An Amish Caravan Is On A 30-Mile Journey From Lancaster County To A Historic Homestead
A few dozen Amish people set out by horse and wagon from a Leacock Township farm in Lancaster County on Thursday, on a commemorative journey. They’re headed about 30 miles north to the Nicholas Stoltzfus Homestead in Wyomissing, Berks County – a two-day trip with an overnight campout along the way.
LNP | LancasterOnline reported from the start of the trek, a mile or so outside Intercourse:
Older participants were generally riding in the covered wagons on Thursday while young men and young women rode horses. They waved to bystanders and there were smiles on many of their faces.
Abner Stoltzfus, a poultry farmer and horse blanket manufacturer, was stationed along the route with a few family members to check it all out. He grew up nearby.
“It’s not me – I’m not interested in all that historian stuff,” he said. “But that’s fine – it’s neat.”
The group camped out last night on a farm near Narvon, and set off again today. They are headed to the homestead for the dedication of the Beiler-Renno Pavilion on Saturday morning. The 20-by-40-foot log cabin-style structure is being built partly with rocks that were salvaged from a barn built in the early 1700s by Amish pioneer Jacob Beiler, along with logs from Joseph Renno’s 1760 cabin.
A Two-Day Trip On Back Roads
The trek was organized by Ben Riehl, an Amish man from Leacock Township who chairs the Nicholas Stoltzfus House Preservation Committee. Organizers had originally planned a longer journey, from Philadelphia to Wyomissing, before settling on the shorter route.
LNP’s preview of the trip laid out the route they are taking:
It’s not clear how many people will participate in the Gordonville-to-Wyomissing caravan, which plans to wind north from New Holland on Weaverland and then Maple Grove roads. They expect to camp overnight on an Amish farm in Narvon and get to Wyomissing late afternoon on Oct. 2 and participate in the pavilion dedication on Oct. 3.
Gordonville, located more-or-less in the middle of the community, was the start point, and it sounds like they are sticking to less-traveled roads, as you might expect. LNP notes the route between Lancaster and Berks counties connects what were two early centers of Amish population in North America.
The very first Amish settlement in North America was established at Northkill in Berks County, around 1740. It predates the Lancaster County community (the oldest existing community today) by about 20 years.
The Stoltzfus Homestead
The Stoltzfus Homestead was the home of Nicholas Stoltzfus, a German immigrant who arrived in Philadelphia in 1766 with his wife.
The family lived in Leacock Township before Nicholas and his son Christian bought the Wyomissing property in 1770-71. Nicholas and his wife are the forebears of tens of thousands of Stoltzfuses in America today. Stoltzfus remains one of the most common Amish names in Lancaster County.
The farmhouse was nearly lost to a 1990 highway expansion. Descendants have spent about two decades restoring the property, a history Nic Stoltzfus covers in German Lutherans to Pennsylvania Amish: The Stoltzfus Family Story. The homestead’s current director, Elam Stoltzfus, discussed his time as caretaker in an interview here earlier this year.
Riehl described how important Nicholas Stoltzfus was in an ancestral sense for Lancaster County’s Amish:
“Ninety percent of the Amish in Lancaster County all descend from the Stoltzfuses, even if they’re not called Stoltzfus,” said wagon train trek organizer Ben Riehl, an Amish man from Leacock Township who chairs the Nicholas Stoltzfus House Preservation Committee. His own mother, for example, was born a Stoltzfus.
Though the name Stoltzfus is on the building, so to speak, and is the most common of all Lancaster Amish names, Elam Stoltzfus said the new pavilion is meant to recognize more than one family:
“This pavilion that we’re building is not just recognizing our family, the Stoltzfus family, but other families, because we’re all connected, we’re all intermarried,” said Elam Stoltzfus, director of the homestead. His own genealogical chart includes 28 different families that lived in Berks County in the 1700s.
The pavilion dedication at the homestead is set for about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 3, and is open to the public.. The homestead is located at 1700 Tulpehocken Road in Wyomissing. More information is available at nicholasstoltzfus.com.
I also recommend checking out the top linked article for a lot of great photos by Suzette Wenger of the caravan (there is a slide show about halfway down the article with around two dozen shots).
Amish Caravan
What a neat story! Thank you for bringing that to our attention.