Program by Jim Lewars

Join us for an informative evening as Mr. Lewars walks us through the story of the Kauffman Farm, the Oley Valley’s most intact historic farmstead. Established by David Kauffman in 1726, the farm retains many 18th and 19th century buildings and is an important study in early Germanic architecture and farm life in the Oley Valley. A display of artifacts found at the farm will be available for viewing after the program.

About the speaker: Jim Lewars is a Berks County native with a B.A. and M.A. from Penn State. He is retired from a 42 year career in the museum field. He was responsible for the operations at both the Daniel Boone Homestead and Conrad Weiser Homestead for 25 years. He served as the acting administrator of the Ephrata Cloister and was Director of the Landis Valley Museum for 7 years, prior to his retirement in 2017. Mr. Lewars has researched Pennsylvania German architecture and is well acquainted with the Oley Valley, having led many tours over the years. He has also served on the boards of many history oriented organizations.

All are invited to this free event!

Jeff Rhoads is a native of Berks County having grown up in the Boyertown area. He has substantial family roots in Berks County and is a descendant of Germans who emigrated from the Palatinate region of

Germany to the Oley Valley in the early 18th Century. He has ancestors buried in several different cemeteries throughout the Oley Valley. In the early 1900’s, Jeff’s great uncle Charlie owned and operated the Inn at Oley, then known as the Rhoads Hotel, as well as a speakeasy on Rhoads Lake just off of Lake Road in Oley.

Jeff is a student of Pennsylvania German culture and has been collecting SE Pennsylvania redware pottery for over 30 years. This includes redware pieces made by the last of the traditional Pennsylvania German potters: Jacob Medinger (Neiffer Pottery/ Limerick, PA) and the Stahl Pottery (Powder Valley, PA). Jeff has collected dozens of examples from both potteries and, since both potters documented their work and signed many pieces, their history has been well established. Jeff has given talks on the Stahl Pottery for other historical societies and organizations. He is a long-time member of the Historical Society of Berks County and is a board member of the Artifacts Bank, a Reading-based nonprofit architectural salvage organization supporting the Centre Park Historical District.

In addition Jeff has undertaken the extensive restoration of two Germanic eighteenth-century stone farmhouses starting in 1984 and currently resides with his wife in the 1765 Hoch-Keim mansion located just north of the hamlet of Lobachsville. As a result of substantial research required for these projects, Jeff has become very knowledgeable of Pennsylvania German architecture and, in particular, the Federal period. Jeff is also on the board of Pike Oley District Preservation Coalition (PODPC) a land preservation organization helping to preserve the beautiful farms and surrounding landscape of the Oley Valley.

Ms. Heffner’s presentation will focus on the five well-known basket weavers of the Oley Valley. She will display various types of baskets and encourages the public to bring their own baskets to display with a written description for others to read.

Everyone is invited to attend this FREE event! No membership is required but would be greatly appreciated!

About the speaker: Vicky Heffner is a lifelong resident and experienced basket weaver of the Oley Valley having taught thousands of people how to weave baskets. She continues the basket weaving tradition founded more than 150 years ago by Reuben Reifsnyder and lives 1/4 mile from Basket, a community that derived its name from the many baskets created there. She has a Master of Arts degree in History and has been employed at the Berks History Center for more than 20 years as the Education Curator.

The Oley Valley Heritage Association created a booth for the 72nd annual Oley Valley Community Fair. The booth entitled “Farm to Fair, E-i-E-i OLEY” was in keeping with the fair theme. Our booth featured vintage photos of farms in the Oley Valley and old time displays at the Oley Valley Community Fair.

Spend an evening with Darius Puff, a descendent of the Lenape, as he portrays his Native American heritage. Dressed in the garb of his ancestors, Mr. Puff will teach us about the early lives of the Lenape who lived here in PA’s Oley Valley and the changes their society went through in the 18th century through the use of artifacts (real and reproductions), furs, and traditional storytelling.

All ages will enjoy and are invited to attend this FREE event!

No membership is required but would be greatly appreciated!

Complimentary light refreshments will be provided after the program.

For the 71st Oley Valley Community Fair, the OVHA created a booth entitled, “What’s Buzzing in the Schoolhouse?” in keeping with this year’s fair theme of “The Oley Valley Community Fair is the place to Beeeee!” Our booth featured Oley Township vintage school photos and memorabilia as well as an antique bee hive. The committee did a wonderful job of depicting how Oley schoolhouses were years ago.

Presented by Patrick J. Donmoyer

Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 7:00PM
Oley Fair Centre Building, 26 Jefferson Street, Oley, PA
Join us as we learn about customs, rituals and folkways known among the PA Dutch as Braucherei or powwowing used primarily for the healing and protection of humans and their domesticated animals.

Everyone is invited to attend this FREE event! No membership is required but would be greatly appreciated! Complimentary refreshments will be provided after the program.

Oley Valley Heritage Association
About the Speaker:

Patrick Donmoyer, formerly of Lebanon, PA, is the Site Director at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, a folklife museum and research center on the Kutztown Campus. A fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch and advocate for regional folk culture, he is completing a forthcoming book and is current-ly engaged in a lecture series and traveling exhibition on the tradition of ritual medicine entitled Powwowing in Pennsylvania, the book scheduled to be released in July, 2017.

For the 70th Oley Valley Community Fair, the OVHA created a booth entitled, “A Fair to Remember” in keeping with this year’s fair theme of the same title. Our booth featured Oley Fair memorabilia and vintage photos taken at the school grounds where it originated in 1946 and later on the Oley Fairgrounds. Also included was an enlarged print of the Landmarks of the Historic Oley Valley brochure and some vintage aerial photos of the school and fairgrounds area. Our booth won first place for Outstanding Indoor Commercial Exhibit. Congratulations to those who served on this committee for their hard work and innovative ideas for the booth!

On Monday, April 18, 2016, Kevin D. Bieber and Dena L. Kauffman presented a program on the history of the Oley Fair. Approximately 112 people attended.

Bieber and Kauffman explained how the fair originated and traced its history from 1946 to the present time. Early photos of the fair were also shared when the fair was held at what is now the Oley Administration Building on the Oley school grounds and later as it was held on the Oley Fairgrounds. What wonderful memories it brought back of previous Oley Fairs!
 

Donald Angstadt and Pikeville Equipment, Inc. can trace their family business back to 1880 when his great-grandfather, Morris Fretz, started a blacksmith shop on Oysterdale Road in Pike Township. Angstadt, a 1963 graduate of Oley Valley High School, has been employed his en-tire lifetime at the business he now co-owns. He is a contributor to Green Magazine and has made presentations to several John Deere Two-Cylinder Clubs at various locations. A John Deere Model B is the first tractor that Pikeville Equipment ever sold and is on display at the business with some 40 additional tractors that Donald and his son, Michael, currently own and exhibit.

For the 69th Oley Valley community Fair, the OVHA created a booth entitled, “We’re off to see an Oley farmquot; in keeping with this year’s fair theme, “We’re off to the Oley Fair!” Featured were antique farming equipment, vintage Oley Valley farming photos and antique advertising.

Some of the antique farming equipment included: a corn sheller, ox yoke, flails, corn huskers, an early seeder, hay knife, a hog scraper, wooden forks, a wooden rake, a split oak basket and wagon jacks.

Also included were antique advertisements for threshing machines, reapers, binders, manure spreaders and early tractors.

We received many nice compliments on our booth.

Alan G. Keyser has studied, published and presented lectures on homespun over the last 40 years. He will show examples of both tools and pieces of homespun linens, linsey and wool made in the Oley area and elsewhere in southeastern Pennsylvania more than 150 years ago.

See actual samplers, coverlets and other textiles made in the Oley Valley! See what tools were used and learn how those tools were made!

Sampler image courtesy of Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

Program will include
Penn Street Covered Bridge
Lancaster Avenue Covered Bridge
Schuylkill Avenue Covered Bridge
Stoudt’s Ferry Covered Bridge
And many others.
Special emphasis on the 2002 to 2004 restoration of the Pleasantville Covered Bridge.

Oley Valley Heritage Association
Fred J. Moll
Fred J. Moll is a historian on covered bridges, author of six bridge books, photographer, member of the Historical Society of Berks County, The Theordore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania, and the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges.

For the 68th Oley Valley Community Fair, the OVHA created a booth entitled Wild Rides of the Oley Valley in keeping with the fair theme, Barn To Be Wild. Featured was a 1946 Harley Davidson motorcycle, two Oley Trolley models and many vintage photos of early modes of transportation. Many people commented on how they used to ride the Oley Trolley. Below are photos of our 2014 exhibit.
  

Presented by Lisa Minardi

What is Fraktur?
Fraktur are colorful documents made by the Pennsylvania Germans during the 1700s and 1800s. Often decorated with flowers, hearts and birds, most are birth and baptismal certificates or teaching pieces.

Lisa Minardi
Lisa Minardi is an expert on PA history and decorative arts and is currently writing a book on fraktur for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and helped re-catalog the fraktur collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia. She is an assistant curator at Winterthur Museum and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization at the University of Delaware.

The meeting will be held at the Oley Fair Centre Building, 26 Jefferson Street, Oley

Portrayal, by Oley Valley native Mark D. Grim, Jr., of Major General John F. Hartranft, a Civil War Hero. Title of Program: “Major General John F. Hartranft: Soldier and Pennsylvania Statesman”

Some of Major General Hartranft’s accomplishments include:

Awarded the Medal of Honor after the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
Participated in numerous battles and brevetted Major General by General Grant
Oversaw the imprisonment of 8 individuals charged in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy and oversaw the hanging of 4 of them
Served as PA Auditor General and as PA Governor
Organized the PA National Guard

Mark Grim is a retired Colonel, US Marine Corps, with over 25 years of service and also a retired Pa. attorney. He is descended from a Civil War veteran, Corporal Andrew Grim.

The OVHA created a booth entitled Moo-ve On Thru The Years in keeping with the fair theme of Moo-ve On Over to the 67th annual Oley Valley Community Fair. We spoke to many old and new friends. Below are photos of our exhibit in 2013.