Heritage Days Start Today!

By Christopher Miller

RENOVO, PA – The Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park will be featuring a two-day presentation on General Ulysses S. Grant on Thursday, June 16 and Friday, June 17 at 7pm at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum on Erie Avenue.

Information found on the website, www.RenovoHeritage.org/renovo-area-heritage-days provides details on the presentations General Grant about Railroad during Civil War on Thursday evening, and General Grant about his service during the Civil War (1865) on Friday evening.

Below is a biography of Kenneth J. Serfass, portraying General Ulysses S. Grant.

Kenneth J. Serfass, Gunnery Sgt USMC, retired
(as Ulysses S. Grant)

Gunnery Sgt Kenneth J. Serfass is a native of Bethlehem, PA born on June 18th, 1966. A US Marine since 1984, his last duty station was with the First Marine Division Band during Operation Iraqi Freedom, retiring in July of 2004 to become a music teacher.

Ken WAS a civil war reenactor but now is a first-person impressionist with forty-seven years studying his childhood hero, US Grant. As a full-time professional living historian portraying Ulysses S. Grant, he presents between 11 and as many as 23 appearances each month all year long.

Ken began appearing as General Grant in 2009 while living in San Diego CA, and since returning to the east coast, he is engaged on horseback tours, rail road excursions, school history programs, at living history and roundtable events, at public libraries on a regular basis, and annually in Southern California at Huntington Beach’s Civil War Days over Labor Day weekend. Ken is established firmly on both coasts. He jokes that with some of his free time working part time as a brakeman on the East Broad Top Rail Road, all his work is dependent on time travel.

He has appeared at Pamplin Park near Petersburg VA, and at several national park sites across many states. In 2015 he was invited to join The Federal Generals Corps, a living history club hosting first person impressions of many of the most well-known Union generals in the American civil war, to be their “Ulysses S. Grant.” This past October he roamed Tennessee and Mississippi visiting Grant’s major battle sites, and has generated a video series, “How the War Was Won In the West”, discussing the campaigns that brought Grant into focus as the leading general in the Civil War.

He has spoken on Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign to the Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Association to develop broader civil war study among their guides and is the first Grant impressionist to present his own topics at the General Grant National Memorial, in New York City, giving public interactive addresses, as General and also as President, and developing Junior Ranger programs for NPS, to bring America’s youth closer to history.

His repertoire includes focused programs on Grant’s battle campaigns, his relationships with Lincoln, Sherman, and Lee, and most important, the Grant family, and also the two terms as the 18th US President. This has led to the most recent booking to play President Grant for a documentary featured on the Fox News Channel and Fox Nation, debuting October 10, 2021.

and educational, the spectrum of venues stated above also includes museums, and business groups seeking leadership training and inspiration. Ken’s work enjoys many referrals across many venues so they too can talk TO history and share in our rich national heritage.

It is with a profound honor that he tells the story of one of America’s greatest military leaders and Ken takes it very seriously to reaffirm Grant’s place of honor among the most respected people of our nation’s history. His passion for the subject is evident in his presentation, and it is hard not to be affected by his enthusiasm for his subject and believe that you’ve met US Grant in living history.

Heritage Days
Schedule of Events
Thursday, June 16
•6:00 p.m. Proclamation at the Borough Building
•7:00 – 8:00 p.m. General Grant about Railroad during Civil War outside at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum

Friday, June 17
•7:00 – 8:00 p.m. General Grant about his service during the Civil War (1865) outside at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum

Saturday, June 18
•11:00 a.m. Railroad Mural Dedication at Lingle’s Neighborhood Market
•1:00 p.m. Van Wagner outside at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum
•12:00 – 6:00 p.m. QR Quest around town beginning outside at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum
•12:00 – 6:00 p.m. Basket Raffle outside at the Renovo Area Heritage Park Museum