earnest housew

One of the joys not shared by many American families, is knowing where your Revolutionary War ancestor lived. Not just where, but the actual house in which he lived. We know exactly where in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, our ancestral home could be found for it sat in the same place for well over 200 years. So when relatives fom Texas came to visit, what better place to go than show them the very house where our common ancestor lived?

     As we pulled up in front of the house we knew immediately something was out of whack. The house was gone! Naturally, we looked up and down the street. No house! Everything along the streeet was where we saw it following our last visit, except now, where the yellow house once stood, there was open space.

     Sad, mad, empty, is how we now feel. Turns out the house was destroyed in a flood two years ago. The only piece of good news regarding this story is that we took photographs of he house a few years ago. We guess pictures are better than nothing. But we cannot help but wonder what family treasures, especially letters and deeds, or other memorabilia, may have been stored in the attic or even between the walls and are now lost forever. At least we got to treasure the house before Mother Nature took it back.