It has been said that where you live influences you, like an angel that sits over the land and guides the happenings of mortal men. Perhaps being born in a territory fusing East and West, and later spending most of my childhood in a place governed by a true innovator, formed my foundation.
Hawaii at the time of my birth was not yet a state in the Union, and the Japanese had not yet supplanted the white American as the major stockholder. Pearl Harbor was bombed and rebuilt. Schofield Barracks wouldn’t house my daughter for at least forty more years. Hawaii was in transition from old to new, from tearing itself apart over losing its identity to becoming part of a great nation.
Eventually my family made it to Pennsylvania, founded and governed by one of the true early innovators, William Penn. His governing principles served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, William Penn created an environment of hospitality for people of all faiths. He implemented a democratic system with full freedom of religion, fair trials, elected representatives of the people in power, and a separation of powers – very innovative stuff in the time of kings.
A hundred or so years later, a man named Emmor Kimber settled in an area that served as a stopping point on stagecoach routes to Yellow Springs and Lancaster at the time of the Revolutionary War. Emmor Kimber was a Quaker teacher who established the French Creek Boarding School for Girls. It became known as a model for progressive education which drew students from great distances. Among his other concerns, and true to his nature, Kimber was an abolitionist, operating a stop on the underground railroad under the school.
I grew up in Kimberton; statehood, people’s freedom, and a love for innovative learning marked me at birth and followed me through my life. Now the world stands at another pinnacle of change – a revolution in communications. Just as the Industrial Revolution turned the world upside-down, technology today is transforming communication into something we can’t yet identify.
French Creek by David Christman 7547
French Creek Press Ltd., named after the creek that ran through William Penn’s land grant, through Kimber’s innovations in education and protection of people’s life and liberty, positions itself as a “press”, a mechanism to disseminate information. To do that we have three divisions:
Pixel/Point Press – operating on the edge of technology, creating solutions using cutting edge technology to reach all corners of the world.
Kenwood Academic Press – serving the student and faculty body as a print on-demand publishing house and personal writing coach service to ensure that all voices be heard.
French Creek Press – serving established and upcoming authors as a print on-demand and electronic book publishing house.
