The dwindling collection of Westfield homes that stood during the time of the Revolutionary War will be the topic of a presentation by Robert Wendel at the next meeting of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood on Tuesday evening March 22nd. Although there were no major battles in current day Westfield, there were several significant battles throughout what was once the greater West Fields of Elizabethtown, notably in present day Fanwood and Scotch Plains. Skirmishes often took place outside some of the homesteads that will be discussed at the March 22nd meeting. Mr. Wendel will discuss the history of these homes, their role during the Revolution and the importance of standing up for their preservation. Westfield, Fanwood, and Scotch Plains have seen the destruction of many of our Revolutionary homes in the past 30 years. Our historic fabric is unraveling with their demise as we lose the architectural and cultural history of our past.

In one of the largest and least-known military actions of the Revolutionary War, General John Sullivan led a large army deep into the Iroquois homeland and in a scorched earth campaign, broke the power of the Iroquois Confederacy that opened the western frontier to settlement after the was was won.

At the February meeting of the Historical Society of Scotch Plains and Fanwood, historian and attorney John Orzel, Esq. will explain the background to this battle that encompassed Northwestern New Jersey, Southern New York and Northern Pennsylvania in flames in the winter of 1778-1779.

John Orzel, a practicing lawyer, was born on what was once the largest reservation into which the Seneca Tribe, the mighty and most warlike of the Iroquois Confederacy, had been placed by the new government of the United States, outside of Buffalo, New York.  Living outside of Buffalo and working in Manhattan, his thirty years of travel over much of the route of the Sullivan Expedition, peeked a keen interest in the expedition that is the genesis of his talk. John Orzel, a partner in Kennedys, an international law firm has practiced international transportation for over thirty years and has studied military history since learning to read.

The upcoming meeting is free and all are welcome. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22, at the Shady Rest Country Club (known formerly as Scotch Hills), 820 Jerusalem Road (at the corner of Plainfield Ave) in Scotch Plains.  For further info, contact Connie Klock at (908) 232-9489.