About Our Local Historian Doug Humes

Our Community feature by Liz Burnett

Photos courtesy of Doug Humes

Doug Humes contributes a regular feature article for our magazines, on Marple and Newtown townships history. I recently sat down with Doug, to find out more about him and how he got interested in local history.

A few years after Doug was born (in northeast Philadelphia), his family moved to Delaware County, where he has lived ever since. Since 1998, he and his wife Barb have lived in the Dickinson House, an historic home in Marple. Doug and Barb have four adult children and three grandchildren (and counting!).

Doug Humes, holding photo of William Dickinson, builder and original owner of Doug’s 1855 home, in front of the Marple Historical Society marker on the home

As a kid, Doug’s favorite school subject was always History, perhaps because he lived in an historic home in Haverford. He found it interesting that each room in the house had seen so many families since it was built in the 1870s. He often thought about all the Christmases, the good and bad years, the Depression, and the World Wars those families had lived through. Ever since the 1977 TV series “Roots” helped Doug discover Genealogy, he’s been searching non-stop for his and everyone else’s ancestors.

Doug is an attorney whose law office is in an historic home in Bryn Mawr. He worships in Newtown Square’s 300-year-old Quaker Meeting House. His interest in local history led him 25 years ago to join the Newtown Square Historical Society and immediately accept their offer to serve on the NSHS Board. Since then, he has served in every officer position, including 5 years as President. He also served with the Delaware County Heritage Commission, and currently sits on the Marple Historical Commission.

When Doug started serving on the NSHS Board, he was 25 years younger than all other Board Members. He quickly noticed the many good reasons their generation was “the Greatest Generation.”

They were firehouse and ambulance volunteers. They ran the Rotary Club and raised money for community projects. They started and grew the library. They organized the community parades," Doug said. "And they volunteered at the polls each Election Day. They weren’t elected officials; they were simply friends and neighbors who volunteered their time to make our community a better place to live.

Over the years, as Doug and Barb visited all 50 states, they came across “curious pieces of history.” In 2012, a friend who was the Editor for Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine invited Doug to write an article titled “Slivers of History,” to share some of those interesting finds. He jumped at the chance and submitted his article. A few months later, he received a nice check for his efforts, and also heard from other friends that they had seen his magazine article during a recent flight. Other article-writing doors began to open, including writing for the Friends & Neighbors magazines. “I’m deadline-motivated,” Doug said, “so having to produce an article for our monthly magazines has made me a better and more productive writer.”

Doug Humes and his wife Barb, in front of US map that shows the “curious pieces of history” they discovered in each state

Ideas for Doug’s “History Spotlight” articles for our magazines often come from unexpected and uncanny sources. While he was scanning a box of about 400 old cemetery records (a project he volunteered to do for Marple Presbyterian Church), he discovered records on the Dickinson Family, who had lived in Doug’s house. (Doug already knew that in 1856, William Dickinson had built the house on his 48-acre dairy farm, and that William and his wife raised 11 children there. After William’s death in 1888, one of his son’s and his wife and children moved in and ran the farm. In the 1920s, the Dickinson family sold the farm to a developer named Gilbert.) Doug thought about how the former farm is now his neighborhood of over 100 homes, and the remaining farmhouse sits on Gilbert Street, subdivided up to the back door. He then thought about the night he had moved into that house: He had heard noises and definitely felt some “spookiness.” To calm his jitters and to “make peace with the invisible former occupants,” Doug sat down at the 1890s-era pump organ, which the previous homeowners had left for him, and played many popular songs from that era, songs he imagined would have gotten the Dickinson Family members singing and dancing.

Doug enjoys noticing how the present connects us to the past, and how those insights combine with his imagination, to start his creative writing process. He says he’s “thrilled to have the Friends & Neighbors magazines as an outlet to share stories of our past.”

Doug also said he’s been honored to serve his beloved Newtown and Marple Township communities for so many years, especially while serving alongside his Greatest Generation “heroes.” Most of them are gone, and he is now older than they were when he first met them. With every “History Spotlight” Doug writes for our magazines, he hopes to inspire younger members of the community to realize two things history fans have known for a long time:

Preservation is the future of the past, and the future of every community is in the hands of its current residents.

Publisher's Note: On behalf of our Readers, here's a sincere "Thank you, Doug!" for your interesting and informative monthly "History Spotlight" feature articles. We appreciate your time and effort spent helping preserve the lives and times of many former Marple Newtown residents for all of us who receive Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors magazines (now mailed to over 10,000 Marple Newtown area homes). READERS: More local history and activities to preserve it are available by visiting our local historical societies' websites (see below).

Marple Historical Society www.MarpleHistoricalSociety.org

Newtown Square Historical Society www.HistoricNewtownSquare.org

Delaware County Historical Society www.PADelcoHistory.org