Interviewee: Betty Chardon
Date of birth/age at interview: Unknown
Interviewer: Sally Jagoe
Interview date: April 8, 2005
Interview location: unknown
Interview length: 45 minutes
Time span discussed: 1950 to 2000
Summary: Betty moved to Solebury as a new wife in 1948 and lived on Chapel Road near St. Phillip’s Chapel. This interview is a must for people interested in St. Phillip’s Chapel, and it is generally interesting for how social life was sustained from 1950 onward via church and social organizations that brought people together. Discussion of St Phillip’s Chapel includes ladies club, fund raising via card games, church pastors, and church art. Also discussed are Lambertville and Stockton in the 1950s and the area’s infrastructure, like dirt roads. Other topics discussed include Morgan Colt, polio in the 1950s, the 1955 flood, the Beaver infestation on Primrose Creek, the Beaver Wars and the town’s response, and a dog’s life in New Hope.
Time markers;
00:58 – polio
01:20 – St. Phillip’s Chapel, the women’s guild, socializing
07:00 – card games
09:00 – Alden Wicks, local artist, art tours, including to Italy
09:30 – Valentine D’Ogries, artist who did cartoons of St. Phillip’s Chapel windows
10:50 – artist Charles Harley, St. Phillip’s Chapel’s bronze door knobs
11:00 – Morgan Colt, St. Phillip’s Chapel altar
12:25 – St. Phillip’s Chapel candelabras
14:00 – list of St. Phillip’s Chapel ministers over the years
15:00 – dog’s life in Solebury
21:40 – polio, Abington and Doylestown hospitals
24:40 – 1955 and 2005 Delaware River floods
26:00 – John Birch Society and local bigotry
34:00 – Beaver Wars
40:00 – early television shows and their effect on social life
