Wentz
by Frank Quattrone
George Washington slept here.” You’ve undoubtedly heard that expression so many times that you’ve begun questioning its accuracy or authenticity. And although Valley Forge National Historical Park draws the lion’s share of attention because of the seminal encampment directed by Washington during the harsh winter of 1777-1778, there are many other attractions in the region where the great general’s presence has served as a lightning rod for historic preservation.
You’ll find one such hidden gem in Worcester Township just one block east of bustling Skippack Pike. One of several educational and recreational locations administered by the Montgomery County Division of Parks, Trails, & Historic Sites, the Peter Wentz Farmstead has most likely survived the vagaries of time and neglect just because Washington once camped there.
Site administrator Dianne Cram describes the site as “a bucolic, pastoral farm where Peter and Rosanna Wentz, humble farmers raising their family as well as livestock here since 1744, opened their doors to General Washington during the month of October 1777. No doubt the daily routine of three generations of Wentzes living here at the time was upset by Washington, who arrived with guards, servants, couriers, and more. Yes, there was a war going on. But it was also harvest season for the Wentzes. They would have been harvesting apples to crush into apple cider, pickling vegetables and canning fruits to help them through the winter. Plus, Peter Wentz could have been charged with treason had the Revolution gone the other way.”
Away from the vehicular traffic and cares of our everyday life stands this sturdy Georgian-style stone farmhouse that reflects both the German heritage and the relative wealth of this prosperous farming family. That it still stands, according to Cram, “is a testament to the greatness of Washington, a true hero who held this fragile group of colonies together during some of its darkest days.” It remained in the Wentz family until they sold it to Devault Bieber, a distant relative, in 1784. He, in turn, sold it to Reverend Melchior Schultz, a minister of the Schwenkfelder faith, ten years later.
The farmstead remained in the Schultz family until Montgomery County purchased it in 1969, restoring it to its appearance in October 1777, when Washington rented the property as temporary headquarters shortly after his forces lost the Battle of Brandywine not long after the fall of Philadelphia to the British. During his brief sojourn at the farm, the general and his lieutenants planned the Battle of Germantown. Unfortunately, the British held sway in that encounter as well, precipitating the Revolutionary force’s winter encampment at Valley Forge.
A jaunt to this attractive, nearly 275-year-old farmstead reminds visitors how important it is to preserve history in this manner, as it provides insight into early American history. To this day, it is a real working farm of 100 acres (it was 300 during the Wentzes’ day), owned and operated by the county. There are chickens, horses, and cows on the premises, in addition to six sheep, some of which are hand-sheared in the traditional eighteenth-century style during a special weekend every spring in one of the most popular and well-attended of the farmstead’s annual and periodic events. Agricultural experts are also training oxen to pull a plow.
At various featured programs, visitors can also attend eighteenth-century cooking demonstrations, learn how the Wentz family spent their time on winter evenings after sundown, hear a stirring reading of the Declaration of Independence, accompanied by cheers, musket firings, songs and toasts, and much more. Perhaps the most heralded annual event at Peter Wentz Farmstead is the holiday Candlelight Tour, which takes place this year on December 2. Guided by the soft glow of candles, guests can experience the farmhouse while being serenaded by seasonal music, complemented by a visit from Belsnickel, a Pennsylvania German St. Nicholas in full fur regalia. The following week, preschoolers can learn about historic holiday traditions and make crafts to take home.
But any time of year except Mondays and major holidays, visitors can tour the house, which retains the original hallway floors and much of the original woodwork or, at least, wood from the eighteenth century. In the parlor, where the Wentz family would entertain guests, most of the furniture was made in Philadelphia. Silhouettes on the wall here and elsewhere in the house depict members of the Wentz and Schultz families. Visitors will also walk through a room that could have been used as an office, a storage area, or an extra guest room, no doubt accommodating some of Washington’s entourage during his stays on October 2–4 and again on October 16–20, 1777.
Rosanna Wentz and her daughter, who cared for the house, the small children, and the garden, also grew herbs for medicines, preserved fruits and meats, collected eggs from the chickens, and prepared the family’s four daily meals. The primary kitchen contains a spacious re-built walk-in fireplace. In the stove room adjacent to the kitchen is a fascinating German-made five-plate stove, whose sections depict the temptation of Joseph in a scene from the Old Testament. This stove would have generated a fair amount of heat to keep the family warm on cold nights. During our October visit, when the house was set up as it would have been during Washington’s stay, museum assistant Ted Edgar next led our group into the family room, where Mrs. Wentz might have done her spinning. The furniture in the room was military issue, which means it would have been relatively portable, easy to assemble and disassemble quickly to accommodate wartime needs.
Carefully ascending the narrow winding staircase to the second floor, we arrived at the master bedroom, also known as “the Washington Room.” We learned that the Wentzes gave up their bed for Washington’s use. Fold-up military beds and trunks were also on display. Across the hall is a bedroom, originally the children’s room, then used by the Wentzes’ married son Matthias and his wife and featuring a trundle bed and a cradle for a child soon to be born. There are two other rooms on this floor, one containing a huge loom (the colonists made only twenty percent of their own clothing, we learned; the other eighty percent was still being imported from England), the other probably serving as a storage area or a bedroom for a Wentz daughter. The furniture and furnishings are all from the eighteenth century or reproductions from that era.
Watch your head in the big, dark final room on the second floor. Its slanted roof is a challenge. This room could have been used for storage or to sleep servants. Climb down the stairway and you’ll soon be in the outer kitchen, featuring another walk-in oven. It was here that laundry might have been done and where slaughtered livestock would be cut, salted, and prepared for meals or winter use. Bread would be baked here once a week.
Once you’ve completed your tour of the farmhouse, there’s still plenty to see outdoors, where you’ll find several restored outbuildings, including a sheep fold, a privy, a late eighteenth-century barn (a reproduction), a smokehouse, and a rebuilt nineteenth-century icehouse. There’s also a charming re-created foursquare eighteenth-century Pennsylvania German kitchen garden, where, in season, you can enjoy the scents and sights the Wentz family enjoyed back in their day, including fruits and berries (think gooseberries and currants), vegetables (like Swiss chard and Jerusalem artichoke), herbs (like lavender, lovage, and mint), flowers and ornamental plants (from roses to hops).
Finally, before you leave, you must visit the museum shop, where you can pick up locally made crafts, and then take a stroll along the mile-and-a-half-long Zacharias Creek nature trail. By the time your jaunt has ended, you will feel enlightened and fully appreciate the lifestyle of the Wentzes and other farmers who lived in the early days of the republic—whether Washington slept there or not.
Peter Wentz Farmstead is located at 2030 Shearer Road, Lansdale (Worcester Township), PA 19446; 610-584-5104; www.peterwentzfarmsteadsociety.org/. Open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and Sunday, 1–4 p.m. Closed Monday and major holidays. Tours every hour on the hour until 3 p.m. Admission is free, but $2 donation is appreciated.
Frank D. Quattrone is an author, newspaper editor, teacher and freelance writer from Montgomery County who writes about local history, food, art and people.