Costumed reenactors to be a part of Norry 250th Birthday Bash

Jun. 2—NORTHUMBERLAND — Costumed reenactors will play a big part in this weekend's event that celebrates Northumberland and Point Township's 250th anniversary.

Actors and actresses on Tuesday and Wednesday practiced their lines while Cup O Code recorded some of their presentations to be used for future educational opportunities at the Joseph Priestley House. Norry's 250th Birthday Bash will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

"My hope is that this helps the local people develop an interest in the background of Northumberland," said the event's historical coordinator Hope Webster Kopf, a retired Shikellamy teacher who is active in the Preservation Committee at the Joseph Priestley House Museum and the Priestley Chapel. "Northumberland is a fascinating town with a rich history."

Costumed presenters this weekend will include John Moore as Thomas Cooper, Barb Spaventa as Elizabeth Ryland Priestley, Stu Shrawder as Joseph Priestley Jr., Margaret Weirick as Annie Priestley, Glenda Strouse as a school teacher and Brandyn Charlton as German immigrants on Saturday, and Buzz Meachum as Reuben Haines, Mike McWilliams as John DeGruchy, Bessie Hetzendorf as May Burr, Doug Powers as Amos Kapp, Harry Lewis as Hugh Bellas telling Franklin/Priestley, John Moore as Thomas Cooper, Barb Spaventa as Elizabeth Ryland Priestley and Stu Shrawder as Joseph Priestley Jr.

Weirick, of Northumberland, plays Annie Priestley, one of the four daughters of Joseph Priestley, who in 1864 bought the Crosskeys Inn and remodeled it into a residence for his wife and four daughters. Annie and her sister Jean continued to live in the home, which would eventually become the Priestley-Forsyth Memorial Library, while they served as active members of their community and taught music in the front parlor, said Weirick and Webster Kopf.

Annie Priestley was educated at Swarthmore College and organized the Northumberland Civic Club in 1909. She was president of the Ladies Aid to the Mary M. Packer Hospital and conducted services in the Unitarian Church in the absence of a pastor. She was deeply interested in women's suffrage, said Weirick and Webster Kopf.

"She was devoted to the town," said Weirick. "She never married. She had no children. She really was a modern woman. She had her life and her strong principles, and she lived by them. She believed in helping people."

Weirick said her grandmother Margaret Van Alen was friends with Annie Priestley.

Moore plays Thomas Cooper, a lawyer and writer from London who emigrated to Northumberland in 1794. Cooper served briefly as editor of the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette. In 1799, Cooper published criticism of President John Adams and Cooper was prosecuted under the federal Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798 that made it a crime to criticize government officials. Convicted of labeling Adams, Cooper spent six months in jail in 1800.

Moore said Cooper's example is what led to current freedoms to be able to criticize government officials without fear of prosecution.

Tim Keeley, the owner of Cup O Code, said he has been working with the event coordinators to record promotional material for the Bash. He also developed two Snapchat filters with Grindstone Coffee and 17857.org that will feature the phrase "Party Like a Pineknotter" and the image of a hat with event mascot Piney on it.