From its founding in 1687 by Quaker settlers searching for religious freedom, Cheltenham Township has been a hub for social history and change. On the edge of Philadelphia, the township was a rallying point for fiery abolitionists such as Lucretia Mott, the sight of the first African American Civil War camp and a retreat for Gilded Age tycoons. Local historian Donald Scott Sr. has compiled a series of vignettes to chronicle the history of a small butinfluential township from its earliest days and into the twentieth century. With tales of a locally born ice cream empire, the early life of Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson and an exploration of striking neighborhood architecture, Scott pays homage to thisremarkable community.

Donald Scott is an English Professor at the Community College of Philadelphia. He has written about his community for twelve years, as a history columnist for the Journal Register, and he is a contributor to the online database of African American history, Afrigeneas.com. Americäs Civil War, The Jim Crow Encyclopedia, Ancestor s Magazine, and Oxford University Press and Harvard University s African American National Biography are some of the other publications in which Don s work appears. In 2008, he published Camp William Penn with Arcadia. Beyond his writing credits, Don is a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Old York Road Historical Society. He has also lectured at numerous historical societies, churches, and area schools.