BOARD OF ASSISTANTS:  Please join your fellow Board of Assistants at this in-person meeting prior to our Members Meeting.  We will start promptly at 11:00 a.m., primarily to receive and vote upon the proposed slate of SMDPA officers for the 2025/26 term.  For quorum purposes, please register your RSVP (no cost) separately with our Secretary:  [email protected].  Thank you!

SMDPA MEMBERS AND GUESTS:  Please join us for SMDPA’s annual Members Meeting at the Cameron Inn Estate & Restaurant (circa 1805), located in pastoral Lancaster County at 1855 Mansion Ln., Mount Joy, PA 17552.  Our venue is handicapped accessible, and parking is free onsite.

A cash bar is available, starting at 12:00 p.m.  Luncheon will be served at 12:30 p.m., followed by a prominent national speaker!  Our menu will consist of bread and homemade butters, beverage, and:

·        Spring mix greens topped with balsamic vinaigrette, almonds and mandarin oranges

·        Your choice of entrée:

o   Pesto-crusted chicken with apricot-granola brie gratin

o   Caramelized onion-crusted salmon filet with smoked tomato quiche

o   Pasta Primavera:  Cavatappi pasta, asparagus, tomatoes, broccoli, parmesan cheese, pesto cream sauce

·        Optional children’s menu:  chicken tenders and French fries

·        Limoncello raspberry cake

Pricing is $45 per adult; $20 for Juniors; $10 per child (up to 10 years). 

Registration deadline is Fri., Apr. 4.  For questions, please contact James Campbell, SMDPA Governor, [email protected].

OUR SPEAKER:  Andrew C. Lipman is a historian of Early America who joined the faculty of Barnard College / Columbia University in 2015 after five years teaching at Syracuse University.  His research interests include the Atlantic World, early America, Native Americans, violence, technology, and the environment.  Lipman’s first book, The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast (Yale University Press, 2015), received several honors, including the Bancroft Prize in American History.  His second book, Squanto:  A Native Odyssey (Yale University Press), was released last year to wide acclaim, including the Wall Street Journal’s “12 Books to Read:  The Best Reviews of September.”

WEEKEND TRAVEL:  For those interested, the Cameron Inn Estate & Restaurant offers deluxe lodging to make it an excellent base for a weekend trip for the whole family.  Alternative lodgings in Mount Joy, Mannheim and Elizabeth include affordable chain hotels, plus local bed-and-breakfasts.  The closest attractions include Nissley Vineyards, National Watch and Clock Museum, Turkey Hill Experience, Mount Hope Estate & Winery, Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania, plus all that Lancaster and Amish country have to offer.  For tourism information, visit Discover Lancaster (links to https://www.discoverlancaster.com/things-to-do)

ABOUT THE INN:  The area around Donegal Spring was carved out of William Penn’s land grants and first settled by Scots Irish immigrants in 1714.  The adjacent Donegal Presbyterian Church was established shortly thereafter in the 1720s.  James Stevenson patented 312 acres of land north of the Church were the Cameron Estate Inn now stands.  Stevenson named the property, “Seat of Beauty.”  One of James Stevenson’s descendants, Major William McKinley, became the 25th President of the United States.

In the 1780s, Stevenson sold the land to his son-in-law, John Watson.  Watson’s son, Dr. John Watson Jr., built the front part of the Inn in 1805.  It was the largest brick home on the western frontier upon its completion.  The Watson family resided on the property for 100 years when Dr. Nathaniel Watson sold the farm to the Hon. Simon Cameron in 1872.  Cameron was appointed Adjutant General, was U. S. Senator from 1845 to 1851, and from 1857 to 1861, appointed Secretary of War by President Lincoln, and afterwards as Minister to Russia.  He was again chosen U. S. Senator from 1867 to 1877.  Cameron’s son, the Hon. James Donald Cameron, served as U. S. Senator from 1877 to 1897, and as Secretary of War under President Grant.

Miss Mary Cameron, Simon Cameron’s granddaughter, lived at the inn until her death in 1959.  The large estate was divided into six Farms surrounding the inn with only 15.25 original acres remaining.  Mary Cameron’s estate sold the inn to Elizabethtown College in 1961 and it was used as a men’s dorm, then a school for special needs children.  After a renovation funded by great-granddaughter of Simon Cameron, Mrs. G. Howland Chase, Elizabethtown College used it as a conference center with lodging in the mansion.

In 1981 the Estate was transformed into a country inn when Lancaster County culinary celebrity Betty Groff, who for decades was the face of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, along with her husband Abe purchased the estate.  Today the estate continues as a country inn and restaurant where one can enjoy the hospitality of days long gone and where brides find a bucolic destination wedding.

For more history on the Inn, visit the Wikipedia page on the Cameron Estate (links to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Estate)