1965 KUTZTOWN SESQUI-CENTENNIAL (150th Anniversary) History
The Kutztown Area Historical Society is offering for sale a limited number of first edition copies of the Sesqui-Centennial Commemorative Book, Kutztown, Pennsylvania 1815-1965, by Dr. Ruth E. Bonner; illustrated by Dr. Elizabeth Adams Hurwitz, originally published by the Kutztown Sesqui-Centennial Association in 1965. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used by the society for the restoration and maintenance of its museum and headquarters in the 1892 Public School Building in Kutztown and for the acquisition of unique artifacts to document and preserve the history and culture of the Kutztown area, Maxatawny Township, and northeastern Berks County.
See the slideshow below for cover & images from book.
The volume includes chapters or sections on the following topics:
Setting: Saucony Creek, altitude, soil, climate, flora & fauna
Native American Indians & aboriginal relations
The Colony: Pennsylvania history, William Penn, English & German & Swedish settlements
Early Government: Berks Co. history, polling places, Maxatawny Twp., Wentz Purchase, Kutz Purchase, laying out Kutztown, incorporation as borough
18th-Century Roads: Easton Road, Albany Road, New Maxatawny Road
Communication: stagecoaches, railroads, trolleys, airport, telephone & telegraph
Hotels: Levan’s/Kemp's, White Swan, Black Horse, Pennsylvania House, Full Moon, American House, Keystone House, etc.
Government: Town Council, Board of Health, Police, Civil Defense, Utilities, Service
Education: Church Schools, Parochial Schools, Mason's Pay School, Franklin Academy, Seminaries (Fairview, Kutztown, & Maxatawny, predecessors to Kutztown University) Kutztown School District Keystone State Normal School (KSNS) - Kutztown State College
Professions: Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists, Druggists
Religion: St. John's Lutheran/U.C.C., Trinity Lutheran, St. Paul's U.C.C., Grace Evangelical Congregational, St. Mary's Roman Catholic, etc.
Wars: French & Indian, American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I & II, Korean War
Fairs: Battalion Days, Kutztown Fair, Horse Racing, Kutztown Folk Festival
Dramatics, Movies, Music, Vespers, Parades & Historical Celebrations: 1876, 1915, 1940
Mrs. America: Erna Furst Snyder
Sports: Kutztown Athletic Assn., Little League, etc.
Organizations: Veterans, Chamber of Commerce, Service i.e. Rotary, Lions Club, Jaycees, Woman's Club, Youth Groups, Hospital Auxiliaries; Grange
Lodges: Masonic, Adonai, Golden Eagle, FOE, Moose, etc.
Early Industries: clockmaking, tobacconists, tannery, shoes, paper boxes, Kutztown Furnace, carriages, textiles, hosiery, knitting mill, shirt factory, silk mill, rug mill, iron, Foundry, machine shop, brick yards, ginseng, bottling works, automobiles, publishing & printing, banks
Index & Historical Directory of Local Businesses
Advertisements from local sponsoring businesses
This volume is quarto-sized, approx. 8.5 x 11”, in stiff paper covers, from the first edition of 4,000 softcover copies. It consists of xiv + 209 pages, well illustrated with dozens of black and white photographs, many from rare real photo post cards of the borough of Kutztown, as well as a large aerial view and drawings; the endpapers are illustrated with the original 1779 ground plan for the town and a modern (ca. 1964) borough map. Condition is as issued, with some volumes showing very slight handling wear.
Through an authoritative text supplemented by several hundred vintage photographs, the Sesqui-Centennial Commemorative Book celebrates 150 years of the Borough of Kutztown, officially established in 1815 though settled, along with surrounding Maxatawny Township, by the early 1730s, principally by Palatine German Lutheran & Reformed and French Huguenot settlers migrating over the South Mountain range from the Oley vicinity into the East Penn Valley, including such early families as Hottenstein, Levan, DeTurk, Bieber, DeLong, Sharadin (Ghirardan), Kutz, Siegfried, Deisher, and Wentz.
Author Ruth Bonner, a long-time resident of Kutztown and Medford, New Jersey, was chosen to author this unique volume due to the extent of her local historical knowledge and her many years of service to the community where she was born and raised. To prepare for publication, she spent countless hours of exhaustive research into extant written records, conducted oral interviews, and assembled a virtually unprecedented photographic archive, most of which is now in the possession of the Kutztown Area Historical Society. A graduate of Kutztown High School and later a teacher there as well as a professor of English at Kutztown State College (now Kutztown University), Dr. Bonner passed away at age 92 in the autumn of 2001. Our society is forever grateful for her generosity and her scholarship in supporting our mission over the years.
The Kutztown Area Historical Society is the only official distributor of these increasingly scarce volumes. Our copies, from the total print run of 5,000 that included 1,000 limited edition, numbered hardcovers and 4,000 soft covers, represent the total remaining stock donated to us years ago by the 1965 Sesqui-Centennial Committee.
Note: While the hardcover numbered copies of this volume have not been available for decades, we are occasionally able to offer copies, as well as the very rare 1915 Centennial History of Kutztown and back issues of our quarterly journal, Along the Saucony, through local purchases. We do not de-accession volumes from our permanent library & archive, nor do we sell donations, for these purposes, but we do attempt to maintain a very limited supply of available copies for sale to interested individuals. Please contact Dr. Brendan D. Strasser, the society’s Librarian & Archivist, at bdsckt@enter.net for details.
To purchase this engagingly written, generously illustrated soft cover volume, please e-mail us at kahs1892@yahoo.com to reserve your copy or send payment directly to The Kutztown Area Historical Society, Attn: Book Sales, P. O. Box 307, Kutztown, PA 19530. Copies are $25.00 postage paid to all U.S. addresses, with international mailing available. Please help us to preserve our local history!
The Kutztown Area Historical Society is offering for sale a limited number of first edition copies of the Sesqui-Centennial Commemorative Book, Kutztown, Pennsylvania 1815-1965, by Dr. Ruth E. Bonner; illustrated by Dr. Elizabeth Adams Hurwitz, originally published by the Kutztown Sesqui-Centennial Association in 1965. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used by the society for the restoration and maintenance of its museum and headquarters in the 1892 Public School Building in Kutztown and for the acquisition of unique artifacts to document and preserve the history and culture of the Kutztown area, Maxatawny Township, and northeastern Berks County.
See the slideshow below for cover & images from book.
The volume includes chapters or sections on the following topics:
Setting: Saucony Creek, altitude, soil, climate, flora & fauna
Native American Indians & aboriginal relations
The Colony: Pennsylvania history, William Penn, English & German & Swedish settlements
Early Government: Berks Co. history, polling places, Maxatawny Twp., Wentz Purchase, Kutz Purchase, laying out Kutztown, incorporation as borough
18th-Century Roads: Easton Road, Albany Road, New Maxatawny Road
Communication: stagecoaches, railroads, trolleys, airport, telephone & telegraph
Hotels: Levan’s/Kemp's, White Swan, Black Horse, Pennsylvania House, Full Moon, American House, Keystone House, etc.
Government: Town Council, Board of Health, Police, Civil Defense, Utilities, Service
Education: Church Schools, Parochial Schools, Mason's Pay School, Franklin Academy, Seminaries (Fairview, Kutztown, & Maxatawny, predecessors to Kutztown University) Kutztown School District Keystone State Normal School (KSNS) - Kutztown State College
Professions: Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists, Druggists
Religion: St. John's Lutheran/U.C.C., Trinity Lutheran, St. Paul's U.C.C., Grace Evangelical Congregational, St. Mary's Roman Catholic, etc.
Wars: French & Indian, American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I & II, Korean War
Fairs: Battalion Days, Kutztown Fair, Horse Racing, Kutztown Folk Festival
Dramatics, Movies, Music, Vespers, Parades & Historical Celebrations: 1876, 1915, 1940
Mrs. America: Erna Furst Snyder
Sports: Kutztown Athletic Assn., Little League, etc.
Organizations: Veterans, Chamber of Commerce, Service i.e. Rotary, Lions Club, Jaycees, Woman's Club, Youth Groups, Hospital Auxiliaries; Grange
Lodges: Masonic, Adonai, Golden Eagle, FOE, Moose, etc.
Early Industries: clockmaking, tobacconists, tannery, shoes, paper boxes, Kutztown Furnace, carriages, textiles, hosiery, knitting mill, shirt factory, silk mill, rug mill, iron, Foundry, machine shop, brick yards, ginseng, bottling works, automobiles, publishing & printing, banks
Index & Historical Directory of Local Businesses
Advertisements from local sponsoring businesses
This volume is quarto-sized, approx. 8.5 x 11”, in stiff paper covers, from the first edition of 4,000 softcover copies. It consists of xiv + 209 pages, well illustrated with dozens of black and white photographs, many from rare real photo post cards of the borough of Kutztown, as well as a large aerial view and drawings; the endpapers are illustrated with the original 1779 ground plan for the town and a modern (ca. 1964) borough map. Condition is as issued, with some volumes showing very slight handling wear.
Through an authoritative text supplemented by several hundred vintage photographs, the Sesqui-Centennial Commemorative Book celebrates 150 years of the Borough of Kutztown, officially established in 1815 though settled, along with surrounding Maxatawny Township, by the early 1730s, principally by Palatine German Lutheran & Reformed and French Huguenot settlers migrating over the South Mountain range from the Oley vicinity into the East Penn Valley, including such early families as Hottenstein, Levan, DeTurk, Bieber, DeLong, Sharadin (Ghirardan), Kutz, Siegfried, Deisher, and Wentz.
Author Ruth Bonner, a long-time resident of Kutztown and Medford, New Jersey, was chosen to author this unique volume due to the extent of her local historical knowledge and her many years of service to the community where she was born and raised. To prepare for publication, she spent countless hours of exhaustive research into extant written records, conducted oral interviews, and assembled a virtually unprecedented photographic archive, most of which is now in the possession of the Kutztown Area Historical Society. A graduate of Kutztown High School and later a teacher there as well as a professor of English at Kutztown State College (now Kutztown University), Dr. Bonner passed away at age 92 in the autumn of 2001. Our society is forever grateful for her generosity and her scholarship in supporting our mission over the years.
The Kutztown Area Historical Society is the only official distributor of these increasingly scarce volumes. Our copies, from the total print run of 5,000 that included 1,000 limited edition, numbered hardcovers and 4,000 soft covers, represent the total remaining stock donated to us years ago by the 1965 Sesqui-Centennial Committee.
Note: While the hardcover numbered copies of this volume have not been available for decades, we are occasionally able to offer copies, as well as the very rare 1915 Centennial History of Kutztown and back issues of our quarterly journal, Along the Saucony, through local purchases. We do not de-accession volumes from our permanent library & archive, nor do we sell donations, for these purposes, but we do attempt to maintain a very limited supply of available copies for sale to interested individuals. Please contact Dr. Brendan D. Strasser, the society’s Librarian & Archivist, at bdsckt@enter.net for details.
To purchase this engagingly written, generously illustrated soft cover volume, please e-mail us at kahs1892@yahoo.com to reserve your copy or send payment directly to The Kutztown Area Historical Society, Attn: Book Sales, P. O. Box 307, Kutztown, PA 19530. Copies are $25.00 postage paid to all U.S. addresses, with international mailing available. Please help us to preserve our local history!