BACK IN BERKS
Saturday, July 29
Janssen Library in Berks History Center, 160 Spring Street, Reading PA
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| Research Room in the Henry Janssen Library in Berks History Center |
Our Saturday morning was much
more relaxed than the hectic start of the past three days. We enjoyed coffee
and a hot breakfast from a well-stocked buffet at the Homewood Suites on
Papermill Road in Reading and then took our time driving to the Henry Janssen
Library in the Berks History Center complex.
The library is an incredible
resource staffed by experienced and knowledgeable archivists Lisa Adams and
Bradley Smith. In addition to a huge collection of books, the library houses an
astounding number of periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, and one-of-a-kind
documents from Berks County. I had prepared a list of books, Kershner Family
Association journals, and documents from the online catalog and Lisa began placing
them on my table almost immediately after our arrival a few minutes past 9:00
a.m.
I spent most of the morning
looking for familiar names in the treasure trove on the table. I used post-it
notes to mark the pages I wanted copied as I quickly worked through my list.
After I finished, I decided to try to find the 1834 death notice of my fourth
great-grandfather, William Werner, in a Reading newspaper. I had seen an online
copy and thought I saved the image but didn’t notice until much later that it
failed to save properly. I found it during a free trial of a pricey paid
subscription service, and I recorded the date and page of the issue I needed.
There was one little complication, however. The newspaper was written in
German. I hoped I could find the obituary while Lisa made copies of the pages I
had marked.
I assumed I would have to look through microfilm of the 179-year-old newspaper but was surprised when Lisa brought out a bound volume of the 1834 Der Readinger Adler! Every sturdy page was perfectly preserved with no creases, tears or yellowing. It could have been printed yesterday. Lisa explained that the handmade rag paper used in 1834 was far superior in quality and durability to the wood pulp paper used since the 1870s. Luckily, I could decipher enough German to locate the article quickly. Since the paper was too large to place on the copy machine, I was allowed to take a photo of it.
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| 1834 Der Readinger Adler Newspaper Died - on last Friday eight days ago William Werner in Heidelberg Township Berks County in his 65th year of age |
Lisa expertly packaged my
legal-size copies so they would survive the long train trip back to Kansas in good
condition. I paid for my loot and could hardly wait to read each of my ninety pages
carefully! I had copies from original handwritten documents including a
November 1809 jury list on which my fifth great-grandfather Thomas Reber
served, six pages of October 1807 township election results showing the number
of votes my fourth great-grandfather Nicholas Lieb received for the office of
county commissioner, a 1799 list of Berks County jurors, and several articles
about my Werner, Hiester and Kershner ancestors.
Old Dry Road Farm, 202
Highland Road, Wernersville PA
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| Dundore-Hottenstein House |
We grabbed a quick lunch and began the short drive
to Jim and Emily Werner’s home in Wernersville. We called their son, David, to
let him know we were on our way. After we arrived and exchanged greetings,
Dave, Jim, LaRita and I hopped into David’s pick-up truck and made our way
towards Old Dry Road Farm. The Farm is a living history site of three preserved
homesteads containing representative historic buildings from 1776 through the
early nineteenth century. The farms were taken by eminent domain when the Blue Marsh flood control project was deemed necessary. Many other similar farms were demolished and covered by the lake. The farm was only about four miles from Jim’s home, so
we arrived in just a few minutes.
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| Beautiful Barn on Old Dry Road Farm |
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| Mr. Shuster by the Octagonal Smokehouse on the Essig Homestead |
I thought he might ask us to
leave, but I was sure that the farm was open to the public as long as
the private residences on the property were not disturbed. The site is owned by the US Army Corps of Engineering and leased by a non-profit organization. Jim and David immediately recognized our visitor as Dick Schuster, the farm manager and volunteer for the Heidelberg Heritage
Society. He chatted with us for a few minutes and graciously offered to show us
the interior of the Dundore-Hottenstein House.
We followed the tractor down a side lane, parked and entered the house after Dick unlocked the door. He gave us a wonderful guided tour and explained how the house is used as part of a living history experience for area school children. During a day at the farm, kids make pretzels and butter, complete a scherenschnitte craft and make turkey feather darts, dip candles, hike, and tour the house. It is an example of a Pennsylvania German log home built in about 1842.
The house, the bank barn, spring house, smoke house and
granary were dismantled and moved from their original location on Union Canal
and reassembled here. The furnishings and farm equipment on the farmstead are
from the 1840-1880 period when the farm was in operation. We inspected the
other structures near the house and thanked Dick for giving us a private tour.
He invited us to explore the other parts of the Farm at our leisure. He knew and trusted the Werner men!
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| Fireplace Hearth in the Dundore - Hottenstein House |
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| Bedroom in the Dundore - Hottenstein House |
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| Farm Tool Display in the Dundore - Hottenstein House |
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| Dundore - Hottenstein Spring House |
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| Dundore - Hottenstein Bake Oven |
We turned around and followed
Dick’s instructions to reach the Staudt Farm farther back in the property.
After bumping down a long lane, we were able to park and inspect the beautiful
bank barn, 1776 Speicher or Spring House, and outbuildings once owned by several generations of the Staudt family. The lovely
old two-story home is occupied by renters, so we kept our distance, but could
see that it was once a fine residence. Sadly, only the Spring House appears to
be in tip-top shape. The other structures need painting and minor cosmetic
repairs and much of the area is overgrown with weeds and old shrubbery. Just a
little “TLC” could bring the buildings and landscape back to their original
grandeur.
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| Staudt Bank Barn |
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| Staudt Farmhouse |
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| Staudt 1776 Speicher or Spring House |
St. John Hain’s Church, 591 North Church Road,
Wernersville PA
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| Jim Werner and Son David at Henry R. Werner's Grave |
Returning to the old Hain’s
Church Cemetery, less than three miles away, was next on our agenda. LaRita and I
came to Hain’s two years ago but missed visiting a few ancestors’ resting places
because we didn’t know they had headstones. A new census of the burials was
completed in April of this year and a comprehensive list of their locations,
described from a central walkway, was included. The mapping project also
resulted in several new photos of headstones being added to the Hain’s FindaGrave.com listing.
I asked the Werners if they knew
where the burials we missed on our previous visit were located. Jim was kind
enough to ask Hain’s historian Jim Olinger to help find them for us. Mr. Olinger
found the headstones and placed colored broomsticks in the ground next to them
so we could locate them easily in the large cemetery. We paid our respects to
our fourth great-grandparents, William and Magdalena Reber Werner, and their
three sons. We took photos with our third great-grandfather, Thomas Werner, and
Jim’s great-grandfather Henry R. Werner’s memorials. We also revisited some of our Lerch and Lash
ancestors and took some photos with their gravestones. While we were in the
cemetery, the church bell struck 3:00 p.m. followed by a lovely hymn played
from the church chimes. The music was a wonderful addition to our experience.
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| LaRita and Me with Our Fourth Great-Grandparents William and Magdalena Reber Werner |
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| My Fourth Great-Grandparents Johannes and Ann Catherina Lasch Lerch Johannes was a Drummer Boy in the Revolutionary War |
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| Our Third Great-Grandfather Thomas Werner |
Werner Family Time
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| Emily, LaRita, Jim and Me |
Jim and Emily invited us into
their lovely home for the rest of the afternoon. Many beautiful photographs on
their walls immediately caught our eye as we made our way to their family room.
They had laid out loads of family photos, scrapbooks, and documents on a long
table to share with us. Jim and Emily pointed out family members in the
charming photos, repeated family stories, and talked about their seventy-three
years of married life. They still live independently in their own home and Jim
drives to Hain’s Church, where they were married, every Sunday to attend
worship services.
We asked them a few questions and
their answers revealed delightful details about their memories. Emily’s
favorite foods were the lemon strip pie and the raspberry pies she enjoyed as a
child at her grandparent’s homes. In contrast, Jim is just a meat and potatoes
man! When I asked Emily what she liked to do in her spare time, she replied
with a giggle, “I don’t have much free time because it takes me so long to do
everything now!”
As dinner time approached, David
took our orders for salads and sandwiches from a local Italian restaurant and
announced that he had also brought some homemade delicacies for us to
sample. We talked about family recipes
at our Tuesday evening dinner and I mentioned I had never eaten shoofly pie and
wasn’t sure I would like it. The Werners all assured me that David made a tasty
version of the Pennsylvania Dutch treat and I would love it. I suspected his
pie was on the menu!
David’s wife soon arrived with
the food and we sat down to enjoy another meal together. Meanwhile David pulled
out a huge container of pickled beets and red beet eggs, a jar of chow-chow and
two shoofly pies to add to the feast! Of course, our delightful dinner
conversation turned to recipes and cooking instructions for everything from
chow-chow to “filling” to shoofly pie. LaRita and I took notes and made sure we
knew that Heinz’s Apple Cider Vinegar and Mrs. Schlorer’s Turkey Table Syrup
were essential to the success of the pickled dishes and the yummy pie. The
family was right – David’s shoofly pie was delicious!
LaRita and I didn’t want to wear
out our ninety-five-year-old hosts, so we reluctantly said goodbye to our
beloved Werner cousins early in the evening. It was difficult to leave since we
live more than a thousand miles apart, but we left with smiles on our faces
because we had so much fun together!
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| David's Delish Shoofly Pie |
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| Our Fourth Great-Granduncle John Yost Lerch One of Fifty Revolutionary War Veterans Buried in Hain's Cemetery Our Fifth Great-Granduncle Christopher "Stophel" Lasch is also a Vet Buried Here |
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| The View from Hain's Cemetery |
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