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Prominent Events (Historical)
"THE GRAND ALLIANCE BALL" -
"The entertainment began with a discharge of 13 cannon
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon"
Sunday, February 18, 1779 , Pluckemin (Pluckamin), New Jersey
One of the most noted events in Pluckemin (Washington spelled it Pluckamin) was The Grand Alliance Ball of 1779 in Pluckemin.(Sometimes spelled Pluckamin) General Washington and 400 others attended the celebration held on the grounds of the Boylan House in 1779. The ball celebrated the first anniversary of the alliance with France, which ended in victory for the allies at Yorktown. The ball was attended by more than 400 dignitaries.
 George and Martha Washington attended the ball that took place on grounds of what was the John Boylan home (see left), near the northwest side of the Cornelius Eoff farm. A fuller description of the Grand Alliance Ball in Pluckemin can be found in General Knox's letters.
Fireworks were devised by Colonel Stevens and set off from the top of the frame. The entertainment began with a discharge of 13 cannon at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which was the signal for the commencement of the supper at which many toasts were drunk to patriotic sentiments. After the fireworks display, the ball was opened by Washington and Mrs. Lucy Knox in the Academy building in the village of Pluckamin.
Ten days after the event, on February 28, 1779, General Henry Knox wrote a letter to his brother William describing the Grand Alliance Ball: "We had above seventy ladies, all of the first ton in the State, and between three and four hundred Gentlemen. We danced all night--an elegant room, the illuminating fireworks were more than pretty." The entertainment was given by the artillery corps, which erected a temple, or frame, of 13 Corinthian arches, about 100 feet in length and proportionally high, each arch containing an illuminated painting emblematic of the Revolution.
General Washington Opens the Ball
Mr. Lossing quotes "the aged widow of Alexander Hamilton as having said that Washington never danced ; that though he frequently attended balls and assemblies, and always honored some lady with his hand, he merely walked through the figures. The general's evening dress is said to have been of black velvet, with knee and shoe buckles, a steel rapier, and his hair, thickly powdered, drawn back from the forehead, and gathered in a black silk bag adorned with a rosette."
He opened the ball with Mrs. Knox. Cannot you see him, with his imperturbable face and kindly, grave mien, as, holding aloft his partner's hand, with all the graceful dignity of a nobleman of nature he steps with her down the room.
Another partner of the commander- in-chief was a daughter of Judge Linn, and more than one beauty of that period, now sleeping under crumbling headstones in Pluckamin and other churchyards, was made happy, in after-years, by the remembrance that she danced that night with the " Father of his Country."
 The society reporter is not, as is so generally supposed, a modern feature of journalistic enterprise. He was an institution in the last century, and the one who figured among the guests at this Pluckamin fete was evidently not far behind his brothers of the modern press in liveliness of fancy.
In the Pennsylvania Packet newspaper on the sixth of March, a correspondent describes Mrs. Greene, Mrs. Knox and the other ladies who surrounded Mrs. Washington, as being a " circle of brilliants, the least of which seemed more valuable than that stone which the King of Portugal received from his Brazilian possessions." I cannot refrain from giving a further extract from this Revolutionary " Jenkins's " account of the festivities on this anniversary occasion. It is interesting as showing that in those patriotic days the affairs of the country even gave color and direction to the pleasantries and ball-room badinage of young girls and gallants :
— As it is too late in the day for me to follow the windings of a fiddle, I contented myself with the conversation of some one or other of the ladies during the interval of dancing. I was particularly amused with the lively sallies of a Miss * * *. Asking her if the roaring of the British lion in his late speech did not interrupt the spirit of the dance ; " Not at all," said she, " it rather enlivens, for I have heard that such animals always increase their howling's when most frightened. And do you not think," added she, "you who should know mere than young girls, that he has real cause of apprehension from the large araia Loading...Loading... ments and honorable purpose of the Spaniard ?" '• So," said I, " 700 suppose that the King of Spain acts in politics us the ladies do in affairs of love, smile in a man's face, while they are spreading out the net which is to entangle him for life." " At what season," replied the fair, with a glance of ineffable archness, " do men lose the power of paying such compliments ?"
I do not recollect that I have ever been more pleased on any occasion, or in 10 large a company. There could not have been less than sixty ladies. Their charms were of that kind which give a proper determination to the spirits and permanency to the affections. More than once I imagined myself in a circle of Sammies, where beauty and fidelity were made subservient to the interest of the State, and reserved for such citizens as had distinguished themselves in battle. Is it that the women of Jersey by holding the space between two large cities have continued exempt from the corruptions of either, and preserved a purity of manners superior to both ? Or have I paid too great attention to their charms and too little to those imperfections which observers tell us are the natural growth of every soil ?
Washington Slept Here (two times)
While in Pluckemin, George Washington and his wife Martha stayed at the Fenner house, home to John Fenner of Pluckemin, New Jersey, in February 1779 after the French Alliance Ball. The house was later demolished in 1942. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a stone at the site, currently the site of Clerio Fine Food and Catering. In 1988 a replica "Fenner House" was built on the site by L.G. Construction Company. Marra Advertising presently occupies the building.
General Washington also stayed at the same home in Pluckemin on the weekend of Jan 4-5, 1777 after the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. On January 5, 1777 in Pluckemin, Generals Washington, Sullivan, Knox and Dr. Benjamin Rush were on hand for the burial of British Captain William Leslie, son of the Earl of Leven, Scotland, with military honors in the church cemetery of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (now the site of the Pluckemin Presbyterian Church).
Alliance Ball Anniversary - 1913 Celebration
" Seventy-five of the most patriotic citizens of Pluckemin and vicinity met in the Presbyterian parsonage on Friday evening, February 21, 1913 to commemorate one of the most notable social events in the early history of Pluckemin. The parsonage was selected as the most appropriate place for the celebration, as it faces the old camp ground, which was beautifully located on a high piece of ground in the northern part of the village. The decorations on this occasion would have done honor to the first celebration."
"Andrew Compton, who in 1913 owned and resided in the house where Eleanor Boylan entertained General and Lady Washington, appeared as the stately commander-in-chief and Mrs. Martha Powelson assumed the honors of Lady Washington. The distinguished couple served bountiful refreshments from a large center table lighted with tallow candles, and the blue ware used had seen service during the trying days of the American Revolution. The young waitresses appeared in the gowns of their great grandmothers. Revolutionary tales were told, and the occasion will long be remembered as one greatly enjoyed by all." (Somerset County Historical Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 2, April 1913, p. 155-156 - An Anniversary Celebration at Pluckemin)
1997 Bicentennial Celebration
Two hundred years later on February 18, 1997 at the Bedminster Inn (Willies Tavern today), a bicentennial dinner and celebration was held with attended guests wearing 18th century costumes. In line with the 1779 celebration, a fireworks display also took place nearby which was once the Park of Artillery at the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment.
Links to additional related information:
The Ball is also part of George Washington's writings that are at the Library of Congress and now part of the American Memory database. This letter is one of 20 letters from Washington that mention Pluckemin or Pluckamin.
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