Brecknock Township was one of the last to adopt the public school idea. A small private school house was erected in 1832 on the southwest corner of the square. This school had been operating a long time before Samuel Bowman started the village. It remained the only school in the neighborhood. Mr. A. G. Seyfret attended this school before the Civil War, after it had become a public school. He reports that here "he started on the royal road of learn- ing, with a Webster Primer to read, and a corn stalk pen holder to write. During the four months the school was open, big and little boys and girls crowded the old stone house, at least part of the term, to suffocation. Now any of us survived the floggings, the overheated air, and dust, is a mystery to me."

Among those who went to the 'pay' school at Bowmansville before the free schools were established were Baltzer Schneder and the girl whom he later married. Their son, the Reverend Charles B. Schneder, sent the following letter to the Hon. A. G. Seyfret.

"Last week during a brief visit home, my father submitted your letter to me in which you request information in reference to the introduction of free schools in Brecknock. He also requested me to write and give such information as they were able to give. Mother's mind is clearer on the subject than father's. They remember attending the first free school that was opened in a house still standing in Bowmansville. They do not remember the date. The teacher was Mr. Samuel Hertz, son of the Reformed pastor, Daniel Hertz, who lived near Ephrata, and preached at Center, Muddy Creek, Reamstown and other churches. There was very decided opposition to free schools, based very largely on the fear of increased taxes. Among the strongest opponents were Isaac Kessler John Weis, Michael Weis, William Schnader, my grandfather (should be grand-uncle), Amos Schnader, and others. Among the supporters were Adam Seitsinger, Daniel Sensenig, Daniel Bowman, Moses Bowman, and his brother, Isaac Bowman, known as "Der gla Isaac," and others.

"On January 8, 1850, the school and anti-school men met in Bowmansville at the school house under great excitement and anger. The parties were hostile to each other. Blows were threatened; the children fled from the school because the free school teacher was thrown out and the anti-school men locked the door and went home elated for this in their opinion was the end of the free schools in Brecknock.

"Mr. Sensenig and his friends brought a criminal prosecution against the rioters. Dozens of the antis were arrested and hailed before the criminal court in Lancaster.... They were to remain three days and then were allowed to go home by a compromise effected in which all the costs had to be paid by the anti-school men.

"The case was arbitrated at New Holland on the 7th of August, 1851. The verdict was "no cause for action", but the end was not yet. Elias Leinbach, the plaintiff now experienced the uncertainties of the law and had to pay the costs. His sons came to his rescue or he would have been committed to prison.

"This was not the end, for the promises were broken when they got back to their homes where they seemed to have more courage than at the county seat. A bitter resentment existed against the leader, Daniel Sensenig. He was not only relentlessly ostracized in business and social intercourse, but their hate and vengeance went beyond that and he was sued for damages and malicious prosecution.

"Some may wonder what part did Samuel Bowman, the most learned man in the community, take in this bitter controversy. He was entirely neutral, said not a word for either party, but since he was well educated they took it for granted that he was in sympathy With the free school people-many of his customers left him. A .man who in the first half of the 19th century could read Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer in this community was no,ordinary man. He had to pay a price for his intelligence and his knowledge when the school issue became bitter."

When the Pine Grove Mennonite Church celebrated its 100th Anniversary the program included the following paragraphs.

"When court day arrived, Brecknock Township sent a larger delegation to the criminal court of the county than had ever been witnessed. The day was inclement with snow and sleet overhead and frozen snow and ice underfoot. The defendants made their way - a distance of more than twenty miles-on foot. Among them were some of the sires and grandsires of the neighborhood. Most of the "schoolmen" of the vicinity were subpoened as witnesses on the part of the Commonwealth. These traveled in carriages. On the road the carriages were said to have been neither pleasant nor cordial.

"The next important step for the (school) men involved was to find a new Church home. After visiting some of the new (Mennonite) churches in Montgomery County, they invited some of the ministers to the Bowrnansville Community to preach for them in their homes. They soon had overflowing meetings and were much encouraged. In 1852 a General Conference Mennonite Congregation was organized and regular services were held in the various homes."

Every time I pass the Pine Grove Church I am reminded of the courage of the liberal Mennonites of Bowmansville who supported the free school system, for which they were virtually forced to leave the Old Mennonite Church. I am also proud of the fact that two of Mrs. Spotts' ancestors were numbered among these few liberal-minded Pennsylvania-German Mennonites of over a century ago.

The ecumenical spirit of the Pine Grove Mennonite Congregation is reflected in the fact that members of the Lutheran and Reformed faiths shared in the organization of the Bowmansville Union Sunday School in 1862. It met at the Pine Grove Church every Sunday afternoon during the summer months. This was the first Sunday School organized in the Bowmansville area. S. G. Seyfret was one of its organizers. A quarter of a century later, when the St. Paul's Union (Lutheran and Reformed) Sunday School was organized, he was elected the first Superintendent. Mr. Seyfret was still Superintendent when I was attending this Sunday School thirty years later. In 1922, he was given an honor medal by the Pennsyl- vania State Sabbath School Association, in recognition of his fifty years as a Sunday School officer and teacher.

Samuel G. Seyfret was born September 14, 1844. He was educated in the public schools of Berks and Lancaster County, and at the Frederick Institute, one of the old time private academies in Montgomery County. He taught school until he was married to Maria Burkholder in 1872. For forty years he conducted a general store in the village under the name of S. G. Seyfret and Company.

In 1896 Mr. Seyfret was appointed postmaster of Bowmansville, and continued as such up to the time of his death. He was the son of Benjamin and Mary Seyfret of Bowmansville.

Seventeen years after A. G. Seyfret read a paper on Samuel Bowman to the Lancaster County Historical Society, Mr. Seyfret, now the American Consul to Canada, wrote an article which was published in the L.C.H.S., Vol. 12, June, 1911, under the caption, "Bowmansville," in which he speaks of Bowmansville as the "Capitol of Brecknock Township."

Mr. Seyfret recalls the summer of 1858, when the Donatis great comet was the startling object in the sky. Comets at that time created a good deal of consternation among the average people. He reports that "the older people would sit in the open air night after night to view the celestial visitor, and predict all sorts of dire calamities to happen, for which the comet was responsible. The violent agitation of slavery at the time gave many who were newspaper read- ers like my father, a subject to make war certain with all its horrors as the logical outcome of the Comet's visit."

By this time Samuel Bowman had died and was buried in the winter of 1856-1857 in the Mennonite Cemetery at the southern end of the village.

In 1861, a large pole, surmounted by a frame was put up on the corner of the Lausch tin shop; a bell was hung in the frame. For many years the shoemaker or the tinsmith rang the bell morning, noon and night, and also, at the death of any one in the entire neighborhood. At the tolling of the bell for someone's funeral it broke. A second bell was bought, but broke while being hung into place. A third bell was purchased and placed into a new frame at the rear of the old Bowman (later Musselman) store, where the custom of ringing the meal time hour, three times a day was still practiced when I was growing up in Bowmansville more than fifty years ago. This bell is now housed in a small tower on the roof of the Bowmansville fire house.

No township in Lancaster County witnessed such exciting times as Brecknock did during the Civil War period. The area was strongly for slavery. Many of the farmers were densely illiterate and had no concept of the principle that was at stake. But the inhabitants of the village were all loyal to the Union cause.

Mr. Seyfret reports that "during the exciting days of the Civil War the Musselman store room was the headquarters for those who gathered there night after night to hear the latest news from the front and discuss it.

"In the outlying districts there were many enemies in the rear, who were openly opposed to the war for the preservation of the Union." The Knights of the Golden Circle," or better known in the North as "Copper Heads" were in a majority in the township and across the Berks County line disloyalty was rampant, drafts were resisted, the enrolling officers shot, election riots, andintimidation of the non-resident or conscientious voter from going to the election were frequent occurences.

"The Silver Hill rebels, who lived several miles southeast of the village, were a terror to all law abiding people.

"On one occasion Philip Huber, a Knight of the Golden Circle and several hundred of his followers from Berks County gathered at the village square, followed by much intense excitement. A short tii-ne later Huber. was evicted from a neighboring village.

"In the village the Union cause prevailed. Following the firing upon Fort Sumter by the Confederates a large flag pole was erected on the village green, and the Union Flag floated from it every day during the war."

The first political meeting ever held in the village was in the Fall of 1860; it was also the first time a brass band had ever come to that locality. It was a Lincoln meeting. A delegation of Republicans, headed by the New Holland Brass Band, came by way of Terre Hill and the Dry Tavern (now called Fivepointville) on a Saturday afternoon. The speaking was from the porch of Squire John B. Good's house, successor to Samuel Bowman as Justice of the Peace; the same house in which my stepmother's father, Frank Stover, had his office as Justice of the Peace. An unusually large crowd had assembled.

The village had no more loyal or intelligent citizen than Daniel Bowman, who,operated a farm west of the town. He was an old man, by the outbreak of the Civil War, and fond of reading. His country club hours at the Musselman store were in the afternoon. He seldom came for the night sessions unless some extraordinary news was at hand to be discussed in the evening. Daniel Bowman was the oracle of the village club. He hadmore time to read than anyone else, and hence knew more news to tell. He was a kindly disposed old gentleman, and "we boys," Mr. Seyfret reports, "often imposed on his good nature and his fine apple orchard." A member of this self-constituted club for the preservation of the country by debating the stirring events around the stove of the village store, who came six nights in the week, summer and winter, walking more than two miles through the meadows on which he traveled the darkest nights as safely as one walks in the electric lighted city streets now, was Joseph Good.

That store room, operated by Mrs. Spotts' great-great-grand-father, was the concentrated centre of the village intellectual club. It was not only'the loafing place, but here met the ideal rural man to man to seek and commune with his fellow man on the great historical drama of the age.

The Old Order or Wisler Mennonite Church was formed during 1893 as a result of the attempt to organize a Sunday School in the Lichty's Lancaster Conference Mennonite Church. Out of this grew the organization of the Bowmansville Old Order or Jonnie Martin Mennonite Congregation.

During 1927 this group split over the use of automobiles. Those who favored the use of cars, under the leadership of Moses Horning, formed the Weaverland Conference, known as the Horning Mennonites or "Black Bumper" Mennonites because all the chromium on their cars must be painted black. The meeting house, one mile south of Bowmansville is used alternately by the Old Order or "Buggy" Mennonites and the Horning Mennonites.

"There were three large cigar factories, one managed by Imhof and Company, the General Cigar Company, and the Davis Oberholtzer Company. There were three stores managed by S. G. Seyfret, W. K. Musselman, and Harvey Weinhold; a barber shop by Harry B. Wise; two restaurants by John B. Wise and Elmer Lane. There is also a hosiery mill run by Mr. Seidel; a shoe store in charge of S. G. Good; a saddler shop by J. L. Burkhart; a bakery run by Harry Harting; and an undertaking establishment by G. L. Bowman. Abraham Musselman has a marble shop, J. E. Spotts a blacksmith shop, a mill is run by Henry von Neida, and a garage in charge of Howard Beam are included among the business places. (James Good operated a Watch Repair Shop and a Jewelry Store.) Herbert Kern, Harry Bender, Edwin Kern, Michael Witmer, Charles Walter and Charles Snader are in the butchering business and attend the Reading Markets."

Harry Wise, the barber, is the only one still in business as we approach the Sesqui-Centennial. Time does take its toll.

In W. K. Musselman's scrapbook I found a clipping from a Lancaster newspaper, dated April 23, 1933, under the title, "Rotting Dwellings Only Evidence of Remote Village," from which I have taken the following quotations:

"Men, since the country was settled have skirted the ridge, for in this final stronghold, nature suddenly becomes vicious and vindictive and tragedy has befallen every enterprise undertaken on its slopes.

"Brush Town, a little community of nearly a score of log cabins has long since fallen the victim of the encroaching vines and brambles which find a sanctuary here. Its houses are today littered masses of ruins, their walls squeezed in by the undergrowth and their crumbling foundations concealed by dense masses of vines and creepers."

The map of Brecknock Township in Bridgens' Atlas of Lancaster County, published in 1864, shows nine houses along this ridge, making it one of the most thickly populated areas in the entire township, with the exception of the three villages, Bowmansville, Muddy Creek (now Fivepointville), and Red Run. At one time this community consisted of a store and about a dozen houses. These original settlers were a rough, isolated people, who hunted, trapped, raised vegetables and small patches of grain in a few small clearings, and were not adverse to stealing articles from the farms down in the valleys of the Muddy Creek and the Conestoga. No outsiders ventured into this area at night.

Leisure time was spent in making and playing crude musical instruments. On still, warm summer evenings it was a pleasure to listen to the music which floated down into the farms of the surrounding valley.

The clipping referred to above reports: "Only one person ever finished his life on its forbidden ground. The original promoter of Brush Town was its last and only permanent resident, and when he died, in 1893, friends from other and more habitable sections came to his little cabin and carried his remains to Chumhtown for burial.

"Robert Springer, venerable colored slave, who died at the age of 105, was not a man without vision. Long before the Civil War or before Abraham Lincoln had stricken slavery from the list of things legal, he was inspired to liberate and to aid his people. He visioned a colored community on the deserted ridge and actually established it, but he reckoned without his people and without the crushing influence of the ridge itself.

"Springer, who is said to have been born in New Castle, Delaware, in 1788, came to the vicinity of Churchtown soon after his master had liberated him to fight in the War of 1812. When the war was ended, Springer, a free man, decided to return to Pennsylvania where he would not again be placed in bondage.

"However, community life did not appeal to him and he sought out the wild ridge to make his home. A broken Conestoga wagon, deserted earlier by some other hapless individual who paid the price for venturing into the reserved area, furnished his first home and he lived there apparently quite contented until the plight of other members of his race began to be the source of study with him.

"From the time he came to the ridge until he was about 40, he watched with aching heart the little processions of colored people which wound their way with appalling frequency to the lonely retreat. Something in their slow, defeated pace, or in the low, mournful music they sang, or something about the limp, awkward bundles they brought with them, stirred in him a desire to elevate his people and raise them to new standards.

"The cemetery of the slaves was located on the ridge not far from where he had taken up his abode and he watched these little funeral processions for a number of years before the idea of Brush Town was conceived.

"Springer picked the site for the town and Wd out its one street. He built his own little cabin and then invited other members of his race to come there and live with him and help him raise a new town and a new order of civilization."

Robert Springer's dream never came true. The ground was poor, the brambles persistent, and the children deserted to find their homes in more hospitable surroundings. Springer, alone, remained, watching his little domain tumbling down about him.

His funeral was conducted from a church in Churchtown and was attended by more than 1,000 persons. No one, white or colored, who ever lived in the vicinity attracted so many mourners in death. A tombstone, marking his grave, bears the simple inscription, "Robert Springer-Died March 16, 1893 Aged 105 years."

A score of years later a Negro family found its way to the forgotten row; and made its home in one of the abandoned cabins. The following year a white family followed their example and the odd group began their segregated existence together. By the time I was a boy about eight or ten families lived on this ridge, members of whom used the path referred to above to do their shopping in the two stores of Bowmansville. Because all of the families, but one, were black, it was referred to as "Nigger Hill." Members of this later community were frequently the objects of search by officers of the law.

The seventh United States Census for 1850 lists twenty-four 'black' people living in the Bowmansville area, as follows:
Name Age Color Occupation
Isaac Coleman................. 46...................."b"............. Basketmaker
Margaret Coleman.............35....................."m"
Lusta Coleman................. 19....................."m"
Isaac Coleman...................15....................."m"
Dennis Coleman.................12....................."m"
Abraham Coleman..............5/12..................."m"
Aaron Coleman...................2/12...................."m"
Rachel Green.......................54......................"b"
Jeremiah Green....................31......................"b"
Sarah Green.........................18 ....................."b"
Amanda Green......................16......................"b"
William Green....................... 11....................."b"
George Green........................29......................"b"........... Collier
Caroline Green...................... 27......................"b"
Catherine Green.....................10......................"b"
Eliza Green.............................9......................."b"
Samuel Green.........................7........................"b"
George Green..........................5........................"b"
Sarah Green............................2........................"b"
Jeremiah Atlee...................... 79........................"b".......... None
Charles Anderson...................40 ......................."b".......... Laborer
Margaret Anderson..................12 ......................"b"
Sally Jones............................ 50...................... "b"
under "colors the "b" represents black and the "m" mulatto


In newspaper accounts Yellow Hill is frequently erroneously referred to as the Welsh Mountains. Actually Laurel Hill, Turkey Hill and the Conestoga Valley separate Yellow Hill from the Welsh Mountains, a distance of tenmiles. However, during the period from 1850 to 1930 the black inhabitants of Yellow Hill were in constant contact with the black people of the Welsh Mountain area, including considerable traveling back and forth.

Because of their practice of occasionally raiding chicken houses, smokehouses, and horse stables they were frequently prosecuted by law-enforcing officers. My father was a constable for a number of years. I can remember during my boyhood days some of these people were kept in our house overnight in order to transport them to the Lancaster jail by trolley car from Terre Hill. They were not professional criminals in the strict sense, only petty thieves.

On the other hand, some of the men were respectable citizens who worked on neighboring farms or helped in preparing wood to burn charcoal. Several of the men worked in one of the village cigar factories, included Ephraim Dennis.

At the bottom of this ridge we bought 18 acres in the early 1930's, on which I erected a Sears Roebuck log house on the bank of the branch of the Muddy Creek. Here our family spent many restful summers. On about an acre of cleared ground we raised vegetables. A spring several hundred yards above the house furnished our drinking water, which runs through iron pipes, by gravity, to the back door. On the front porch I studied and wrote papers for graduate courses which I was taking at the University of Pennsylvania at that time. Not a single inch of public road touches these 18 acres; here we were completely isolated until Daniel O'Hagan, a former government employee, bought an adjacent piece of woodland, on which he built a two story hand-hewn log -house, where he now lives with his wife and two small children.

When we spent our summers in this isolated spot one of our local visitors was John Lorah, a hairy faced old hermit with sharp blue eyes. I was teaching Biology at the time and had brought out an embalmed fetal pig in order to dissect it in preparation for a course in Mammalian Anatomy. After I was finished with it I threw it in a trash barrel. While we were away over a weekend, John came down to visit us and found the remains of the fetal pig in the trash barrel. You can imagine the strange stories that began to circulate about the professor's activities back in the hill.

John Musselman was one of the first three men to settle in the Bowmansville area, arriving with his two brothers-in-law during 1738. His grandson, Christian Musselman (1779-1855) and wife Judith, built the second house in 1813 on the farm where his grand- father had settled in 1738. This house is still standing; one of my paternal uncles lived there several decades ago. Older persons in the neighborhood remember the original log house.

Christian Musselman had three children-Jonas (1808-1868), Mrs. Spotts' ancestor; John M., Sr. (1806-1868); and Mrs. J. Adam Kessler. The family records include a small notebook, which contains the appraisement of John M. Musselman's estate, made August 4, 1868. One of the appraisers was his nephew, J. B. Musselman, who was now operating the village store. John M. Musselman's appraised estate amounted to $3007.47, including one mare, $100; one buggy, $90; one wagon, $50; wheelwright tools, $63.72; spokes and rims, $58; paint and brushes, $14.60; and one cow, $30. This list would indicate that he operated a small wheelwright shop. The Musselman Store Ledger confirms this. As late as 1867, he bought nails, paint, wagon boxes, spokes, canvass, fringe and tape. The 1864 map indicates that he lived on the family farm with his sons, John and Jacob. His son John probably continued as wheelwright. The Ledger reports him purchasing, after his father's death, wagon boxes, nails, putty, sandpaper, linseed oil, rims, lamp black, glue, hubs, spokes, saw file, amounting to $150.96.

Mrs. Spotts' great grandfather, J. B. Musselman took over the store upon the death of his father, Jonas, in 1862. The Ledger, with which he began to keep records, is still in excellent condition, with beautiful well-preserved handwriting,in black ink, with an alphabetic index of all customers. The following items culled from this Ledger of more than one hundred years ago illustrates the wide variety of items stocked in a country General Merchandise Store, as well as the prices that prevailed at the beginning of the Civil War.

There must have been many blacksmiths in the vicinity. The following six appear in the 1862-1868 Ledger: Jacob Beam, Henry Caffery, Samuel Hollinger, Daniel Palm, J. A. Seitzinger (who purchased over $1,000 of iron and steel during six years), and John Del Zell.

The Ledgers indicate that the following items were accepted in payment for purchases made at the Musselman store: butter, eggs, hames strap, tallow, segars, flax seed, lard, oats, shoulder of pork, chickens, chestnuts, bacon, veal, pork, beef, calf skin ($1.50), halter straps ($2.19), leather ($5.41), fly nets ($6.00), keg ($1.00), shellbarks ($8.75), brooms ($5.15), baskets, postage stamps ($1.00), black cherries, axe handles, and rakes. Credit was also given for hauling coal ($2.00), plowing, weaving for Sarah, hauling wood, "History of Civil War", May 6, 1863 ($2.75), threshing ($.90), wool carding ($5.64), lock repairing ($.25), and horseshoeing ($.75). The Ledger indicates that James Zell, owing a bill "left for unknown parts."; also that Isaac Coleman, who received credit for baskets ($1.24) was "colored," probably lived in Brush Town.

One of the record books also contains a list of the expenses for the funeral of Jacob Beam (J. B. Musselman's father-in-law), who was a blacksmith. The 1862 Ledger reports that he made numerous purchases of iron, steel, nails, horse shoe nails, and tools. The entry which follows is dated November 25, 1878:
2 1/2 yds. shrouding .......... $ 1.00
1/8 yd. fine muslin......... ........ .09
2 lbs. dried corn ........... .20
1 spool -thread ................ .38
Funeral notice ................ 1.50
apples ................................ .24
2 1/2 lb. dried peaches .... .20
3 qts. vinegar ................ .40
1 pr. hose ......................... .18
2 lbs. coffee ...................... .40
15 lbs. raisins ................ 1.50
Beef ................................ 16.00
lce .................................... 1.25
Doctor's bill .................... 38.75
Coffin ............................. 16.00
1 qt. syrup ...................... .18
.......................................... $67.35

This record would indicate that an undertaker was not yet available; that the body was prepared for burial by members of the family; that some craftsman in the village made the coffin; and that a meal was served after the funeral.

In addition to operating the village store J.B. Musselman, Mrs. Spotts' great-grandfather, served as the financial agent for the com- munity. The Orphan's Court of Lancaster County appointed him to serve as Guardian for minors in the community. The notebook in which he kept records of this responsibility is still available, indicating that he served as Guardian for at least, five minors: Lavina Slate, to whom he paid $1555.56 on April 7, 1880; Andrew M. and Lavina Gottschall, heirs of Jacob H. Gottschall (of Montgomery County) 26 to whom he paid $1504.66 to each on April 10, 1872 and April 1, 1877 (when they became twenty-one); Susanna Kessler, to whom he paid $379.98 during 1876; and Henry B. Von Nieda, to whom he released real estate on May 3, 1884.

Previously he had served in 1859 as Executor for the estate of his cousin Joseph M. Musselman, (1836-1859) whose widow, Mary Jane Musselman appears in the ledger for purchases made during January, 1866. She may have died soon afterwards.

Those who left the area kept in touch with J. B. Musselman. I have in my files the original copy of a letter which was sent to him from Leavenworth City, Kansas Territory, June 10, 1856. Leavenworth is in northeast Kansas, on the Missouri River, with a population of about 25,000.
Leavenworth City, K. T., June 10/56
Dear Friend
Sir

It is a long time ago that I bade adieu to you and my friends around there though the time may come that I shall be there again. I would like to see you and converse with you and I would like to see you come out here very much and this country. It is principally Settled By the Indians now But there is Emigrants coming to this place Every day and Settle out on Claims and the Indians will have to lieve, and the purtiest cuntry here that Ever a man laid eyes on. and our town is now about 2 years old and counts about four hundred Houses and five thousand Inhabitants and it growing fast every day futher I will tell you not to forget to answer this letter as soon as this reaches your hands give me a full History of all the news in your town and country. and Please give my love and best wishes to your Sister Lucy & also to your younger Sister and let me know how they are getting allong. So much from your sincere friend in Haste, answer Soon
A. H. Jacoby

Christian probably took over the ancestral farm following his brother Matthais' death in 1805. Christian erected the present house in 1813.

About two miles south of the village of Bowmansville, on the top of Turkey Hill, can be found the remaining evidence of a millstone industry which was practiced during the 19th century. The last among a long line of stone cutters were William Weinhold and his partner, Sam Reifsnyder.

Mrs. William K. Wise, daughter of William Weinhold, in an interview with a Sunday News reporter in 1962, reported:

"Father spent most of his time cutting millstones on Turkey Hill. He started when he was 22, and stopped in 1918. Toward the last he was cutting mostly hammermill stones, which are smaller than the old-time grist mill stones.

"The older type might measure six or seven feet in diameter, and weigh a couple of tons."

Mrs. Wise reffnembers the painstaking work of hand-drilling holes in the rocks, splitting them down, rounding them off, cutting holes in the middle, and finally dressing the stones in the geometrical pattern grooves which make possible the grinding of the grain by the rubbing of the upper against the nether millstone.

These rocks are sedimentary, having been formed at ocean-bottom level and later lifted above sea level by geological upheavals. It is a conglomerate rock, favored by most millers.

In the ancient world time was measured in relation to great events. When the prophet Isaiah remembered his great religious experience in the Temple, he recalled that it occurred "in the year that King Uzziah died." Everyone knew when that was. We still do this. Only recently I read a reference to an event, which was reported to have occurred shortly after the great Blizzard, which referred to the blizzard of February 11-14, 1899, during which Mrs. Spotts was born.

For many years events in Bowmansville were described as having been so many years before or after the Great Robbery, which everyone knew occurred in 1884. One of the business places in the village at that time was the D. B. Shiffer Jewelry Store and Watch Repair Shop located about two blocks south of Bowrnan's store. On the morning of Saturday, November 29, 1884, it was discovered that the store had been robbed during the night.

A safe, in which thirty new and 22 repair watches were kept, was gone. When the word got around the entire neighborhood was aroused. A posse of the Horse Thieves Detectives Association of Bowmansville--Goodville-Honeybrook was quickly organized. Within a short time the empty safe was found near the Pine Grove Church. A broadside announcing the robbery was sent all over the County. Within several days George Lippencott was captured in Columbia. In his possession he had a satchel which contained many of the stolen watches. Lippencott was a member of Abe Buzzard's gang. Lippencott and Buzzard were arrested and sentenced to a jail term. One of Mr. Shiffer's daughters, Annie Kready, died a short time ago. She had a complete file of newspaper articles, photographs, and correspondence describing this episode. Her file includes cards from a Mr. Supplee, a Quaker from near Honeybrook, who at first defended Abe Buzzard, and tried to reform him; but later gave up. Abe was an evangelist whose weakness was chickens. He spent more than forty years in jail, made up of many short term sentences.

The Sunday News of February 22, 1959, carried a story written by Mrs. Anna F. Kready, Mr. Schiffer's daughter, under the caption: "Eyewitness Tells How 'Buzzard Boys' Robbed Her Father's Store in 1884." She was nearly 4 years old at the time of the robbery.

A press correspondent who accompanied the posse, wrote:"The whole region, so long terrorized by depradations of the thieving gang, is intensely excited, and there is a settled determination to take the outlaws, dead or alive. The feeling of alarm is intensified (by recent robberies) and there is constant fear that the desperadoes may take some shocking revenge upon the outraged communities (because of Horse Detective Association activities).

"Several miles from the favorite Buzzard haunt stands a Methodist Church, where the pastor started revival meetings a week ago but the people are afra-id to leave their homes, lest they be robbed or burned, or their teams be stolen while at church. Some pastors of Valley churches have called upon their people to rid themselves of these terrorists "by some concerted action."

Excerpts from a Lancaster newspaper of December 1, 1884 report: "Early this morning the Honeybrook-Goodville-Bowmansville Horse Thief Detective Association, with 50 Brecknock Township farmers, all mounted and armed, resumed search in the Welsh Mountains for the Buzzard band of thieves. They intend to keep up the search until the outlaws are either captured or driven out . . . Three teams stolen from farmers to convey the Buzzard's booty, were found, only slightly damaged ... When Joe Buzzard was captured, he was found hiding in a swamp, with three others of the gang, among them Abe Buzzard himself." (The three later got away).

During the course of the investigations, it was learned that Abe had tried to rob the J. B. Musselman general store the night of November 28. The pet dog in the store raised such a racket that the marauders evidently decided that "Discretion is the better part of valor." However, a fruitless trip was unthinkable. The weather was ideal for housebreakers-a stormy, blustery night, when shutters banged, and windows rattled. Just a block away wa.c the Shiffer Jewelry Store.

I am certain that there was no connection between the famous Robbery of 1884 and the founding of the Bowmansville Lutheran and Reformed Church two years later.
German Lutheran and Reformed farmers came into this area during the middle of the 18th century. For over one hundred years they worshipped with the congregation of St. John's (Center), the earliest records of which date back to 1777. Muddy Creek (which originated about 1730-1732); and Allegheny (Berks County).

Through the untiring efforts of the Reverend Stephen Schweitzer, who was born in Germany, April 15, 1842, a series of meetings were held. At the March 1, 1886 meeting a building committee was selected. Several weeks later land was surveyed, along a cowpath, completely surrounded by farmland. Sometime later a four-foot boardwalk was constructed from the main street to the building lot. Finally Church Street was opened. Officers for the two congrega- tions were elected at a meeting held May 25, 1886. They were installed by the pastors, Stephen Schweitzer (Reformed) and John Umbenden (Lutheran).

While the church was being built a well was also dug. The Ephrata Review of November 2, 1886 reports: "While Mr. Isaac Bordenhart was being left down in the well, which is being dug on the new church property for the purpose of commencing the well, both cranks broke, letting him down rather suddenly. He fell a distance of about 15 feet but was not hurt." I remember this gentleman very well.

The dedication took place on Saturday and Sunday, November 27 and 28, 1886. At least three thousand persons attended the services. The records indicate that "The Reverend William Gottshall, a progressive Mennonite, presided at the organ during all the services. The term "progressive" refers to the General Conference Mennonite Church, with which the Pine Grove Church was affiliated.

The offerings amounted to $977.00. Rudy Brossman, the joint treasurer, having so many pennies he didn't know what to do, so his wife said, "put them in the half-bushel." This he did and in this manner took them to the bank, thus came the saying, "Rudy Brossman brought a half-bushel of peies to bank."

I was confirmed by Pastor Benjamin G. Welder, pastor of the Lutheran Congregation, who served it from 1886 to 1921, a total of 35 years. Mrs. Spotts was confirmed by Pastor Jarius A. Wickert of the Reformed Congregation, who served from 1895 to 1915, a total of twenty years.

The first annual picnic was held on Saturday, August 6, 1887 in the Bender's grove, three-quarters of a mile west of the village, where the picnics were still held when I was a boy.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. the townspeople gathered at St. Paul's Church, where a parade formed. The procession, led by the band, marched through the town, down Water Street, where we lived, to the picnic site. There was an abundance of food of every description. After the noon meat was eaten, games were played, including a cakewalk, hymns were sung, and a speaker appeared on the platform. This annual Sunday School picnic was truly a holiday in my young life. As I recalled I was given 10 cents spending money, with which one could do considerable buying in those days.

The first Teacher Training class graduated October 22, 1916. Mr. S. G. Seyfret was the teacher. We used Charles A. Oliver's Preparation for Teaching, a copy of which I still have in my library. Both Mrs. Spotts and I were in the class. The course consisted of 10 lessons. We were given a final examination. If we passed, we re- ceived diplomas. This diploma is the largest one I ever received during my academic career.

During 1876, Franklin S. Stover, a farmer living a short distance south of Bowmansville bought a printing press, which he oper- ated in his home. Several years later the family moved to Bowmansville into the house on the northeast corner of the village Square. This house had been built by John B. Good, who served as Justice of the Peace until he moved to Lancaster about 1860. Soon after moving to the village Mr. Stover was appointed Justice of the Peace, which office he held until his death.

About 1905 his daughter Lizzie, became old enough to operate her father's printing press, which was housed in a room on the second floor. During the next forty years Lizzie Stover printed the notices of auction sales, picnics, and other public events around Bowmansville. Following my mother's death, my father married Lizzie Stover in 1910. Many times I helped her operate the old press, which remained in her father's home. After her,mother's death in 1945, her father's old house and print shop had to be sold to settle the estate.

Edward S. Smith, a printer from the city of Reading, bought the press and two years later sold it to the John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia, The store presented it to the Lincoln Free Press Memorial Association in 1953. This Association is located in Vincennes, Indiana. In a letter to Lizzie Spotts, dated February 7, 1955, the Executive Secretary reports:
"Your press is in Indiana at Vincennes in the Memorial where there is no reason to believe it will not remain as long as our civilization lasts." This press, which my stepmother operated for forty years, was built by Adam Ramage in Philadelphia during the period 1807- 1817. Ramage was a Scotch cabinetmaker who came to Philadelphia in 1800 or before. He introduced improvements in the earlier wooden presses by increasing the diameter of the screw so that more pressure with less effort could be applied to the platen through the lever. The frame of this press is made of solid mahogany.

Today there are only seven known Ramage presses remaining. Most are in Museums. One is in the Landis Farm Museum. Nothing is known about the Bowmansville press from the time it was built until Frank Stover acquired it in 1876.

I have visited the Printing Memorial in Vincennes, and have seen my stepmother's press in its place of honor. In a sense, it was she who really put Bowmansville "on the map." When her possessions were sold, following her death, I bought a box of what appeared to be junk. I knew that in this box were several wooden blocks of farm animals, which were used to print farm sale announcements. I remember playing with these soon after Lizzie Stover became my stepmother. Someday, they will probably be sent to Vincennes to join the printing press on which they were used.

The following is the text of the Legend on Old Printing Press at Vincennes:
"This old printing press was made by Adam Ramage during the period 1807-1817. It is said to be an outstanding example of sturdiness in an early nineteenth century printing press retained down through the years.

"Ramage was a Scotch cabinetmaker who came to Philadelphia in 1800 or earlier. He made his press frames of solid mahogany. He introduced improvements in earlier wooden presses by increasing the diameter of the screw so that more pressure with less effort could be applied through the lever to the platen. He also substituted iron for stone in the bed.

"Ramage presses were highly esteemed by small publishers. They were more portable than iron presses. They had more resilience in operation and were easier to repair. Improved iron presses of the middle 1830s gradually superseded wooden presses.

"Ramage was a director of the Franklin Technical Institute, Philadelphia. He was born in 1772 and died in Philadelphia in 1850.

"From time of manufacture, nothing of its ownership, use, or location is known of this press until 1876, when it caffne into the possession of F. S. Stover, Bowmansville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. "Stover was a one-time school teacher, and was also a farmer.

He never printed a newspaper. He picked up the art of printing sales posters and hand-bills. In this he was assisted by his daughter Elizabeth, who learned to set type at an early age. After her father's death, she operated the press for twenty years until 1945, when she retired and sold it to Printer Edward S. Smith, Reading, Pennsylvania.

"Elizabeth A. Spotts imprinted her sales bills, "LIZZIE A. SPOTTS, PRINTERESS." Thus she stands in line of many printers on the distaff side-Ann Franklin, the wife of James Franklin of Newport; Dinah Nuthead and Anne Catherine Green of Maryland; Elizabeth Timothy of Charleston; Sarah Goddard of Rhode Island, and Mrs. John Peter Zenger of New York, who were never daunted when it became their lot to carry on.

"In 1947 the press was sold by Printer Smith to the John Wanamaker Store, Philadelphia, which made a gift of it to this memorial in 1953.

"Elihu Stout is credited with having used several Ramage presses during his printing career in Vincennes extending from 1804 to 1845."

During many years my stepmother sent in the local news to the Lancaster and Reading daily papers and to the weekly papers published in the County, for which she received free copies. Our home was always well-supplied with newspapers.

She also kept a record of all deaths and burials in the community. Included in her records were the following notebooks: (1) Interments made in the Bowmansville Union Cemetery before 1896 (the cemetery was organized in 1886)-forty entries, some had been previously buried in other cemeteries; recopy from previous notebooks (1896-1966); (2) Interments made in the Mennonite Burial Grounds 1896-1908; Interments at other places 1899-1909; Interments made in the Pine Grove Mennonite Burial Grounds 1897- 1908; Interments made at the Martin Mennonite Meeting House 1906-1908; snow and rain accounts 1900-1906. (3) Interments made since 1909 (picture of Hon. William J. Bryan (Democratic nominee for president on cover).; Interments made at other places 1909-1924; (4) Interments made at other places 1925-1933; (5) Interments starting 1934; (6) Interments starting 1949. When I recently went through these records again I began to realize the concern my stepmother had for keeping records for posterity (a concern which entirely few people exercise), and that, for her, this rather tedious chore was really a labor of love. During her last years she was afflicted with palsy. As a result her last entries, made when she was almost ninety years old, reflect the uneasiness of her hands. Before that her handwriting was beautiful. One of her last entries was that of the interment of her own brother, Isaac Stover, whose death came two years before hers.

It is peculiarly appropriate that in Bowmansville, a typical Pennsylvania German community there should be a Youth Hostel, inasmuch as hosteling was started by Richard Schirrman, a school teacher who lived in Westfalen, Germany. In 1910, this son of the same German stock from which the Bowmans (Bauman), Weavers (Weber), Beams (Boehm), Mussers (Moser), Schweitzers, Goods (Guth), and Musselmans (Moseman) of Bowmansville came, first un- dertook to fulfill a dream he had long cherished-a dream to make a finer world for youth. It grew from his association with his pupils in school-he hiked with them, lived with them, talked with them. So he conceived the Youth Hostel idea which has since spread over Europe and America.

In the United States the movement was initiated by Isabel and Monroe Smith, who opened the first American Youth Hostel in 1934. Mrs. Spotts and I visited the Smiths and this Hostel in 1940. Before this the late Henry M. Woolman, who lived on a farm in Valley Forge, and who had frequently ridden the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and North Carolina, began to develop the Horse-Shoe Trail, which now starts at Valley Forge and follows the ridges for 110 miles to Rattling Run Gap, north of Harrisburg, where it joins the Appalachian Trail. Through the efforts of Mr. Woolman, by that time President of the Horse Shoe Trail Club, the Bowmansville Youth Hostel was opened in the autumn of 1937. During the first three years a total of 489 hostelers stayed overnight. The Hostel is located in the store which Samuel Bowman built in 1820. We visited it on one of our Field Trips several years ago. Mrs. Spotts' mother was the first House Mother, serving for ten years until she moved away from the store. I was the first chairman of the Hostel Committee. I prepared the manuscript for a small pamphlet, Bowmansville Youth Hostel and Traits, which was published by the Pennsylvania Writer's Project, part of the Works Projects Administration (WPA), in 1940. The Hostel including the entire store property is now owned by the American Youth Hostels, Inc., with Mrs. Margaret M. Stanley in charge. During the past 32 years thousands of hostelers, from many foreign countries and practically every state in the Union, have spent, at least one over. night in Bowmansville. During the 1968-1969 season 2023 over. nights were registered. These hikers, bicyclists, and horse-back riders have carried the fame of Bowmansville all over the United States and into many foreign countries.

A recent issue of Hosteling Along, published by the Phila. Council of the American Youth Hostels (Oct. 19, 1969), spoke of the Bowmansville Hostel as one of the most popular Hostels in America.

Our grandson, Ricky Bare and 1, began to hike the Horseshoe Trail two summers ago. In four and one-half days of hiking we have covered 65 miles of the Trail, an average of 14 miles a day. On one hot day last August we hiked almost 20 miles, carrying packs. We are planning to hike the entire Trail.

During the year which ended Oct. 1, 1969, 2023 overnight hostlers stayed in the Bowmansville Hostel, representing 977 bikers, 242 hikers, 22 horseback riders, and 767 others (who came by car or bus). These 2000 persons represented 18 diffenrent states, Puerto Rico, Australia, France, and South Africa.

These 2000 persons were not Tourists, looking for elegant Motels. They were mostly young people, looking for adventure, and willing to stay overnight using the much more primitive accomodations of a Youth Hostel. They probably have fonder memories of Lancaster County than the average out-of-state, opulent tourist.

About seven years ago Mr. Norman Weber began the development of Oak Creek Camp about two miles east of Bowmansville. At present there are 300 camp sites. At least 10,000 different persons camped here during the 1969 season. The writer and two of his grandchildren camped there one night several years ago. From the camp it is only a short walk to the Devil's Hole described in chapter eight.

In a previous section reference was made to Brushtown, an at- tempt to create a Negro community in the wilderness area of Yel- low Hill during the second half of the 19th century. That effort failed.

Eleven years ago, Daniel O'Hagan, a native of Washington, D. C. and a former government employee, being fed up with the noise and fumes and the crowds of New York City, left urban civilization to carve out a new life for himself and his family in the woodlands near Bowmansville. He bought a tract of land adjoining our 18 acres of woodland one mile east of Bowmansville, at the foot of Yellow Hill, isolated fr(nn modern civilization, although the Pennsylvania Turnpike is less than a mile away.

Mr. O'Hagan built a two story hand-hewn log house, cleared a small parcel of land for a garden, dug a 34 foot hand-dug well, (but it was necessary to drill deeper), built a small log workshop, started several hives of bees, and keeps two goats to supply milk.

Here, in a pioneer setting, Mr. and Mrs. O'Hagan and their two children have escaped the stress of urban life. Mr. O'Hagan first came to Bowmansville to participate in a work camp. He was in search for freedom. After some time in Bowmansville he decided that this was the place where he wanted to live in orderto get away from "mental indigestion," and to live close to nature because "it is one of the best medicines for mind and body."

We visit the O'Hagans quite frequently. We find them to be perceptive, aware of what is happening throughout the world; unusually healthy; most friendly and congenial; and above all, very exciting people. Bowmansville is fortunate in having such a family in its vicinity.

It's a long way from John Musselman, Mrs. Spotts' paternal ancestor who built a log cabin in the forests along Muddy Creek, at the northern edge of Bowmansville, in 1738; to Daniel O'Hagan, who built a log cabin in the forests, also close to a branch of the Muddy Creek, one mile east of Bowmansville, 225 years later. Maybe history does repeat itself; rather, people may discover that we haven't really made much progrgss.in two and one-fourth centuries.


Resources
Edwin H. Colbert, "A New Triassic Procolophonid from Pennsylvania" in American Museum Novitates, published by the American Museum of Natural History, N. Y. Number 2022, November 29, 1960, p. 2.
John W. Price, Sr., A New Locality For Upper Triassic Vertebrate Fossils in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the North Museum, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Reprinted from Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, pp. 167-168, Vol. XXX, 1956).
A microfilm copy of this will can be found in the Fackenthal Library at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During the 16th century the family name was Nieda, which became Von Nieda when an early ancestor, who saved the life of an Archduke in Austria, for which he was knighted, which gave him the right to use "Von" before his name. This information was secured from Mr. Richard Willis Von Nieda, Reading, Pennsylvania.
In the 1750 Tax Returns for Brecknock Township there appears the name of Jacob Fanneda (Miller). This name appears in the Tax Lists until 1783, where it is spelt Voneta.
The 1790 Census includes the name Jacob Fonnada as a head of a family in Brecknock Township. Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County, Everts and Peck, Philadelphia, 1883, p. 674. The original Tax Returns can be found in the archives of the Lancaster County Historical Society. This information appears in the Mennonite Encyclopedia, Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1955, p. 37.
Tax Returns for 1750.
Proceedings of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Vol. XIV, p. 236, (Hereafter, the reference will be LCHS). 'The writer recently visited this house. In spite of alterations the west Fireplace was still standing. The fireplace has a beautiful hand-carved mantel.
"Information about the early generations of the Schneder family can be found in a small pamphlet by the late Reverend Charles B. Schneder, The Schneder Family, prepared for the Family Reunion, September 15, 1929, 37 pages. The writer has a copy in his files.
"Ellis and Evans, ibid., p. 675.
"Jacob L. Beam, "A History of the Beam Family," Lancaster New Era, September 25, 1919 (a clipping found in W. K. Musselman's scrapbook.)
"The Schneder Family, ibid., p. 35.
'The original letter is in the hands of one of Mrs. Spotts' cousins.
'LCHS, ibid., Vol. 1, 1896, p. 133-135.
"LCHS, ibid.
'The Examiner, 1908.
"The Lancaster Intelligencer, December 20, 1920, p. 11.
W. K. Musselman's scrapbook.
"LCHS, Vol. 12, June, 1911, p. 1.
'The Terre Hill Times, January 15, 1909, p. 1.
"Lancaster Examiner-New Era, February 17, 1923, p. 1.
'Taken from W. K. Musselman's scrapbook. J. B. Musselman's given name was actually Israel, but during most of his life he used the initials J. B.
"The presence of the names from Montgomery County was probably because the Reverend Moses Gottshall of Montgomery County served as pastor of the Pine Grove Mennonite Church, of which J. B. Musselman was a member.