At the turn of the century into the 1900’s, when most of the nation was fascinated with the unbelievable results of automation and the beginning of a mobile America, there were a few who saw the opportunity to record that way of life that was soon to be antediluvian. Such were men like H. Winslow Fegley of Reading and Amandus D. Moyer of Lobachsville, Pennsylvania who, taking their hobby of photography seriously, embarked on a candid picture taking spree that captured for all the lifestyle in this part of America. Although Winslow was a merchant in Reading, his native village of Hereford beckoned him to make numerous jaunts across the Oley Valley to see his village friends.
It was by no means strange that he was to eventually make the acquaintance of Amandus Moyer at Lobachsville (on route to Hereford) and developed a friendship with this fellow photographer. Winslow was by far the more accomplished of the two photographers and had his work published in various newspapers. His crowning achievement was a photographic study of old gristmills in Pennsylvania, published by the Pennsylvania German Society in 1930. On the other hand, Amandus, being a clever Dutchman, innovated and engaged in trick photography, as well as candid. Then, too, Amandus had a slight edge on Winslow, since he resided in a more rural setting and had a better chance to record the daily life.
It must have been quite a challenge for these two men to compete with each other in this new form of art. The winner, of course are you and I, for century and century and a half later, are hundreds of photographs taken by both men. Several years ago, the Winslow Fegley collection was received by the Schwenkfelder Library at Pennsburg, near to his beloved Hereford. The Amandus Moyer collection, however, was divided by his children with one large shoe-box of glass negatives left behind at the homestead that was sold some years later and eventually a prized treasure to our Institute. Luckily, Webster Reinert, an inquisitive native, assisted the new owners of the Moyer farm in cleaning and discovered the neglected plates.
Recognizing that the negatives were of local scenes, he asked the new owners for said plates and probably saved them from being discarded. In the Reinert assortment are about a hundred glimpses of yesterday in the Oley Valley taken by (Amandus) Moyer. When photography was invented in the 19th Century, few photographers took the time to photograph actual folklife of people living in the Oley Valley, except Winslow Fegley and Amandus Moyer who lived near Lobachsville. In the early 1900’s, Webster Reinert from Pleasantville, Oley Township had the chore of helping clean up Amandus Moyer’s farm for a family who had just bought the farm. Acquainted with the village of Lobachsville, he was a great help adjusting the new couple to the farming territory.
However, there were a lot of personal things left behind by Amandus that was of no use to the new family among including photographic supplies not of any value to this family who was only interested in farming. Thus, this old box of glass negatives which were very old was in the attic with Webster Reinert who lived in the area recognized the negatives as being photos of the Oley Valley and said they should not be discarded no matter how old they were.
Therefore, in honor of his helping clean up the farmstead, they gave him this heavy box of antique glass negatives from the 19th Century made by photographer Amandus Moyer. Some of which were photos of his old automobile which he drove around photographing local Oley Valley people. A contemporary of Winslow Fegley from Hereford, PA, whose photos are on display at the Schwenkfelder’s Museum Library, these men were career photographers who recorded local Americana folklife for posterity in the Oley Valley before the advanced automobile age of the 20th century with automation instead of handmade craftsmanship leading to modernization.
Richard L.T. Orth is assistant director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.
