At age 77, I’ve realized how important the youth of the Oley Valley have been in helping the American Folklife Society preserve our American heritage. Most recently, I was visited by Bill Morgan, one of the youthful students that helped me restore the Keim Homestead, near Lobachsville. Bill’s brother, Donald Morgan, was an active member of the American Folklife board who restored the Colonial wooden cider press that was removed to the Keimstead from the greater Reading area.
He was a contractor who knew how to restore it to its early American style. The Morgan brothers had a tree trimming service, and were not afraid of the muscular work it took to reassemble this huge lever wooden cider press, with our commercial contractor in charge of the rustic farm and cider press building at the 1753 Keimstead farm along Boyer Road in Pike Township.
In the 1970s when the American Folklife Society restored the Keimstead, I relied on the youth of the Oley Valley to do the physical work needed for its restoration. But, equally important was a financial gift of thousands of dollars by Dr. Donald Shelley, the President of the Ford Museum, who was our benefactor and financed restoration projects in the Oley Valley. The Boyer family were the original owners of the Keimstead, and they were very appreciative of the Oley Valley’s community spirit of citizenship restoring the historic Keimstead.
Here is where I then orchestrated a Colonial festival called the Colonial Cherry Fair demonstrating early American arts and crafts over the Memorial Day weekend for the public. This was a unique experience for the youth of the Oley Valley to demonstrate their American heritage near Lobachsville, founded in 1745. A collector of Antique American heritage items, I used these antiques to dress up the Keim property for Memorial Day, including Conestoga wagons I owned and PA Dutch furniture of the period, since I had Bieber ancestry.
Talking to Bill Morgan about his brother, Donald, he (Donald) was one of my most loyal supporters of the Cherry Fair event who believed in American heritage. Eventually, that Cherry Fair no longer became popular with the public, and the American Folklife Society turned the Keim homestead over to the Preservation Trust of Berks County, since my wife was a member of its Board.
Unfortunately, Donald Moyer died early in his sixties on April 15 of that year, ironically on my birthday. I have never forgotten his diligent work and support, and his brother’s helping hand. However, Harold Hoch and others continued to be active in the Oley Valley, and I later moved to the Town Crier’s House in the Borough of Kutztown, writing for the American Folklife Society.
The famous rural architectural landmark was home to the reclusive Keim sisters, who farmed this land in primitive fashion, growing and processing flax. Betsy Keim, the last spinster sister of her brother John Keim, had been photographed sitting on an earlier porch watching the modern world pass her by as gossip and legends were told by neighbors of the family’s untold wealth buried in the virgin forest on the Keim farmstead. Betsy died in 1911, and no Keim family member was living on the farmstead when the recently-removed porch was first added to the house after 1912.
In 1976, when the American Folklife Society hired John K. Heyl as restoration architect to restore the manor house, the fabled Keim ambiance was so great they did not have the heart to tear away the Victorian style Keim Manor house porch to follow the plans drawn up by restoration architect John Heyl, which included restoring a Colonial balcony in the rear of the manor house where he thought grain might have been hoisted up into the attic during frontier times. But, its Colonial pent roofs still circled the building above the brick arched first floor windows to protect them from the weather elements.
In Mr. Heyl’s original floor plans, the first floor of the Keim manor had its wooden floor replaced by original bricks paved from the front Dutch doors laid over ground to the rear “v-grooved” Dutch doors opening into the kitchen and to the second floor balcony entry in the rear of the house.
Although Mr. Heyl drew a measured drawing of the finished sketch of the 1753 manor in the American Folklife issue of 1976, the Folklife Society did not continue any more restoration but turned the plans over to the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County when the Boyer family decided to donate this property to them in 1979.
The Keim manor home has a very large walk-in fireplace on the first floor serving the kitchen with an opening to its rear to fire a Germanic five plate cast iron stove to heat the traditional “Great room,” where the Keim sisters spun their flax on spinning wheels. On the second floor, a bedroom fireplace was outfitted with an opening to fire a second five plate Germanic stove that provided heat to an adjoining room above the downstairs great room.
Considered one of the finest Germanic style frontier manor homes in America, much of its interior is original, having been cared for by the Keim family from Colonial days into the early 20th century. The current restoration by the Preservation Trust is a major undertaking that will add to the architectural landscape of the Oley Valley, which all Americans will be proud to tour. The Trust had already restored the period clay tile roof on the nearby small Keim ancillary house, with its matching brick-arched windows. The roof on the 1753 manor home originally had been roofed with area Colonial tiles above the plaster covered eaves.
A retired teacher from the Oley Valley High School, I was always proud of the youth and citizens of the Oley Valley that continue to preserve their American heritage. A civilization that continues to survive with the spirit of 1776, among its farmers of today.
Author’s Note: The Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County maintained the 1753 Jacob Keim Homestead with its original Colonial architecture and was open to the public on occasion. However, family descendants of the Keim family now take care of the early homestead where a Keimfest is held in September.
Richard H. Shaner is director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.
