Press Release:
The Old York Road Historical Society continues their historical lectures series on Wednesday, November 11th, 2026 at 7:30PM in the John Barnes Room of Abington Friends Meeting with Incomprehensible Friends and Rebellious Enemies: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War by Friederike Baer, Ph.D.. The presentation will be offered both in-person and on Zoom.
Between 1776 and 1783, Great Britain hired more than thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, these troops and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the north and West Florida in the south. Drawing on extensive research in private papers and official records by members of the German corps, this presentation by Friederike Baer, Ph.D. explores the key experiences of these individuals as they waged war on a distant continent against a people who had done them no harm, with particular attention to German troops stationed in the Philadelphia region.
Lectures are free and open to the public. Programs begin at 7:30 PM. Refreshments will be available at the conclusion of the lecture.
The John Barnes Room
Abington Friends Meeting
520 Meetinghouse Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046
Zoom links with registration details will be available on our website by noon the day of the event. Zoom presentations are live and not recorded for later playback due to copyright restrictions on the images used in the presentations.
The lecture series is sponsored by a grant from the Jenkinstown Lyceum.
ALSO
Join us on December 5, 2026 for the annual Bryn Athyn Walk & Talk in partnership with Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust for this annual program observing the anniversary of the Bryn Athyn Train wreck, which occurred 105 years ago on December 5, 1921. This head-on collision of two trains along the Newtown railway line resulted in the deaths of 26 persons.
Railroad historian Larry Eastwood will give a presentation on the train wreck with a Q&A period to follow. At 2:45PM, the assembled will commence a walk to the crash site led by Old York Road Historical Society President, David Rowland.
Pre-registration is required by December 2, 2026 through the Pennypack website event page. Society and Trust members are FREE, all others are $10.
The Pennypack Trust’s Visitors’ Center
2955 Edgehill Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
For more information, please call the Old York Road Historical Society at 215–886–8590. Visit us online at www.oyrhs.org and follow us on Facebook (oldyorkroadhistoricalsociety) and Instagram (oldyorkroadhistory).
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.