USA > Pennsylvania > Berks County > Kutztown > The centennial history of Kutztown, Pennsylvania : celebrating the centennial of the incorporation of the borough, 1815-1915 > Part 8
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which is probably correct for several rea- sons: ( I) It is nearly half way between Allentown and Reading, a half day journey from Bethlehem; (2) It is at the intersec- tion of the Easton Road and the "New Maxatawney Road" from Oley to Levan's mill ( Eagle Point. See map). The main part of the hotel, which is still standing, is said to have been erected in 1787. If this part was erected in 1787 it must have been preceded, in whole or in part by a still earlier structure, for "Levan's" is men- tioned as an inn on the Easton Road much earlier than that year, Montgomery says (old "History of Berks Co.," p. 1043) : "It was opened probably as early as 1740, by Daniel Levan, and since 1788 has be- longed to the Kemp family. George Kemp The was son-in-law to Daniel Levan ] kept the tavern fifty-two years and was succeed-
KEMP'S HOTEL
portance has not been recognized in the histories of Berks county, Strangest per- haps is the fact that no mention of this really historic road is made in the exhaus- tive "History of Travel in America" by Seymour Dunbar, published within the last few months.
Along this highway, in order to accom- modate the increasing throngs of travelers, hostelries were erected. One of the first, if not the very first, was the tavern now known as Kemp's Hotel, just over the hill from the present eastern terminus of the borough of Kutztown. It was in all proba- bility not erected as a tavern, but was originally a farm-house opened to accom- modate the needs of travelers and was sub- sequently enlarged and made a road house. It is said to be the oldest hostelry in the eastern part of our county, a contention
ed by his son, John Kemp. The legend on the present sign board gives the date as 1765 For many years the 'Half-Way House' in Richmond township and this one were the only public-houses on the state road between Reading and Allentown. . It is a long stone building, and though large was often taxed to its uttermost to accommodate the many travelers who vis- ited or passed through that section before the cra of railroads. Not only were all the sleeping rooms occupied, but the bar-room was frequently filled with sleeping team- sters and peddlers."
As matters of interest in themselves and also as stimuli to further research the fol- lowing references to this road, which de- serves more of fame than it has received- and to this ancient road house-are here inserted, references which antiquarian re-
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42
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
search has unearthed since the former his- tory of our township and town was written.
One of the earliest notices of "Levan's" is found in the diary of a Mrs. Elizabeth Drinker, an English lady traveling through this valley in 1771. Under date of August 20th she wrote: "We reached David Le- van's about dusk this evening." Then fol- lows an account of some unpelasant experi- ences of which the curious may read in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Continuing, she wrote: "With the assistance of our two servants we supped pretty well." August 30. Her [the landlady's ] hus- band is a rich farmer.'
The next notice that has come to light is in a record of a summer jaunt in 1773 taken by a company of six or seven journeying in "chairs"1 from Philadelphia to Bethle- hem and thence through our valley to Read- ing and Lancaster, and finally home to Phil- adelphia. The company consisted of "Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell( Miss.2 Kitty and Miss. Nancy Lawrence and Mr. E. Lawrence" besides "W" who is supposed to be the writer of the "Journal." The company must have been rather fastidious or else could not make proper allowance for neces- sary discomforts at pioneer and frontier road houses. "W" complains of the ac- commodations at almost every inn at which they stopped. Here are some extracts from his diary :
"Saturday 21. [August, 17731. Left Bethlehem about 7 o'clock morning. Ar- rived at Allentown (6 miles) about 9, stop'd at the Sign of the King of Prussia, the House stunk so badly that we could not remain in it. Allentown is a pret- ty situation but it seems to be a poor place. 1/ past ten left Allentown, and at 15 past two arrived at Levan's (10 milcs) where
1Of chairs there were two sorts: (1) Sedan chairs, some carried on poles by servants, some so constructed as to be borne on a horse's back ; these were, of course, without wheels; (2) wheeled chairs, drawn by one horse. "The chair was a two-wheeled vehicle with a seat for two, and sometimes with an additional small seat, al- most over the shafts, for the driver." (Dunbar). The chair had no top, differing in this particular from the chaise which had a top covered with leather. The shafts generally extended quite a distance behind the seat affording a support for baggage. None of the earliest chairs or chaises were equipped with springs. The iolting from the uneven roads was partly mitigated by having the body of the vehicle swing on braces of springy wood or suspended by stout straps of leather. The vehicles were painted in gaudy colors. The chairs used by this party were of the second sort.
2In those days a period was written after the abbreviation "Miss."
we had such a Dinner as Travellers must often put up with. 1 The House did not scem remarkably clean, but may do to stop at for an Hour or so. At 12 3 P. M. left Levan's, and about Seven o'Clock arrived at Shobers (10 miles) where the House from ap- pearance promised something good, but alass! we are often deceived by appear- ances, for it is the dirtiest House without exception in the Province, every room swarming with Buggs." Then he relates how while one of his companions slept "as tho' he had been on a bed of down" he lay awake all night despite the fact that he had taken a candle and encircled himself with a line of grease in the vain hope the circle would protect him from the "devoura- tions" of the "Buggs."
Other travelers' rests sprung up along the thronged highway. One was at "Mose- lem's Corner"; another at Kirbyville; yet another at the "Half-Way House," a name reminiscent of the ancient time as is also that of the town of Temple, five miles east of Reading, named from the antique swing- ing sign, long since taken from its rusty hinges and put no one knows where, on which was painted what the accompanying legend declared to be "Solomon's Temple.' Other hostelries were opened along the road in the opposite direction.
In the stirring days of the American Revolution and of the unrest preceding the war the Easton Road acquired national im- portance (if the term national can be used of a time when as yet there was no nation). Over it troops marched to and fro. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress passed resolutions requiring twelve com- panies of expert riflemen to be raised for the purpose of joining the army of Wash- ington at Boston. Of these companies eight were to be recruited in Pennsylvania. The men of Berks county were the first to respond. As from Reading in 1861 "The First Defenders" marched to the national capitol for the preservation of their coun- try, so from Reading in 1775 the "First Defenders" of the nation-to-be marched to Cambridge. A company, some eighty strong, under the command of Captain George Nagel, left Reading early in July and on July 18 (1775) reported for duty to General Washington at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, among the first troops to answer the call of Congress. They marched over the Easton Road. The following were the
1For omission consult reproduction of the en- tire "Tournal" in the "The Pennsylvania Maga- zine of History and Biography," July 1886.
43
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
ROLL OF CAPTAIN GEORGE NAGEL'S COMPANY
Captains
George Nagel, commissioned June 25, 1775; promoted Major of the Fifth Battalion, Col. Rob- ert Magan, January 5, 1776. Morgan Conner, commissioned January 5, 1776; March 9th called from camp by Congress, and sent into the south- ern department ; afterwards lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Hartey's regiment.
First Lieutenants
Morgan Conner, commission dated July 17, 1775; promoted captain.
David Harris, appointed January 5, 1776.
Second Lieutenants
Peter Scull, commissioned July 17, 1775; pro- moted captain of Third Pennsylvania Battalion, Colonel John Shee's, January 5, 1776 ..
Benjamin Chambers, Sr., from private, Captain Chambers' Company, January 5, 1776; subsequent- ly First Lieutenant First Pennsylvania.
Third Lieutenants
Peter Grubb, com. July Peter Weiser, appointed 17, 1775; apointed to January 5, 1776 Miles' rifle regiment
Surgeon Dr. Jonathan Potts
Sergeants
Jacob Bower, appointed John McKinty quartermaster Alexander Brannon
Hananiah Lincoln, see Philip Gibbons
Twelfth Pennsylvania
Corporals
James Williams Hugh Hughes
Henry Snevely Casper Heiner
Drummer John Molay Privates Abraham Griffith
Thomas Bain
Christopher Baldy
John Grow
Yost Berger
Timothy Harris
Conrad Bourke
John Huber
Peter Bowman
William Jones
Peter Brough
George Kemmerling
James Brown
John Kerner, wounded
John Bermeter, living in Berks County in 1810
at Lechmere Pond, Nov. 9, 1775: re-en- listed in Sixth Penna. in 1777
died in Berks county Charles Kleckner, pro- in 1807 moted ensign of Ger- man Regiment John Cox
Robert Creed
Nicholas Leasure
William Crowley
John Leaman Casper Leib
Henry Deckert
Christian Derr, reenlist- Harmon Leitheiser, en- ed in old Eleventh, sign Sixth Pennsylva- nia Col. Humpton
High Dennison
John Lewis
Tohn Dombaugh
Samuel McFarland
Jacob Duck
Christopher Martin
Jacob Elgerts
Michael Miller
Tacob Ebright
Peter Mingle
Andrew Engel Peter Felix George Fisher Christian Fought
Alexander Mogey, ( Mc- Gee) Adam Moyer
Christian Moyer, or
Michael Foust
Christonyer Myer
Lewis Franklinberry
Michael Moyer
George Gearhart
Ernst Nibber (Lawr-
Charles Gordon
Daniel Gorman
Daniel Graff John Grant
Henry Orwig Samuel Parks
Elias Reiger, discharged Adam Pickle July 1, 1776; resided George Spotts
in Union county in John Stone 1820 Thomas Reilly
John Streker
John Rewalt
Abraham Umstedd
William Robinson
Philip Wagoner of Tul- pehocken
Nicholas Shanefelt
Nicholas Waltman
Andrew Shirk
Christian Wander
Joseph Smith
John Weiser
Henry Snevely, Sr.
Isaac Willey
The appearance of the men was described as follows in a letter by Judge Henry, of Lancaster, who, when a boy, was one of the riflemen :
"They are remarkably stout and hard men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks or rifle-shirts and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards distance. At a review, while on a quick advance, a company of them fired their balls into objects of seven inches diameter at the distance of two hundred and fifty yards. They are now stationed in our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who expose them- selves to view even at more than double the distance of common musket-shot.
"Each man bore a rifle-barreled gun, a toma- hawk or a small ax and a long knife, usually called a 'scalping knife' which served for all pur- poses in the woods. His underdress by no means in military style, was covered by a deep ash- colored hunting shirt, leggins and moccasins-if the latter could be procured. It was the silly fashion of those times for riflemen to ape the manners of savages."
On the evening of July 22, 1775, there marched into town ( there must have been at least a few houses here at that time) over this road a body of riflemen, two com- panies, commanded by Captain William Hendricks and Captain John Chambers, which had started from Carlisle nine days previous and had stopped at Reading for five days. They, too, were bound for Cam- bridge. Arriving there early in August, they went into camp, for a little over a month, with eleven other companiesof mus- queteers, Pennsylvania soldiers, under the command of Colonel William Thompson, of Carlisle. From Cambridge, on September II, these soldiers, under the command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, began the long, toilsome, and finally disastrous march through the forests and over the portages of the mountains of what is now the State of Maine to the ill-fated attack on Quebec on the last day of the year. Of these com- nanies the officers at least were quartered for the night at "Swan's Tavern, 18 miles" from "Riding." This was likely the tav- ern at Kutztown with, probably, a sign on which was painted a swan, from which it
Michael Ceney
Casper Cool or Kool,
ence) Frederick Nipple
Frederick Tueo
Christian Rone
44
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
was known as "The Swan Inn." It is the brick building on East Main street near Noble street, long the property of Dr. Charles H. Wanner, and now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Zach. C. Hoch and Mrs. Laura Wanner Gross. The house is ample, as the accompanying picture shows. Tra- dition, not improbable, declares that the bricks of which it is built were brought from England. The cellar walls are mas- sive and the beams supporting the first floor are of more than ordinary size. In the rear cellar is a great arch which some have taken to be the storage vault for the liquid refreshments by which in those days travel- ers were regaled.
THE SWAN INN -EXTERIOR
The next day, as it appears from the record, other troops passed over the road, a company of mounted rifles, Virginians, under Captain Morgan (subsequently a brigadier-general and the hero of the Cow- pens) who, going on to Bethlehem, "made a two days' halt in [ that] town, (July 24 and 25).1
Early in 1776, probably about the begin- ning of February, a number of British sol- diers and their officers, with their wives and children, prisoners taken by General Montgomery on the capture of St. John and Chambly, were marched westward over this road to Reading, where they were quar-
tered. Although these prisoners were sent to Reading by the orders of Congress with- out previous notice, the people of that town "immediately appointed Mr. Henry Haller, a member of the committee, to provide houses, firewood and provisions for the par- ty who must otherwise have suffered much at [ that ] severe season."1 Mark Bird, chair- man of the committee of correspondence, as soon as this provision for the captives was made reported to Congress requesting di- rections in the matter. On April 17, 1776. Congress ordered the officers to be removed to Lebanon. It seems that the privates re- mained but these behaved so badly that the Council of Safety ordered the prisoners to be guarded so long as they remained in the town.
All through the spring and summer of 1776 there was "incessant marching" over this road of recruits from the lower coun- ties on their way to "The Flying Camp" at Amboy.
On the day after Christmas, 1776, seven persons, arrested in Northampton as Tories, "suspects inimical to the Revolution," were taken as prisoners over this road for in- carceration in the jail at Reading. Their arrival caused no little indignation at Read- ing, who complained that the people of Northampton were imposing upon the Read- ingites. "Reading must be endangered and at best burthened. Our prison is small, that of Lancaster is large, and that town is three times as large as this." So wrote James Read, Esq., to the Council of Safety on the next day after the arrival at Read- ing of these Tory prisoners.
But with the beginning of 1777 the "Great Road" became of even greater importance to the young nation. "Scarcely a week in the first eight months of 1777 but was marked by the movement of troops" over the road, going eastward to the theater of war. Early in September two hundred pris- oners of war ("one hundred of these were partisans of Donald McDonald from the Cross Creek settlement near Fayetteville, N. C.") were marched over the Easton Road from Reading to Bethlehem.
Later in the month there was lively move- ment in the opposite direction. The battle of Brandywine, September II, had proved disastrous to the American forces. Howe, the British commander, moved on Philadel- phia, causing consternation. Hastily the army starts and the sick and wounded of the Continentals were moved northward from French Creek and Philadelphia to Bethlehem and its vicinity. The Liberty
1See "The Old Sun Inn," in "Pennsylvania- German Society's Proceedings," Vol. VI, (1896) p. 56.
1 Montgomery's Berks County in the Revolu- tion," p. 151.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
Bell and Christ Chureh bells were taken down and hurried to hiding in the basement of Zion's Reformed Church, Allentown, thus passing over a five or six mile stretch of this famous road. On September 23. "upwards of nine hundred army wagons were in eamp in the fields in the rear or north of the Sun Inn at Bethlehem."
On September 19, (1777), as is learned from the diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, who was connected with the Quartermaster's Department, the money, books, and pavers belonging to the public were sent to Abraham Hunt's in New Jer- sey, while one load of his private goods was sent to Peter Trexler's ( Breinigsville) in Northampton county. On Monday, Sentem- ber 22, as narrated in the Bethlehem Morav- ian Diary, the archives and other papers of
established at Lancaster on the 27th, to be removed and set up at York three days later. In the "Diary of John Adams" (See Vol. II, of his works) we find this record :
"September 25, [ Thursday] .- Rode from Beth- lehem through Allentown to a German tavern, about eighteen miles from Reading."
Thus we are assured that on the 25th and 26th of September, 1777, this great parsonage of Revolutionary times, accom- panied by his colleagues of the Continental Congress, passed over the Easton Road and on the night of the 25th slept in Levan's Inn (now Kemps), in the Swan Inn, or in one of the other inns that, possibly, by that time had been established along the line of the road within the present limits of the borough.
ARCH IN CELLAR IN SWAN INN
Congress arrived at Bethlehem, being brought from Trenton, by way of Easton. These treasures were in the guardianship of fifty troopers and fifty infantry.
On Tuesday, September 23, the heavy baggage of the Continental Army, "in a continuous train of 700 wagons, direet from camp, arrived under escort of 200 men, commanded by Colonel William Polk, of North Carolina," at Bethlehem. and went into camp. The wagon that hauled the Liberty Bell was one of this train.
At the approach of Howe's army the Continental Congress, in session at Phila- delphia, on September 18, adjourned to meet in Laneaster, and hastily leaving the city fled to Laneaster by way of Bethlehem, Allentown, Kutztown, and Reading. The hegira through our town, or what there was of it at that time, must have been on Sep- tember 24 to 26, since the new capital was
This flight of the Continental Congress over this road may be the origin of a rather persistent tradition, evidently a myth. to the effect that Washington passed through the town. slept in one or another of the old houses, and that he camped under the boughs of the great "Centennial Oak," which stands on the Bieber farm a short distance south of Kemp's Hotel.
Exhaustive investigation has proved that Washington was never in or quite near to Kutztown. Perhaps a part of the fleeing baggage train fled so far west. In one article in "The Pennsylvania-German" (Vol. III, p. 83), entitled "Over the Old Easton Road," one may read :
"About a quarter of a mile south of Kemp's Hotel is the Bieber farm, where Dr. [N. C.] Schaeffer's grandmother on his mother's side was born. She took pleasure in describing the encampment of a division of the baggage train
46
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
of Washington's army on this farm, either be- fore or after the battle of Germantown, in 1777, as she heard it related by her parents when she was a girl. There is a fine spring of water on the farm, which, together with the fact that it was more or less secluded, was no doubt the motive for retreating to this spot. She stated that the meadow in front of the house, and the field extending to the farm on the west, were filled with tents, wagons, and horses. When the soldiers arrived the women were engaged in baking and to extend to them the hand of wel- come, they continued to bake loaves of bread, cakes, and pies, until their supply of flour was exhausted, and voluntarily distributed the same, as they were taken fresh from the oven, among them. Dewalt Bieber, the owner of the land, who lived close by, sold cider to the soldiers by gourd measure; but, after imbibing freely, they demanded possession of the cask, which proved too much for this sturdy Pennsylvania-German, whereupon he seized the most convenient weapon, a swine's yoke, and beat them off. This caused the officers to station guards around the house. The following morning Mr. Bieber's mare was found in the meadow stabbed to death, her colt standing by her side-no doubt an act of revenge.
"A short distance from the house stands a mammoth white oak tree, known as 'the Cen- tennial White Oak of Pennsylvania' ( See picture on page 2), under which, it is said, the officers had their headquarters. [The tree has borne the name 'Centennial Oak' for nearly forty years, the name originating, very likely, from a re- mark by Prof. John S. Ermentrout in his 'His- torical Sketch of Kutztown and Maxatawny,' 1876, p. 23 :- "The mammoth white oak of Berks * * * may justly be called the Centennial White Oak of Pennsylvania. On the 15th of Septem- ber, 1777, one hundred years will have passed by, since the baggage train of Gen. Washington's army, on its retreat from the battlefield of Ger- mantown, sought and found protection under and around this Revolutionary tree.' In spite of the historical inaccuracy of several of Profes- sor Ermentrout's statements concerning the al- leged visit of Washington, his fancy as to a name for the tree appealed to the popular im- agination and 'Centennial Oak' it has been called from that day to this.1
"The tree is several hundred years old and it is believed to be sturdy enough to defy the storms of another hundred years. The trunk, near the ground, measures twenty-nine feet, four inches, in circumference, and between the tenth and twentieth foot from the ground the tree sends out twenty limbs, most of which measure five to six feet in circumference, the largest meas- uring seven feet, three inches. The height of the tree is sixty-two feet, and the boughs spread ninety-eight feet."
On October 8, 1777, Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, (referred to above), in his flight with the "money, books and papers belonging to the public * * * and one load of [ his ] private goods," arrived in the after- noon at "Squire Peter Trexler's" ( Brei- nigsville.) The next day, October 9th, the two wagons containing these public and private effects, despite a rain that was fall- ing, were sent on to Reading. Hiltzheimer and family spent the rainy day at Trexler's and the following morning, Friday, passed over this road to Reading.
On November 2 of the same year John Hancock went through town, on his way to Boston from York where he had been serving as President of the Continental Congress. He was escorted by fifteen drag- oons.
On the evening of November 12, 1777, there was a group of half a dozen or so of men at Levan's Tavern ( Kemp's) whose conversation one might wish had been more fully reported. One was the Hon- orable William Ellery, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and as representative from Rhode Island, at this time, a member of the Continental Congress sitting at York. He had left Dighton, Mass., on October 20th, and with a travel- ing companion, Judge Francis Dana, ( son- in-law of Mr. Ellery and son of Richard Dana, of Cambridge, Mass.) was on his way to York where the pair arrived Novem- ber 15. The other men were Judge Dana's body servant; Colonel John Brown, of Mas- sachusetts, who, on September 18, 1777, "surprised the outposts of Ticonderoga, freed one hundred American prisoners of war, captured four companies of regulars, a quantity of stores and cannon, and de- stroyed a large number of boats";and four other "New England Men." The reader may be interested in the following extract from Mr. Ellery's Diary.
"12th. Bated at Snell's, nine miles, and ate a tolerable veal Cutlet. Snell is a good Whig. From thence to Levan's about 15 miles from Snell's where we lodged. Here we met Col Brown and four other New England men. Brown gave us an account of his expedition to Ti Jconderoga] and of the Mode of Surrendry of the vaunting Burgoyne. The fore part of this day was filled with snow squalls which proved peculiarly irksome to Mr. Dana's servant, whose surtout was stolen the evening before at John- son's by some soldiers, the afternoon was com- fortable but the evening was windy and exceed- ingly cold. The room in which we sat and lodged admitted the cold air at a thousand chinks, and our narrow bed had on it only a thin rug and one sheet. We went to bed almost completely dressed but even that would not do. It was so cold that I could not sleep. What would I not have given to have been by my fireside. * * * Our fellow lodgers suffered as much as we did. * * * What added to the infamousness of this tavern was the extreme squalidity of the rooms, beds and every utensil. * *
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