Carversville loses “local institution” Brenda Meredith

Some remarkable people have called Solebury Township home over the years — artists, environmentalists, farmers, public servants.

But as Chair Mark Baum Baicker told the board of supervisors Tuesday, “Those of us who live in (the village of) Carversville recently lost someone who can only be described as a local institution.”

He was referring to Brenda Meredith, who died in January at the age of 104.

“In 1966, she bought the house along the Paunacussing Creek in Carversville where she lived until she was 103 when Hurricane Ida came through and flooded her house (again) along with her creekside neighbors.

“Until her last few years, Brenda was a most familiar sight doing her daily walks along the creek on Fleecydale Road on the way toward the river. She was a weaver, a music and film lover, and a well-traveled Irish woman with an unrelenting accent, which matched her very strong views on life that she was inclined to share,” said Baum Baicker, who is also from Carversville.

Meredith had worked at the Solebury School in the library and taught English literature.

She told the Historic Carversville Society in a 2018 interview that she regretted people have become tourists and not travelers. She considered herself a traveler — exploring the world and learning from it. She said she had been to Canada, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, France, Russia, Ceylon, Java and Sumatra.

“She was that rare individual who will never be forgotten by anyone fortunate to have known her,” Baum Baicker said.

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