History of Berks County

Written by J. Lawrence Getz, Reading, PA.

Berks county (named after Berkshire in England, where the Penn family held large landed estates) was originally formed from parts of Philadelphia county east of the river Schuylkill, and from parts of Chester and Lancaster west of the same river, by an act of the General Assembly, approved March 11th, 1752, by the Hon. James Hamilton, Governor of the Province. By the same act, Edward Scull, of Philadelphia county, Benjamin Lightfoot, of Chester, and Thomas Cookson, of Lancaster, were appointed commissioners to run the boundary lines. Its subdivisions at that time consisted of sixteen townships, of which Albany, Alsace, Amity, Colebrookdale, Douglass, Exeter, Hereford, and Oley, were taken from Philadelphia county; Bern, Bethel, Caernarvon, Cumru, Heidelberg, Robeson, and Tulpehocken, from Lancaster county; and Union township from Chester county.

Berks was reduced to its present limits by annexing the extreme northern part to Northumberland, 1772; and by the erection of Schuylkill county out of an additional northern part of its territory, 1811. It is bounded on the north by Schuylkill; on the north-east by Lehigh; on the south-east by Montgomery and Chester; and on the south-west by Lancaster and Lebanon. Average length, 32 miles; breadth, 28 miles; area, 927 square miles, embracing 593,280 acres.

By the petition which was presented to the General Assembly, February 4th, 1752, asking for the erection of a county to be called Berks, the population of the territory included within the then proposed limits was estimated at seven thousand. By the several decennial censuses of the United States government, taken from 1790 to 1870, inclusive, the population of the county was enumerated as follows: 1790, 30,179; 1800, 32,407; 1810, 43,146; 1820, 46,275; 1830, 53,152; 1840, 64,569; 1850, 77,129; 1860, 93,818; 1870, 106,701; 1876 (estimated), 120,000.

The topographical features of the county are diversified. Broad fertile plains and valleys intermingle with rough hills and mountains incapable of cultivation by the plow. But as compensation for the sterile surface of the latter, many of them contain enormous mineral wealth in the shape of iron, which awaits development, and will yet become the source of incalculable profit to the future inheritors of the soil. The southern portion of the county is traversed in a south-westerly course by the South mountain range, here and there broken into irregular spurs. In the northern part there are several elevated ridges. The Kittatinny or Blue mountain forms the boundary line between Berks and Schuylkill.

The principal stream in Berks county is the river Schuylkill ("hidden creek"), so named by the Dutch, who were the first explorers of this region, and who, it is said, in their explorations of the Delaware river, passed the mouth of the Schuylkill without perceiving its existence. The Indian name of the river was Man-ai-unk. It rises in the carboniferous highlands of Schuylkill county, and flowing in a south-easterly direction, breaks through the Blue ridge at Port Clinton, and flows down by Hamburg, and passing Reading, becomes the dividing line between the counties of Montgomery and Chester a few miles above Pottstown. Several of its large tributaries flow through Berks county, the principal one of which is the Tulpehocken creek, rising in Lebanon county, and flowing E.S.E., empties into the Schuylkill near Reading. The Maiden creek, another tributary, rises in the north-eastern part of the county, and flows into the Schuylkill six miles above Reading. The Manatawny rises in the south-eastern part of the county, and empties into the Schuylkill at Pottstown. There are several smaller streams in the county, viz.: Saucony, a branch of the Maiden creek; Northkill, which empties into the Tulpehocken near Bernville; Cacoosing and Spring creeks, which are branches of the Tulpehocken; and Allegheny and Monocasy creeks, emptying into the Schuylkill below Reading. The Little Swatara rises at the foot of the Blue mountain, and flows in a southwesterly direction, through Lebanon county, and unites with the Great Swatara near Jonestown. These streams furnish ample water power for mills, furnaces, forges, and other manufactories.

The agricultural resources of Berks are very large, and the county ranks in this respect as the third in the State, being excelled only by Chester and Lancaster. The soil generally (with the exceptions noted on a preceding page) is of good quality, and under thorough culture. One-third is fertile limestone land, very productive in wheat and other cereals. In the southern part the red shale formation prevails. Well cultivated fields in every section testify to both the fertility of the soil and the persevering industry of the large rural population which is principally engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1870 the total estimated value of all farm productions, including betterments and additions to stock, was $9,150,789. The surplus agricultural products are sent principally to the markets of Philadelphia, New York, and the Schuylkill coal regions.

The chief mineral wealth of Berks consists in iron ore, which occurs in various parts of the county. At Mount Pleasant, in Colebrookdale township; in Oley township; at Boyertown; at Moselem, in Richmond township; and at several other points, beds of good quality of ore are profitably worked. The products of these mines form the principal supply for the numerous furnaces in the county.

An approximate idea of the extent and productive value of the various manufactories of iron in Berks county is given in the following table, compiled from the census of 1870, which contains the only reliable data accessible to the writer:

The number of manufacturing establishments of all descriptions in Berks county, as returned by the census of 1870, was 1,440. Total number of hands employed, 8,991; capital invested, $11,182,603; wages paid annually, $2,711,231; materials consumed, $10,646,049; value of products, $16,243,453. Estimated value in 1875, being 50 per centum added, $24,365,179. It has been the fashion with writers for the press, for the most part unacquainted with the history and character of the inhabitants of Berks county, to represent them as an ignorant people, inimical to education. To such an extent has this misrepresentation been carried, that, up to a very recent period, the "Dumb Dutch" of Berks had become a by-word of reproach against this people indiscriminately. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In every settlement of Berks county, from the earliest dates, the school house was reared contemporaneously with the church; secular education went hand in hand with religious instruction, and the schoolmaster was regarded as second only to the pastor in the importance of his functions. It is true that the Germans of Berks county, with their characteristic jealousy of all innovations upon their established customs and institutions, were slow to adopt the provisions of the common school law of Pennsylvania, which they looked upon with suspicion, as an attempt by the State to usurp authority in a matter which they believed to belong exclusively to themselves as a local and domestic regulation of which they were best qualified to have the control. Whether right or wrong in this view is no longer a question of practical importance. Suffice it to say that, when the school system came to be fairly understood, it was readily accepted and faithfully administered, and in no county in the State do its operations and results to-day present a more gratifying exhibit. Exclusive of the city of Reading, the county is sub-divided into fifty school districts, with four hundred and twenty-five schools, which are kept open upon an average of six months in the year. The number of teachers employed during the school year just closed was 430; average number of pupils in attendance, 12,374. The annual taxation of the people for the support of these schools amounts to nearly $105,000, and no tax is more willingly paid. The school houses are all substantially built, and many of them have been constructed after the most improved models of school architecture.

The earliest internal improvements which brought Berks county into direct communication with other sections of the State were the three great turnpike roads, namely, the Reading and Perkiomen, from Philadelphia to Reading, fifty-two miles; the Centre, an extension of the former, from Reading to Sunbury, eighty-two miles; and the Berks and Dauphin, from Reading to Harrisburg, fifty-two miles. These highways have been preserved in good repair at a very small annual expenditure, and attest the wisdom and engineering skill of the old surveyors by whom they were constructed. The turnpikes were succeeded by the canals, of which the Union canal is the oldest, having been projected in 1821, and opened to navigation in 1826. It commences at Middletown, on the Susquehanna, and enters the Schuylkill at Reading. The Schuylkill canal, although projected at a later date, was completed about the same time. It extends from Port Carbon, in the Schuylkill coal region, follows the course of the river down through Reading, and terminates at Fairmount, Philadelphia. Its whole length is one hundred and eight miles. It is now operated, under lease, by the Reading railroad company.

The county is intersected by railroads in almost every direction, chief of which is the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, completed through from Philadelphia to Pottsville, ninety-three miles, in 1842. All the other lines of railway, with one exception, although constructed by independent companies, have now passed under the control of that great corporation, either by consolidation or lease. The Lebanon Valley branch, from Reading to Harrisburg, fifty-four miles, connects with the Pennsylvania railroad at the latter city. The East Pennsylvania branch, from Reading to Allentown, thirty-six miles, connects with the Lehigh Valley railroad at that station, and forms a link in what is known as the Allentown route from New York to the West. The Reading and Columbia, and Lancaster branch, forty miles, connects at Columbia with railways to York and Port Deposit. The Berks and Lehigh branch, forty-three miles, from Reading to Slatington, connects at that point with the Lehigh Valley railroad. The other branches are the Colebrookdale, twelve miles, from Pottstown to Barto, and the Kutztown, four and one-half miles, from Topton to Kutztown, which are elsewhere noticed. The exception referred to is the Wilmington and Reading railroad, sixty-four miles, connecting with the Pennsylvania railroad at Coatesville, and with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad at Wilmington.

The South Mountain and Boston railroad, now under construction, and a portion of the Pennsylvania division of which has been graded, passes in a direct line from east to west, through the northern portion of Berks county, along the fertile valley of the Tulpehocken. This road will extend from the Susquehanna river, near Harrisburg, on the south-west, in a north-easterly course to the Hudson river, opposite Poughkeepsie, New York. When completed, it will form a connection with Reading by means of the Straustown branch, twenty miles in length, from the main line which takes Straustown in its route. This branch passes through the borough of Bernville.

The first settlements within the present limits of Berks county were made between the years 1704 to 1712, by some English members of the Society of Friends, French Huguenots, and German emigrants from the Palatinate, in Wahlink, or Oley, a name which signifies, in the Indian tongue, "a tract of land encompassed by hills." Among the Friends who first domiciled here were Arthur Lee and George Boone, the ancestor of Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer of Kentucky. Prominent among the first German settlers at or near Oley was Hans Keim, the ancestor of the Keim family of Reading. The Huguenots who settled in Berks first endeavored to find a home in New York. Abraham De Turck, of Oley, one of their descendants, in a letter dated March, 1844, to I.D. Rupp, author of the "History of Berks County," wrote:

My ancestor, Isaac Turk, or De Turck, lived in France, and being a Huguenot, was obliged to flee to Frankenthal in the Palatinate. He emigrated to America in the days of Queen Anne (1709), settled in the State of New York, in the neighborhood of Esopus, and removed to Oley 1712. The patent of my land is dated 1712.

About 1714 or 1715, a few Swedes settled in Amity township. There still stands a relic of this settlement--a two story house, built of the native sandstone, on the east bank of the Schuylkill, at the village of Douglassville, in the front wall of which there is a stone bearing the initials and date "I.M.I., 1716."

A settlement was begun in Tulpehocken, in 1723, by some Germans who had fled from the Palatinate in 1708 or 1709, and taken refuge in England at the invitation of Queen Anne. In December, 1709, three thousand of these refugees embarked at London in ten ships for New York. Nearly one-half of them perished on the voyage. The survivors arrived at New York in June, 1710, and settled at various points on the Hudson. In the winter of 1712-13, about fifty families took up lands and established their homes on the Scoharie, within the limits of the present county of Scoharie. Others soon joined them there, and after encountering the various trials and hardships incident to the immigrant for several years, they brought much of the land under culture, and founded flourishing hamlets in the midst of rich fields of corn and productive gardens. But while rejoicing in the prospect of peace and prosperity, they were suddenly notified that the lands which they had improved belonged to the State, and that they must relinquish them to the lawful claimant. Submitting patiently to adverse fate, they sadly left their homes on the Scoharie for Pennsylvania, where they found an asylum among the Indians. Piloted by a friendly Indian, in the spring of 1723, they finally reached the head of the Tulpehocken creek, and settled on Indian lands about eighteen miles west of Reading. Having provided temporary shelter for their wives and children, their next care was to send deputies to Lieutenant-Governor Keith, to ask permission to settle on the Tulpehocken creek. He granted their petition on condition that they would, as soon as possible, make full satisfaction to the Proprietary or his agent, for such lands as should be allotted them. A few years later, fifty other families removed from the Scoharie to Tulpehocken. This new accession aroused the hostility of the natives. At a council, held June 5, 1728, in Philadelphia, in the presence of a large audience, one of the chiefs, Allummapees, otherwise Sassoonan, king of the Delawares, plaintively alluded to the encroachments upon his people which had been made by the Germans. In addressing James Logan, president of the council, he said: "I am now an old man and must soon die; my children may wonder to see their father's lands gone from them, without receiving anything for them, and they left with no place of their own to live on. This may occasion a difference between their children and us hereafter. I would willingly prevent any misunderstanding that may happen."

In 1729 there was another accession of Palatines, prominent among whom was Conrad Weiser, who afterwards played an important part in the colonial history of Berks county. To quiet and fully satisfy the Indians, Thomas Penn, son of the Proprietary of Pennsylvania, purchased the lands in this region from the Indians in 1732, and from him the settlers derived valid titles to the lands they occupied.

But the attempts to preserve peace between the German settlers of Berks county and the Indians were all unavailing. To relate in detail all the atrocities committed by the natives from 1744 to 1764, would exceed the compass of this limited sketch. In 1744, when war was declared between Great Britain and France, the latter easily succeeded in exciting the hostility of the Indians against the English, and the French found them not only willing but eager to join them in their acts of plunder and rapine. Soon after Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne, in July, 1755, the Indians made marauding incursions into Berks county from the direction of the Blue mountain. They devastated, by fire and slaughter, many parts of the county. Hundreds of houses were laid in ashes, hundreds of persons were scalped and slain, and many, without distinction as to age or sex, were taken captives by the savages, and subjected to tortures from which death was a blessed release. Conrad Weiser, who was then commander of the Provincial forces in Berks, wrote numerous letters which are still in existence, to Lieutenant-Governor Morris, giving thrilling accounts of the deplorable condition of the settlements. In one letter, dated the latter part of 1755, he wrote: "This country is in a dismal condition. It can't hold out long. Consternation, poverty, confusion everywhere." Alarms of this kind continued in Berks and other counties till 1778, when the Indians were finally driven beyond the Allegheny mountains.

Although the first settlers of Berks county were chiefly Germans, the colonial records show that emigrants of other European nationalities also sought and found homes here. Reference has been made to the settlements of Friends and French Huguenots in Oley, and of Swedes in Amity. Besides these, there were settlements of Huguenots in Alsace township, contiguous to Reading, and in Greenwich, on the border of Lehigh county; in Bern, of Swiss; in Brecknock, Caernarvon, and Cumru, of Welsh; in Maiden Creek, of Friends; in Robeson, of Friends, English, and Welsh; and in Union, of Swedes, English, and Welsh. A few Dutch families settled in Pike township, about 1730, and their descendants still reside there upon the ancestral estates. John Pott, a descendant of one of these families, built the first furnace in Pottsville, and gave the name to the town, which has since become the great depot of the Schuylkill coal region. He is also credited with having been the discoverer of the utility of anthracite coal. Hereford township, in the extreme eastern corner of the county bordering upon Montgomery and Lehigh, was settled principally by "Schwenkfelders," a religious sect founded by Kaspar von Schwenkfeld, a nobleman of Silesia. His adherents were persecuted by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, and in 1734 a considerable number of them emigrated to Pennsylvania, and settled on contiguous lands in Berks, Montgomery, and Lehigh. Their descendants in these counties still number about three hundred families and eight hundred members, and have five churches and schoolhouses.

The inhabitants of Berks, being for the most part composed of immigrants, and the descendants of immigrants, who had either been driven from or voluntarily left their native country to escape from civil oppression or religious persecution, it was natural that they should have been among the first to espouse the cause of the Colonies in resisting the usurpations of the British Crown. In June, 1775, after the first blood had been shed for American freedom in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the Assembly, in session at Philadelphia, recommended to the commissioners and assessors of Berks county "to immediately provide four hundred firelocks with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds of cartridges in every box, and knapsacks for the immediate use of drafted soldiers." This recommendation was promptly adopted.

At a meeting held at Reading, January 2, 1776, Edward Biddle, Jonathan Potts, Mark Bird, Christopher Schultz, John Patton, Sebastian Levan, and Baltzer Gehr, were appointed delegates to a convention, held at Philadelphia, January 22, 1776, to devise measures for effectual resistance to the mother country; and Edward Biddle, Jonathan Potts, William Rehrer, Christopher Witman, and Mark Bird, were constituted a committee of correspondence. When, on July 4, 1776, the delegates of the "Associators of Pennsylvania" met at Lancaster, to choose two brigadier-generals to command the battalions and forces of Pennsylvania, Berks county was represented by Colonels Bird, Patton, and Levan; Majors Gabriel Hiester, Jones, Lindemuth, and Loeffler; Lieutenants Cremer, Lutz, Rice, and Miller; Adjutant S. Eby; Captains Keim and May; and privates Hartman, Filbert, Morgan, Tolbert, Spohn, Wenrich, Moser, Seltzer, Winter, Lerch, Wister, and Smack.

While this convention was being held, the representatives in Congress unanimously declared the thirteen Colonies free and independent States. This act gave an impetus to the struggle which induced the patriots of Berks to make common cause with their brethren already in arms, by enlisting for active service whenever their country should call them into the field.

During the winter of 1776-'77, when the British were in possession of Philadelphia, Reading was the resort of many fugitive families from the metropolis, and it is related that, notwithstanding the gloomy prospects of the army under Washington, the little town became the scene of much gaiety. The society of the refugees received accessions of visitors from time to time--officers of the army, and others, who found relief from the contemplation of the common suffering in card parties, balls, sleighing excursions, and kindred pleasures. General Mifflin (afterwards Governor of the Commonwealth) held a country-seat named "Angelica," three miles south-east of Reading, which subsequently became the property of the county, and is now occupied by the alms-house and county hospital buildings. He was out of command in the army at this time, and was residing here. It was during this dark interval of the war that Reading became the head-quarters of the "Conway Cabal," which had for its object the deposition of Washington as Commander-in-Chief, and the substitution of General Gates. General Mifflin was, for a time, a leading spirit among these malcontents, but subsequently regretted the step he had taken, apologized for his conduct, and was restored to favor.

During the same period, a body of Hessian prisoners, who had been captured at Trenton in December, 1776, together with some British, and the principal Scotch Royalists who had been captured in North Carolina, were brought to Reading, and confined in a sort of rude barracks on Penn's Mount, east of the town, where they remained some time. To protect themselves against the inclemency of the winter, they built huts from the stones which they found there in great abundance, the ruins of which may still be traced by the curious antiquary. These prisoners were under the command of Captain Philip Miller, of Reading, who fought in the battle of Trenton.

At the beginning of the year 1777, the number of available efficient men in Berks was reported at about four thousand. On the 5th and 6th days of May, in that year, they met at convenient places to elect field officers, and formed themselves into companies and classes, agreeably to law.

July 28, 1777, the Council of Safety at Philadelphia, in the exigency of affairs, when the invasion of Pennsylvania by the British was apprehended, ordered Colonel Jacob Morgan, of Berks, forthwith to embody one class of the militia of the county and send them to Chester. The command was promptly complied with, the militia exhibiting the warmest zeal in the cause upon which the future fate of the American States depended. Some of the inhabitants, however, here as elsewhere, were not equally zealous, assigning as a reason for not responding to the call, that they were unprovided with arms, ammunition, and other necessaries.

In August following, a second class of the militia of Berks were ordered out, the force, including officers and privates, aggregating six hundred and fifty-six "hearty and able men." In November, the fifth and sixth classes were notified to appear at Reading, with all the arms, accoutrements, and blankets they could procure. There was at this time a great want of arms and ammunition. In this exigency, proper persons were appointed, by the commissioners to go from house to house to collect arms, blankets, and whatever could be made available for the service, and forward them to the commissioners.

In July, 1780, a requisition was made upon Berks to furnish, monthly, six hundred barrels of flour, six hundred tons of forage, two hundred horses, and twenty wagons.

The last order from the Council of Safety was issued September 11, 1781, for three classes of the militia of Berks county. This, as well as the several previous requisitions, both for men and munitions of war, as well as for supplies for subsistence, were promptly complied with.

During the entire period of the Revolutionary struggle, from 1775 to 1783, Pennsylvania furnished 29,555 "effective men." Of these, 7,357 were militia, and 22,198 were regular Continental troops. Of this number Berks county furnished its full quota.

In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, the town of Reading furnished a company of volunteers to aid in subduing the malcontents in the west.

In the war of 1812-14, Berks county furnished two full regiments of militia and volunteers, which constituted the Second Brigade Pennsylvania Militia, under command of General John Addams, of Reading. Jeremiah Shappell and John Lotz were Colonels of the First and Second regiments respectively. The captains of the several companies were: George Zieber, Jacob Marshall, Thomas Moore, John Mauger, George Marx, George Ritter, Jonathan Jones, Henry Willotz, John May, John Christian, Gabriel Old, Daniel De B. Keim, and William Hain. These troops marched to the defence of Baltimore in the fall of 1814, when that city was threatened by the British, and remained in camp there until the conclusion of peace.

When war was declared between the United States and Mexico (1846) three companies of volunteers were recruited in Reading and the vicinity, and tendered their services to the government. Only one of them was accepted, the Reading Artillerists, Captain Thomas S. Leoser, which became Company A of the Second Pennsylvania regiment, and did gallant service under General Scott n all the engagements from Vera Cruz to the capture of the city of Mexico.

In the late war of the rebellion Berks county attested her devotion to the cause of the Union by sending into the field forty-eight full companies of volunteers, who served in various regiments, chiefly in the Army of the Potomac, and nany of these gallant men, officers and privates, yielded up their lives a willing sacrifice upon the altar of their country. In every sanguinary engagement of the campaign their names were found in the list of killed, wounded, and prisoners. The future historian will do justice to their memories. The drafts of 1863, which were obnoxious to the people of many districts and resisted in some, met with no obstacles to their enforcement here, and two full regiments of drafted men were obtained, who willingly submitted to the decrees of war, and faithfully served out the term for which they were recruited. It deserves to be noted here that the Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading, Captain James McKnight, was the first company that reported at Harrisburg in response to President Lincoln's proclamation of April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 men, and was one of the five Pennsylvania companies that first arrived at Washington for the defence of the Capital.

The territorial subdivisions of Berks consist of the city of Reading, eight boroughs and forty-one townships. The following table gives the date of formation, population, and valuation of taxable property of each:

* Estimated population, 1876.

HAMBURG was settled as early as 1720, by emigrants from the free State of Hamburg, Germany, and hence when incorporated as a borough, it was appropriately so named. It is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Schuylkill river, sixteen miles north-east of Reading, and has become one of the principal stations on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad between Reading and Pottsville. The projected South Mountain railroad will span the Schuylkill at this point, and run through the northern portion of the town. It has considerable trade and manufactures, and contains many fine buildings, including five churches and three large school houses.

KUTZTOWN was settled by Germans about the year 1733. It is situated on the old post road between Reading and Easton, seventeen miles north-east of Reading. It is now connected with the East Pennsylvania branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad at Topton station, by a branch of the (uncompleted) Allentown railroad. Since 1860 Kutztown has increased rapidly in population and business. It is now the most flourishing borough in the county. The Keystone State normal school is located upon a commanding site overlooking the town, and is one of the finest educational institutions in the country. It consists of a central building of simple, but imposing, architectural proportions, crowned with a tower and flanked by wings, the whole presenting a front of two hundred and forty feet. The surrounding grounds have been beautifully improved with parterres of grass and shrubbery, with walks shaded by numerous trees. The main building was originally the "Maxatawny seminary," which was enlarged to its present dimensions during the years 1865-'66. September 13, 1866, the school was officially recognized as the State Normal School of the Third District of Pennsylvania. It has boarding accommodations for three hundred, and school accommodations for four hundred, students. The number of students enrolled in the catalogue of 1875 was five hundred and sixteen, of whom four hundred and seventy-one were males. The whole cost of the buildings and grounds was about $85,000.

WOMELSDORF was settled in 1723, by some of the German families who had originally found homes in Scoharie county, New York, but were obliged to surrender their lands there in consequence of defective titles. It was laid out as a town by John Wommelsdorff, from whom it derived its name. It is situated near the Tulpehocken creek, on the Berks and Dauphin turnpike road, fourteen miles west of Reading. Conrad Weiser settled near Womelsdorf in 1729, and his remains were interred there in the family burying-ground, which is still preserved intact as a venerated spot. Up to the date of its incorporation as a borough, Womelsdorf was included in Heidelberg township. The Bethany Orphans' Home, founded by the Reformed church, is situated in a beautiful grove of eighty-eight acres of land, near Womelsdorf station on the Lebanon Valley branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, about half a mile south of the borough. The building is large and commodious, and is abundantly supplied with the purest water from the South Mountain spring. Previous to the purchase of the property for the Home, in 1868, it was known as "Manderbach's Springs," and was much frequented by strangers as a summer resort. There is a tradition among the inhabitants of Womelsdorf that Washington tarried there over night, in October, 1794, on his way to take command of the troops who had rendezvoused at Carlisle to march to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, and that, on this occasion, accompanied by General Joseph Hiester and other persons of note, he visited the grave of Conrad Weiser.

BIRDSBORO, formerly included in Robeson township, is a flourishing manufacturing town on the Schuylkill, eight miles south-east of Reading. It is an important station on the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, and the Wilmington and Reading railroad. The extensive iron works of Messrs. E. & G. Brooke, consisting of furnaces, rolling mill, and nail factory, are situated here, and make it the centre of a large trade. It has several fine churches and many elegant private residences.

BOYERTOWN, set off from Colebrookdale township, is situated on the Colebrookdale railroad, about eight miles from Pottstown, where the latter connects with the Philadelphia and Reading road. Its inhabitants are principally interested in the mining of iron ore, large deposits of rich magnetic ore lying in the immediate vicinity, some of the veins of which extend under a portion of the ground on which the town has been built. The Colebrookdale iron works, two miles distant, are engaged extensively in the manufacture of castings of various kinds, principally wagon-boxes and sad-irons. Boyertown contains two large academics and boarding schools, and is a favorite summer resort for Philadelphians.

FLEETWOOD, set off from Richmond township, is a station on the East Pennsylvania branch of the Reading railroad, eleven miles east of Reading, and since the completion of that road in 1858, has grown into a thriving manufacturing town.

BERNVILLE is situated on the Union canal, fourteen miles north-west from Reading. It has an industrious population, and several manufacturing establishments of note. The South Mountain railroad, now in process of construction, will pass through the borough, which will give a new impetus to the business of the vicinity.

TOPTON, the youngest borough in the county, set off from Longswamp township, February 12, 1876, is situated eighteen miles north-east of Reading, on the East Pennsylvania railroad, at its junction with the Kutztown branch.

LEESPORT, on the Schuylkill river, and also a station on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, nine miles north of Reading, is a flourishing village. A large anthracite furnace, owned by the Leesport Iron company, is in operation here.

MORGANTOWN, a village in Caernarvon township on the Conestoga turnpike road, thirteen miles south from Reading, was settled about 1740, by emigrants from North Wales, principally workers in iron, and is one of the few places in Berks county where the German language has never prevailed. It was named after its founder, Colonel Jacob Morgan, a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary war, and is noted as the birthplace of many men who have become prominent in the public affairs of the country, among whom may be named the Hon. J. Glancy Jones, ex-Member of Congress and Minister to Austria, and the Hon. Hiester Clymer, ex-State Senator, and now Member of Congress. The first inhabitant of Caernarvon was David Jones, a Welsh iron-master, who purchased about one thousand acres of land in 1735, and was the first to successfully develop the iron industry of Pennsylvania. The mines now known as "J Jones's Mine Holes," are upon a portion of the original purchase of this pioneer, and for many years were a source of wealth to him and his descendants. An old mansion is still standing on the turnpike, two miles from Morgantown, which was built in 1752 by his son, Jonathan Jones, who afterwards had a colonel's commission in the Revolutionary army. These were the ancestors of the Hon. J. Glancy Jones.

VIRGINSVILLE, hitherto an obscure village in Richmond township, four miles from Kutztown, has become a place of note since the discovery, in 1871, of a remarkable natural curiosity now known as the "Crystal Cave." This subterranean wonder was disclosed by some men engaged in quarrying stone, and is regarded with admiration by all who have examined it. The cave is of vast dimensions, and crystal formations of every shape and color are found within its recesses. Chief among these is a splendid wing-shaped brace of pendants hanging from a lofty projection, and most appropriately named the "Angel's Wings." A large hotel has been built near the cave, and since the village has become a railroad station by the completion of the Berks and Lehigh road, numerous strangers and parties of pleasure visit the place during the summer season.

The whole territory of Berks county is dotted with numerous villages, beautiful in situation, thriving in business, and delightful as rural retreats; but it is the province of the gazetteer rather than the historian to describe them.

CUMRU township is entitled to notice under this head, as being the seat of the county almshouse and hospital buildings, upon a large and highly cultivated farm of over five hundred acres, which was formerly the property of Governor Thomas Mifflin, and where he resided during his intervals of retirement from the public duties of his eventful life. The new hospital for the insane, completed in 1875, is a large and commodious structure, in which all the modern appliances for the comfort and relief of this afflicted class have been introduced. An average of five hundred inmates are subsisted here, mainly from the products of the farm. It is easily accessible from the city, from which it is three miles distant, over an excellent macadamized road.

READING, the seat of justice of Berks county, was named after the ancient borough of Reading and market-town of Berkshire in England, which it is said to resemble in some of its geographical environs. It was laid out in the fall of 1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn, then Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania. Settlers were invited to it "as a new town of great natural advantages of location, and destined to become a prosperous place." In 1752, when the county of Berks was erected, and Reading was made the capital, it contained 130 dwelling houses, 106 families, and 378 inhabitants. The original settlers were principally Germans, who had emigrated from Wirtemberg and the Palatinate, although a few Friends who settled here under the patronage of the Penns had control of the government prior to the Revolution. The Germans, however, being the more numerous, gave character to the town both in language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship by a considerable portion of the present population. Reading was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. It is beautifully situated on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill river, fifty-two miles east (fifty-four by railroad) of Harrisburg, and fifty-two miles north-west (fifty eight by railroad) of Philadelphia. It is built upon a plain sloping gently from Penn's Mount, an eminence on the eastern side, to the river, which gives it great natural facilities for drainage. The streets are wide and well graded, and generally intersect each other at right angles, and form in their course almost exact indices of the cardinal points of the compass. Reading is abundantly supplied with pure water from various mountain streams which have been from time to time conducted into reservoirs on Penn's Mount, and thence distributed throughout the city. The first spring water was introduced by the Reading water company, a private corporation, in 1822, whose property and franchises were purchased by the city in 1865, for the sum of $300,000, and since then they have been under the supervision of a board of four commissioners elected at stated terms by the city councils. The Reading gas company was chartered in 1848. The works are situated on the Schuylkill canal, at the foot of Fifth street.

The present boundaries of Reading comprise an area of about four thousand acres, extending three and one-tenth miles north and south, and two and four-tenths miles east and west. Its municipal subdivisions consist of eleven wards, nearly equal in territorial extent and population, each of which elects one member of the select council for a term of three years, and four members of common council (or more, according to the ratio of taxable inhabitants) for a term of two years. The mayor is elected biennially, and has the appointment of the police force of the city, which now consists of a chief, one lieutenant, two sergeants, and thirty-five patrolmen, subject to confirmation by the select council. All laws and ordinances of councils must have the approval of the mayor.

Reading has an efficient volunteer fire department, consisting of ten companies--seven steam-engines, two hook-and-ladder, and one hose company-which are mainly supported by appropriations from the city treasury, at an average annual cost of $17,000. The councils have general control of the property and apparatus of the companies; and their immediate direction, when in service, is committed to a chief engineer and two assistants, who are elected annually by the Firemen's Union, an incorporated body composed of delegates representing the several companies composing the department. The fire-alarm telegraph, adopted 1815, has proved of incalculable service in saving the city from destructive conflagrations, by the promptness with which the discovery of fires is signaled, and the exact indication of the locality where the services of the firemen are needed.

Reading was among the first districts in the Commonwealth to accept the provisions of the Common School law of 1834, and although the progress of the new system of education was at first slow, it gradually grew into favor, until the public schools of Reading attained to a rank entitling them to be classed among the best in the State. The city now constitutes an independent school district, under special laws, and is governed by a board of controllers, composed of four members from each ward. The schools consist of a high school, in charge of a principal and eight assistants, seven grammar schools, six intermediate schools, thirteen secondary schools, and forty primaries. A corps of one hundred and thirty-two teachers are required to conduct these schools--all females except the principal of the high school and four of his assistants. The general supervision of the schools is committed to a city superintendent, elected annually by the board of controllers. Number of school-houses in 1876, twenty-two. Pupils of all grades in attendance, 7,000.

Prior to 1830, the compilers of the gazetteers found nothing worthy of remark in relation to Reading, except that many of its inhabitants were engaged in the manufacture of wool hats. The hat manufacture still constitutes a branch of its productive industry, but it has been long since exceeded by other manufacturing industries, chief among which are the various products of iron although cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, agricultural implements, furniture, leather, bricks, carriages, and indeed almost every article that ministers to the necessity or convenience of man, are produced here for the supply of home and distant markets. The principal workshops of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company are established here, consisting of forges, rolling mills, foundries, locomotive works, car shops, and others, which give employment to about three thousand laborers and skilled mechanics.

The first public buildings erected in Reading were the court house (1762), the jail (1770), and the State house (1793). The court house stood in the open square, at the intersection of Penn and Fifth streets, which was then the geographical centre of the town. It was a small two-story structure of rubble work, painted red, with nothing pretending to ornament, if we may except a diminutive belfry which contained a small bell and the town clock, the dials of which were never known within the memory of the oldest inhabitant to mark the hours correctly. There was a tradition among the "old wives," that the clock was bewitched, and that no human skill ever could make it go right. Whatever might have been the cause, the fact was so. The old court house was demolished in 1841, having been superseded in 1840 by the completion of the present court house, a large and elegant structure, composed in the Ionic order of Grecian architecture, with basement and portico of sandstone, and a cupola twenty-four feet in diameter at the base, and eighty-four feet in height above the roof. This building was enlarged a few years ago by an addition to the rear, and now contains two spacious court rooms, commodious offices for the several county officers, a large law library room, jury rooms, vaults, etc. The old jail, a long, low, heavy two-story stone structure, built for durability, certainly if not for ornament, is still standing on the north-east corner of Fifth and Washington streets, with very little alteration in its original appearance, and is occupied for business purposes. If not disturbed by the onward march of improvement, it bids fair to endure for another century. The new county prison, designed and erected in 1846 by the celebrated architect, John Haviland, stands on a commanding site on the south-western slope of Penn's Mount, at the junction of Penn street and Perkiomen avenue. It is built of red sandstone, in the castellated Gothic style, and is a conspicuous ornament of the city, if, indeed, a penal institution can be viewed in an ornamental light. The State house, which, prior to 1840, was occupied by the public offices of the county, and as a town hall, was a plain but substantial two-story brick building, on the north-east corner of Penn and Fifth streets. It was converted into places of business after ceasing to be used for public purposcs, and was destroyed by fire, January, 1872.

Reading contains many other large and elegant public edifices and private mansions, which give it the appearance of a metropolitan city. Among the former are the Academy of Music, Grand Opera House, market houses, the Keystone Hall, Library Hall, City Hall, Masonic Temple, now in course of erection, St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, under the charge of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, the diocesan school of the Protestant Episcopal church, parochial school of St. Paul's Roman Catholic church, and others. The new passenger depot of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company, in the northern section of the city, where the several branches of this great corporation connect with its main line, is, in convenience of arrangement, architectural taste, eligible location, and beautiful park-like surroundings, one of the most complete structures of the kind in the United States. It has been truly denominated "the pride of the city and the admiration of all travelers."

One of the few houses of ante-revolutionary date, which still stands as a monument of the colonial era of Reading, is the two-story stone building on the north-east corner of the public square at Fifth and Penn streets, now occupied by the Farmers' National Bank. It was erected in 1764, and was originally kept as a public-house or tavern (the "hotel" is an institution of later times). Tradition says that Washington was entertained here when on his way to join the troops which had been called out to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794, and this incident has been so well authenticated that it may be set down as a fact. The building has undergone some alterations and improvements, but is well preserved in nearly its primitive form.

The Friends were the first to make provision for religious instruction in Reading. In 1750 they erected a meeting-house and a school-house, plain log structures, on a lot set apart for the purpose in the locality now known as the corner of Washington and Ash streets. These relics of the past century have long since disappeared, and the present generation knows nothing of their existence, except from the photographs of them which have been fortunately preserved. The next house of religious worship was the German Reformed church, erected about 1762, on the site of the present large and beautiful First Reformed church on Washington street, above Sixth. The Lutheran "Church of the Trinity," on the north-west corner of Washington and Sixth streets, was erected in 1791, and, with the exception of the graceful tapering spire which rises from the tower on the western gable-end to the height of two hundred and one feet six inches, and various improvements in the interior arrangements, stands to-day almost as it stood in its original form. The Roman Catholics built a chapel here in 1791, on the east side of Seventh street, between Franklin and Chestnut, which was occupied for worship until the year 1846, when St. Peter's church, on South Fifth street, was erected. Up to the year 1824, when the Presbyterian church was organized, the religious services of the churches were conducted exclusively in the German language. The English portion of the inhabitants, whose number was then small, assembled on every alternate Sunday, in the Reading academy, which stood on the south-west corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets (now occupied by one of the railroad machine shops), where the Rev. John F. Grier, D.D., principal of the academy, ministered to them in their own tongue. The Episcopal church, which occupied the site of the present Christ cathedral, was erected in 1826. The Methodists, although existing as a society previous to that date, erected their first church in 1828; the Baptists about the same period; and the Universalists in 1830. Reading now contains more than thirty church edifices, of which five are Lutheran, five Reformed, four Methodist, three Presbyterian, two Protestant Episcopal, two Roman Catholic, two Baptist, and others representing the various religious denominations in the United States.

The Charles Evans cemetery, founded in 1846 by a munificent donation of land and money from the late Charles Evans, Esq., long a distinguished member of the Berks county bar, is beautifully situated on an eminence in the northern suburb of Reading. It is adorned with an imposing front and gateway on Centre avenue, of dark sandstone, in the pointed Gothic style, and a chapel of red freestone in the same style, designed and constructed by the late John M. Gries, of Philadelphia (a major in the Union army, killed at the battle of Fair Oaks), which is universally admired as one of the purest gems of Gothic architecture.

In 1810, according to the first official census of record, Reading had a population of 3,462. During the thirty years following, its increase was very gradual, and the census of 1840 reported the number of its inhabitants at 8,392. But from that time onward it took a new departure, and the enumeration of 1850 developed the fact that it had nearly doubled its population within the preceding decade. In 1850, the little rural borough had expanded into the prosperous city of 15,743 inhabitants. Thus, in just one century from the date of the foundation of the town, the prediction of the Penns that it was "destined to become a posprosuos place," was fully verified. By the census of 1870, the population was enumerated at 33,930, which may be safely estimated to have increased by this time (1876) to 40,000. To predict the future of Reading is beyond the power of human foreknowledge. Notwithstanding the prevailing depression of its manufacturing industries, resulting from the universal financial panic of 1873, the destiny of this city is assured, and should it increase in the same ratio as it has advanced in the past, a decennial addition of fifty per centum will give it a population of not less than 250,000 fifty years hence.

Source: An illustrated history of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil, Political, and Military, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Historical Descriptions of Each County in the State, Their Towns, and Industrial Resources, William H. Egle, Harrisburg: DeWitt C. Goodrich & Co., 1876, pp. 378-