Kutztown’s storied Pa. Dutch heritage still widely celebrated
With another successful Kutztown Folk Festival come and gone last month boasting attendances totaling over 120,000, Dr. Alfred Shoemaker its founder, in 1950 and the years leading up to its inception, vowed to himself to celebrate the humanitarian Folklife society of our ethnic Rhineland immigrants who fled to America to avoid inhumane ethnic cleansing, as he witnessed as an American soldier in World War II, fighting Adolf Hitler. In this 56th year of celebration, the hundreds of thousands of native PA Dutch descendants living in the peace loving PA Dutch Country today are an example of our deep-seated frontier belief in the modern principles of the United States Constitution, where their successful farms and skills continue to prosper and support the nation and World Peace in spite of unsettled terrorist nations.
The innocence of the Christian Plain Culture of the Great Valley and others in his view amid the East Coast megalopolis of Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston was not being admired by American tourists in the same way. And consequently, via commercial tourism, had become a “freakish” or backwards culture doomed to extinction in their eyes, no longer a culture whose exemplary religious principles should be mimicked in our United States Civilization. But as Kutztown also celebrated in its anticipated Bicentennial (1815-2015) last year; two who rivaled Shoemaker’s admiration, love, and respect for our PA “Deitsch” (Dutch) Culture in the Great, East Penn, and Oley Valleys of Pennsylvania was famed, Alliene Saeger DeChant (1892-1982) and her mentor, Frederic Klees.
Beloved editor of the Kutztown Patriot, formerly the “American Patriot,” founded in 1874, and once printed in both English and German her ashes were spread near the PA Dutch Huffs Church at Camp Mench Mill. Most notably, she was the author of the celebrated book, Of The Dutch I Sing , among others, and a contemporary historian of the native Pennsylvania Dutch people. This memorable publication on our native Dutch people was published in 1951; only a year after Franklin and Marshall’s (College) Folklore Center established their wonderful and educational Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival at Kutztown introducing the American public to our authentic, ethnic, pioneer Agrarian folklife under the direction of Shoemaker, Dr. Don Yoder, and J. William Frey.
A sophisticated editor, whose abundant respect for our local farming culture was widely appreciated by natives, DeChant was revered as one of the Patriot’s best editors, because she never looked down on our hardworking Dutch craftsmen and elevated their craft to the level of Americana expertise it deserved. Her support of Dr. Alfred Shoemaker’s quest to introduce the nation to our unique culinary foods and crafts among the Dutch with his open air model Museum Festival and his future endeavors, never wavered.
As with Shoemaker, DeChant never used the exclusive term “PA German” in describing our early American natives, who spoke an ethnic Deitsch (Dutch) German vernacular. Coincidentally, in 1950, DeChant’s mentor Fredric Klees had published his award winning book, The Pennsylvania Dutch , which covered the entire Dutch Country with architectural sketches to illustrate his chapters, similar to Alliene’s style, which no doubt influenced her. Dr. Alfred Shoemaker considered Klees’ book the most comprehensive and accurate one ever written about the Dutch people. A well-traveled native of Berks County, Klees as the aforementioned never used the ethnic term, “Pennsylvania German,” but favored the earlier Colonial American term, “Pennsylvania Dutch.” References: 1. Printed by the old Kutztown Publishing Company on West Main Street that produced the Kutztown Patriot newspaper, Of The Dutch I Sing was an instant success with illustrations done by Louise Long.
2. The Pennsylvania Dutch, by Frederic Klees, published by the Macmillan Co., N.Y., 1950. Klees, an English professor at Swarthmore College, PA, born in Reading, PA wrote an in-depth study on the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, its people, religions, and history. His book is 451 accurate pages on customs, folkways, and historic locations.