History
Wyck's earliest owner was Hans Milan, a Quaker who came from Germany and was a descendant of a Swiss Mennonite family. His daughter, Margaret, married a Dutch Quaker named Dirk Jansen, a linen weaver who prospered in the first half of the 18th-century. By his death, he was listed as a gentleman and had Anglicized his name to Dirk Johnson. Their daughter, Catherine, married Caspar Wistar, a German who became a Quaker and amassed a sizable fortune as a button maker, glassmaker and investor in land.
In the next generation, Margaret Wistar married Reuben Haines I, a brewer and merchant of English descent. Their son Caspar Wistar Haines continued the family businesses and married Hannah Marshall, a member of another Quaker family. Wyck passed to Reuben and Jane Bowne Haines and then to their youngest daughter, Jane Reuben Haines, who lived here until 1911, carefully preserving the house, furnishings and gardens.
In the eighth generation, Jane B. Haines founded the first school of horticulture for women, The Pennsylvania School of Horticulture of Ambler, which is now Temple Ambler, and one brother, Caspar, helped design the Mexican railway system; while another, Robert, invented a gauge for measuring steel in rolling mills.
The last owners, Robert and Mary Haines, were fruit growers; Robert patented a device to press apples for a more natural tasting juice. Wyck's family descendants are still very involved in the life of their home and community.
Today, Wyck is maintained as a house museum. The gardens are known for their collection of old roses, including 30 varieties, and the home farm has become a staple of the community.
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“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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“I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
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