At some future time, 2009 may be viewed as a pivotal year for Chadds Ford, as we lost two institutions we naively thought would define our little village forever.

First, Andrew Wyeth’s death the morning of Jan. 16, at the age of 91 was shocking and heartbreaking to say the least, but in the great circle of life, not unexpected.

On June 30, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission formally severed the Brandywine Battlefield State Park from their budget. Then earlier this week, Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates, the non-profit group founded 30 years ago to support the PHMC with programming and fundraising, announced that despite their interventions, the Battlefield Park would be closing its doors on Friday, Aug. 14.

The Sept. 11, 1777 Battle of the Brandywine, was the largest land battle of the American Revolution and one of the few where Gens. Washington and Howe actually faced one another in combat. The 55-acre state park on Route 1 was established in 1947 to commemorate that day.

With the state now virtually out of the picture, the person whose increased responsibilities I would not wish on my worst enemy, would be the president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates.

But BBPA President Linda Kaat of Marshallton said, “It is such an honor to be the president during these difficult days. I look forward to a new revitalized future.”

Indeed, Kaat’s neighbor and past BBPA president Rich Bowers says, “Linda is both tireless and relentless in achieving her goals. She is a driving force for keeping the Battlefield not only open, but improving and expanding our programs and services to our visitors.”

So just where does this unbridled optimism and energy come from?

As Kaat relates she was, “raised on a farm in southern Illinois, the sixth generation of pioneering mid-west dirt farmers.”  

After studying at Southern Illinois University, she went to work on Capital Hill for the late Congressman Melvin Price of Illinois. As Kaat recalled,

“It trained me for everything in future life”.

After putting in five years in banking, Kaat then spent 10 years in Major League Baseball.

Wait, Major League Baseball?

In 1976, Kaat’s former husband, Jim Kaat was traded to the Phillies from the Chicago White Sox and started the season as opening day pitcher, while Linda fell in love with the Delaware Valley’s Revolutionary War history, old stone barns and historic houses.

“The Revolutionary War is just plainly my era,” she said. “I have a library filled with American Revolution history.”

They bought a stone farmhouse in Glen Mills where Linda ran Sweetwater Farm, a multi award-winning 17-room country inn and bed and breakfast.       

Some years later Sweetwater Farm was sold, and Kaat moved to Marshallton, where she met her neighbor and then BBPA president Rich Bowers who subsequently invited her onto the BBPA board.

When Kaat was elected president of the BBPA in January of this year, there were already rumors about the park’s future. But since the park had been without a site administrator for almost a year, there was, as Kaat relates, not much communication coming out from the State.

Kaat sees this crisis as an opportunity to expand certain programs at the park as well as to increase awareness of the park’s precarious welfare, and invites Chadds Ford residents to come to the park’s museum bookstore to buy the replica of the Brandywine Battle flag and fly it proudly the weekend of September 9–13.

But with the sudden announcement of Friday’s closing she added, “We did not expect it this week and we sure hope it’s temporary.”

The associates are hoping for an agreement with Chadds Ford Township in the interim.

How is she coping with all the added pressure?  “My bar bills have been higher,” she joked.
 
In 1976, the year Kaat moved to the Delaware Valley, Al Stewart sang his memorable haunting lyrics,

 “On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time”…

He finished with the now iconic lines,
 
“But the drum-beat strains of the night remain, in the rhythm of the new-born day…
And for now you're going to stay…in the year of the cat.

So maybe 2009 will not be a total loss for Chadds Ford, but with the drumbeat strains of the Revolutionary War echoing in the rhythm of a newborn day, we will hopefully stay in the year of the Kaat.