The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.
Issue link: http://sar.epubxp.com/i/462055
The concept of an SAR National Education Center of the American Revolution is an image of a multifaceted educational institution developed with purpose and design that comprises the structural foundation for modern-day communications needed by the SAR to achieve our desired goals of patriotic outreach education. The conceptual image demands a mission, a quality business plan and a strategic plan to formulate and build an educational center worthy of our investment, our trust and our pledge "of remembering our obligations to our forefathers" and "reaffrming our faith in the principles of Liberty and our Constitutional Republic." Our labors and achievements in preserving our founding principles deserve nothing less from us than the best we collectively as a society can offer! Can we seriously afford not to educate our lineal descendants and the generations of Americans who will come after us? What would be the catastrophic results of neglect and indifference derived from a disregard for our mission and our responsibilities to those patriots of the past and present whom we should honor and those patriots of the future whom we seek to educate? It is my frm belief our membership knows that patriotic outreach education is the answer to fulflling our goals and our mission as a national society, and represents the fundamental pathway for the continued growth, prosperity and development of the United States and the Sons of the American Revolution! This is my conceptual image of an SAR National Education Center of the American Revolution. Similar conceptual images can be found all around us and infuence our lives on a daily basis. The State Archives of Alabama recently fnished building its Alabama Educational Outreach Center comprising the Farley Auditorium Education Facility and the newly updated Alabama State Archival Library, and has just introduced the new Voices Exhibit, which has become not only a proftable enterprise but also is drawing thousands of visitors and students from across the state to see and experience frst-hand the entire history of Alabama and its people. We need to identify the individual components of our proposed educational center and begin to assemble the building blocks in a reasonable, logical and affordable fashion. Once you know and can envision exactly what a national educational center should be from the total assembly of all its interlocking components and parts, it becomes much easier for all of us to effectively plan, set reasonable and achievable goals supporting our mission, and obtain the approval and support of our general membership and outside sources to build it. The American Revolution is one of the greatest and most signifcant American stories ever to be told, and the Sons of the American Revolution deserve and possess the inherent mission to deliver it, thereby preserving our liberty and our constitutional republic for future generations. — Compatriot Bill Stone, Chairman, Solid Light Ad-Hoc Committee Chairman, Library & Archives Committee National Trustee and Member, Executive Committee President of the Alabama Society By Amanda Rush T his large silver pocket watch, owned by Revolutionary War soldier Maj. Thomas Massie (1747-1834), was carried through the battle of Brandywine in September 1777, and intercepted a bullet, leaving a dent on its backside. Until the second half of the 18th century, watches were luxury items, status symbols of wealth and prosperity. The first timepieces to be worn were developed in the 16th century and typically had a long chain to hang around the neck as a pendant, or to fasten to clothing. Styles changed in the 17th century when men began to carry "pocket clocks" like the one seen here. Early pocket clocks had an hour hand only, with the minute hand not appearing until the late 17th century. Massie's watch is unique because, in addition to the minute hand, it has a dial for the second hand, which was rare. The first American pocket watches were manufactured by the Pitkin brothers in the late 1830s. Therefore, Massie's watch was likely of European origin. Massie was born in New Kent County, Va., on Aug. 22, 1747, and attended William and Mary College, 1759-1763. He served as a captain in the Revolutionary War from the winter of 1775-1776 to Feb. 20, 1778, when he was promoted to major in the northern campaigns, 1776-1779, generally on detached or particular service. He was major, and for a time acting colonel, of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, 1778-1779, and then served as aide- de-camp to Gen. Thomas Nelson Jr. from the winter of 1780-1781 to the fall of Yorktown. After the war, Massie received 5,333 1 / 3 acres of land in Ohio and Kentucky for his services in the conflict. In April 1780, he married Sarah Cocke and moved from St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, to Frederick County, and then to Old Amherst in about 1803, where he settled on a 3,111-acre tract on the Upper Tye River—a part of the old Rose grant that he had purchased from John Rose in 1795. This land lay in the present-day Nelson County in Virginia, where he was one of the first magistrates. He had a large orchard on the mountainside and is credited with bringing the first apple tree to that section of Virginia. Massie died at Level Green, his home in Nelson, on Feb. 2, 1834, and was buried in the garden near the foot of his beloved mountains. The watch was donated to the SAR in 1996 by John M. Dunlap Jr., great-great- great-great-great grandson of Maj. Thomas Massie. Sources: Belmore, Margaret. "Major Thomas Massie, a Gentleman of the Old South." Master's thesis, Corcoran School of History, University of Virginia, 1932. Milham, Willis I. Time and Timekeepers. New York: MacMillan, 1945. WINTER 2014-2015 9 The Brandywine W atch