Thaddeus Stevens Chronicles No. 51

 Thaddeus Stevens museum expands, exhibit about Confederate kidnapping planned

March 2025

By Ross Hetrick

The Thaddeus Stevens Museum is expanding into the storefront next door at 52 Chambersburg Street and the grand opening is on April 5 at 5 p.m. All are invited.

The new space, called the Annex, will feature an expanded research area, tourist information, more exhibits about Stevens and the Thaddeus Stevens Society, and Civil War art for sale. Already in the display window of 52 Chambersburg Street is a nearly 200-year-old cast iron stove made at Stevens's Maria Furnace in Fairfield, PA, which he owned from 1828 to 1837. 

The Thaddeus Stevens Society's extensive collection of books and documents about Stevens, the Civil War and Reconstruction will be housed at the Annex so that researchers will have a suitable place to work. 

There are also plans for an exhibit in the Annex about one of the most heinous acts of the Confederate forces during the Gettysburg campaign -- the kidnapping of hundreds of Black civilians who were taken into slavery. This aspect of the Confederate invasion has been largely ignored in most recounts of the battle. It is estimated that several hundred Black Pennsylvanians were hunted down during the weeks Confederates roamed the counties around Gettysburg.

What happened to them is largely unknown. But one victim, Jane Lyles, who had lived at Stevens's Caledonia Furnace, reached out to Stevens after the war to help locate three of her children kidnapped with her and then separated. Stevens attempted to help her, but in the end she disappeared into the disorder that pervaded the South after the war. Lyles's struggle is told in the February 6 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine in an article by historian Robert Colby.

In a congressional speech on September 17, 1863, Stevens recounted the kidnappings and said a farmer had told him that he had encountered four wagon loads of women and children being carted away and asked the soldier in charge why they were taking children, even babies. "Oh, they will bring something," the soldier replied.

"Thieves, robbers, traitors, kidnappers," Stevens exclaimed in the speech. "Brethren of the South? God forbid that I should thus treat them. They are no more kindred of mine. I would as soon acknowledge fellowship with the sooty demons whose business and delight it is to torture the damned!! Let Copperheads [northern Confederate sympathizers] embrace them. They will find together an appropriate place in the great day of Accounts."

Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. The Society operates the Thaddeus Stevens Museum at 46 Chambersburg St. in Gettysburg, PA. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/

The Great Commoner, Spring 2025 No. 50, www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com

 Thaddeus Stevens Society events on April 4 & 5

The Thaddeus Stevens Society has a full slate of events on Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5, to mark the 233rd birthday of the Great Commoner. On April 4 at 4:30 p.m. the annual graveside ceremony will be held at Stevens's grave at the Shreiner-Concord cemetery at Mulberry and Chestnut Streets in Lancaster, PA, which will be followed at 6 p.m. by the Stevens Day dinner and membership meeting at the the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology at 750 E. King Street in Lancaster. The dinner is free to members.

Before the graveside ceremony, there will be a tour at 2 p.m. for Society members and supporters of the future site of the Stevens/Smith museum at Queen and Vine Streets. Please come to the convention center entrance on Vine Street.

Then on Saturday April 5 there will be the grand opening of the Annex of the Thaddeus Stevens Museum at 52 Chambersburg Street at 5 p.m. This will be followed by a presentation at Christ Lutheran Church, next door to the museum, at 6:30 p.m. about Thaddeus Stevens, the Emancipation Proclamation and the church itself.

The events on April 4th and 5th are as follows:

Friday, April 4:

2:00 p.m. -- Tour of future site of Stevens/Smith museum at Queen and Vine Streets.

4:30 p.m. -- Graveside ceremony marking Thaddeus Stevens's birthday at Shreiner-Concord Cemetery at Chestnut and Mulberry in Lancaster, PA.

6:00 p.m. -- Stevens Day Dinner and Society membership meeting at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology at 750 E. King Street, Lancaster, PA

Saturday, April 5:

5:00 p.m. -- Grand opening of the Thaddeus Stevens Museum Annex at 52 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, PA.

6:30 p.m. -- Program at Christ Lutheran Church, 30 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA, about the church, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Thaddeus Stevens

If you plan on attending any of these events, please send a reply email to info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com

Thaddeus Stevens museum expands

The Thaddeus Stevens Museum is expanding into 52 Chambersburg Street, next door to the current facility. Called the Annex, the storefront will be used for a larger research area, more exhibits, tourist information, and a place for the sale of Civil War art. The grand opening will be on Saturday, April 5, at 5 p.m. 

Exterior of Annex at 52 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA

In front window is stove made at a Stevens's iron mill

Inside the Annex is a giant picture of Thaddeus Stevens

Sneak peek of Stevens/Smith museum 

The Lancaster Historical Society held a "Sneak Peek" at the the future Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy in Lancaster, PA. The event was attended by hundreds of people who paid $200 a piece to support the project. While the structure of the museum is completed, the installation of exhibits is more than a year off. The $24 million project still has to raise $5 million. Thaddeus Stevens Society members and supporters will get a chance to see the interior of the museum on Friday, April 4, from 2 to 4 p.m. Participants are asked to gather at the Vine Street entrance to the Lancaster Convention Center.

Hundreds came to the "Sneak Peek" of the future Stevens/Smith museum

The event also had a display of Stevens's wig and grandfather clock.

Thad mentioned in New York Times Book Review

In  the New York Times Book Review of February 23, 2025 about a book by Bennett Parten telling of General William Sherman's effort to distribute land to freed slaves, the last paragraph refers to Thaddeus Stevens's failed effort to redistribute land after the Civil War. It read as follows:

Once back in session, Congress "dithered," or so Parten charges, but that seems not entirely correct. Abolitionists like the Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens had already been hatching a radical plan to redistribute the wealth of the South: Divvy up the confiscated property and give it to the families of formerly enslaved people and thus effectively overturn the propertied class system that so long had ruled the region. Land ownership meant political power. Stevens reminded the House that four million people had been freed, but "if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we had better have left them in bondage. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power," he warned, "we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and of all future ages." And so they have.

Surprise at the Thaddeus Stevens Museum

You never know who is going to come into the Thaddeus Stevens museum in Gettysburg. Jackson Rickert visited with his father on March 1. Turns out Jackson had dressed up as Thaddeus Stevens for Halloween and had a picture to share. In turn he took a picture with Society President Ross Hetrick, who was portraying Thad.

Jackson Rickert dressed up as Thad during Halloween.

Ross Hetrick as Thad with Jackson Rickert

Leave a legacy for Thad

Support Thaddeus Stevens's legacy by leaving a legacy of your own. If you wish to include the Thaddeus Stevens Society in your will, please let us know by calling 717-347-8159 or emailing info@thaddeusstevenssociety.com. Thank you.