River Road. When Jim was growing up, this was called the Johnson Farm. Jim had spotted a duplicate photo of this farm posted on a web site called Trek Earth and had sent me a very nice email stating that, when he was in his teens, he and Evelyn Johnson (his grandmother's contemporary) and her daughter, Dorothy, used to sort peaches inside this pre-Revolutionary War barn, behind which runs a canal and the Delaware River, which takes its name from the Delaware Indians, also called the Lenape. I had noticed that he lived in Laos, so when I wrote back I invited him to visit an online gallery of photos I had of Bucks County in the event he should ever get homesick. I never expected to get the response that I did. He was in a mild state of shock at having seen a series of photos I had taken at the Solebury Meetinghouse Burying Grounds, because they centered around so many memories he had of his grandfather, Hugh. He then asked me where in Solebury I lived, so I told him, and then he asked if the old farmhouse near the bend in the road near my townhouse was still there, explaining that it had been his grandparents' farmhouse. Now it was my turn to be in shock because this was the house in the previous photo -- the one I had been looking for information on! For years!
Linda > In the autumn the trees in the burying grounds turn a gorgeous amber color.
Linda > Indians are buried in this section of the burying grounds, one in a hollowed-out log.
Linda > On Sunday mornings, even before he was a teenager, violin case in hand, Jim (then called Jimmy) would often be seen walking to meeting, which was in the woods at the top of the hill. This road (Meetinghouse Lane then, School Lane now) was a dirt road in his youth, and the fields to the left had belonged to his grandfather, and those to the right had belonged to the Walton family to whom the Micheners were related. Jim recalls: I didn't walk quickly. I stopped what seemed like every few feet and observed wildflowers, insects and birds, including pheasants outfitted in beautiful plumage. Even in the dead of winter there were marvelous things to see! In the upper woods was a disused cottage called Applesauce. I got the idea to put a salt-lick on a fence post, both of which I brought over from Misty Hills Farm, my pockets filled with barley, wheat and corn. Then I sat on the porch of the cottage, my legs dangling over the edge, and waited for the deer to come. I didn't have to wait very long! On Sundays the compartment for rosin in my violin case would contain a packet of grain for the deer. The deer, as time went on, learned my pattern, and soon had Great Expectations on Sundays, their eyes, which seemed to float in pairs between every leaf and branch in the forest, following my movements toward the salt-lick, where I spread the grain on the ground. I never had a brother. The wildflowers and insects and birds and deer became what I called the Darwin brothers. They took me in as easily as I did them -- it was a mutual adoption society, of course. As a result, biology came naturally to me by the time I started junior high school. I can relate to this. When I walked along School Lane taking photos for Jim, I could see deer peacefully grazing in the fields seemingly oblivious to my presence. Occasionally I would also spot a fox or a rabbit milling about. The wildflowers still sway in the breeze as they probably did when he walked this road as a teenager with violin case in hand.
Solebury Friends Meeting, where Jim's grandparents were married in 1907.
Linda > Solebury Friends Meeting, where Jim's grandparents were married in 1907.
Solebury Friends Meeting, where Jim's grandparents were married in 1907.
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