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Authored by Society president George Meiser IX |
| SIX News-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest…
============= ============ ============= 1- Handsome "Welcome to Reading" sign warmly greets visitors 2- New CD of Montgomery's 1909 annals a real treasure! 3- Mystery photo: 1700's log barn near Crystal Cave. Where? 4- Over a million church records now on our website! 5- FIESTA at Kutztown Historical Soc. mtg. - Wed. at 7:30 6- From the photo album: Grimville schoolhouse in Greenwich ============= ================= ============== 1- Recently, the handsome "Welcome to Reading" sign at the Penn Street Viaduct was electrified--to great effect. The general theme reflects Reading's history, especially its transportation heritage as evidenced by the Reading Company- styled lettering. County Commissioner Judy Schwank, a local history buff and Society member who took the steps necessary to get the sign erected, stands in the front row--on the right. 
=============== ============= ================ 2- After spending some 20 hours exploring the ins and outs of the new CD of M. L. Montgomery's (1909) 2-volume "Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County," I can state without fear of contradiction that this CD is an absolute treasure. EVERY library in the county should have a copy, as should every genealogist and local history buff---provided, of course, they have a computer! In the early evening of the day the CD arrived, I was so taken with its format and capabilities that I sat transfixed, unable to take my eyes from the monitor. Hours passed by like minutes. Countless facts of great interest were wrested from their hiding places, buried within bios of obscure people one would never ordinarily read. It's astonishing how many valuable references there are to old-time forges, furnaces, early mills, and canal sites that don't appear on the pages devoted to those topics. A check in Montgomery's index for breweries yields nothing, yet do a search for brewery, brewer, or breweries and you find 64 leads. Several family cemeteries that had heretofore escaped my notice-and which do not appear in the cemetery books--- appeared casually within biographical sketches. This is the type of information having a searchable CD reveals. No paper index is so revealing. In regard to those individual biographical sketches, be aware they number some 4,000! Add to that the fact that there are over 50,000 names on this single CD. Yes, every bit of information found on the 1.723 pages has been included. Absolutely nothing has been omitted! As I sampled all the CD's features, I couldn't help but marvel at its ease of use. In view of the fragility of the original volumes' pages and the fact you are physically dealing with two cumbersome books, there is no way any mortal can move from page 42 to 1646 in the blink of an eye. And with no damage to 94-year-old sulfated paper. As was the case in Retrospect Publishing Co.'s previous CD, of Montgomery's 1886 Berks history, the type is crystal clear-- even at the greatest magnification. Text is read with great ease. One of the most appealing and useful features of this CD is the bookmarking arrangement. When you click on "bookmark," a big box appears with two windows. In the top one you compose a label., i.e., "unknown Lesher cemetery near Virginville." In the larger window below it, you can type notes. At the bottom is an acorn that you drag to the page you're reading and drop same on the line you wish to consult later. Yellow highlighting marks the spot. As one of the most appealing aspects of Montgomery's 1909 set is the great number of high quality portraits, I was eager to see how they would look on the monitor. According to the index, Isaac Spatz appears on page 1048, which I typed in the window. Only his bio appeared. I tried another person with the same result. Had Retrospect omitted the portraits because of possibly not reproducing well on a contrasty medium? Then it hit me. Looking at the volumes in CD form, one is not aware that portraits are all on unnumbered pages, either before or after the respective biographical sketch. Accordingly, you can't type in the portrait page! If a bio is on page 483 and you want to see the accompanying picture, you type in 483. When that printed page appears, you simply go up to the tool bar and hit either "Next Page" or "Previous Page" and the portrait shows up....beautifully. Hit "Print" and you have a splendid replication. As stated at the outset, this CD is a treasure. To get a copy, send a check for $54.90 (includes postage) to "Retrospect Publishing" at 1307 Warrington Place, Alexandria, VA 22307 Request "Annals by Montgomery, 1909" (Item B-182). http://www.RetrospectPublishing.com/ =============== ================ ============ 3- Can anyone locate this early log barn? The photo was taken by Howard Dietrich, who once taught at Kutztown High School, on a 1939 hike to the Crystal Cave area. It is likely that this building originally had a thatched roof. 
================ ============= ============== 4- The Society's website creators and attendants, Doug Reinert and Gary Issod, inform us that they have just added another 726 cemetery records and 7,446 church records. This brings the total to 194,278 cemetery records and 1,010,879 church records! http://www.berkshistory.org/histsoc/cem.html (cemetery) http://www.berkshistory.org/histsoc/churches.html (church) ============= ================= ============== 5- This coming Wednesday evening at 7:30 (April 16th), the Kutztown Area Historical Society presents a program on vintage Fiestaware at its headquarters in the 1892 Victorian schoolhouse at Normal Ave. and Whiteoak St. Mr. David Remaley, also a member of the Historical Society of Berks County, will discuss the history of the Homer Laughlin China Co. There will be a display of many unusual and rarely seen pieces of Fiesta. Free appraisals of Fiestaware will follow the presentation. You are invited. This is a free program. ============= ============== ============= 5- From the photo album:- Below is the Grimville schoolhouse, taught by Howard Dietrich in 1934-5. That year his 8 grade numbered 3 students---all girls---and they all passed the 8th grade exams, something both the students and teacher dreaded! 
To the best of your editor's knowledge, the Grimville schoolhouse, in Greenwich Twp. near the church in the hamlet, no longer exists. ---Photo courtesy of Dr. Marcia C. Dietrich, an eminent Douglassville physician. ========== gmmix ========== end ========= |
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