Lobachsville: Very much part of Oley Valley’s storied history
For those unfamiliar, Lobachsville is located midway between Reading and Boyertown, Pennsylvania, just off route 73 with the historic 1753 Jacob Keim Homestead, itself on Boyer Road, well worth the visit. My employer, the American Folklife Institute, started the Lobachsville Cherry Fair in 1977 and a main feature of the event was folklife staff members feeding apples into the “hopper” of an ancient Appalachian pomace mill while another worker turned the “boom” crushing apples as they passed between two giant gears.
Housed in a rustic building, the 18th Century cider press where the pomace (crushed apples) was squeezed to render cider was at the Keim Homestead. The crude mill and press were only among a few surviving specimens of the early Appalachian cider industry that once extended from Maine to Georgia. The mill and press were operated once a year at the annual Lobachsville Cherry Fair, which ran that year from May 28-30, and usually over Memorial Day weekend. Sponsored by the American Folklife Society (at the time), the festival featured folk music, crafts, and a variety of regional foods.
As the American Folklife Society grew, so did the name and its location, into the American Folklife Institute in the early 1990s, and the imposing 1804 Georgian Valentine Stoll townhouse on the Main Street of historic Kutztown, Pennsylvania that once served as a residence to the Town Crier, Town Doctor, and Clerk of the Village Market, became its headquarters. This residence built and paid for by a wealthy farmer in nearby Richmond Township at a unique time following Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. This limestone home provided Stoll and his family with the urban grace that came from such townhouse activities prevalent in Colonial times when country gentry maintained townhouses to reside in during the cold, winter months.
Lobachsville, founded by French Huguenot Peter Lobach in 1745, became a community of skilled Pennsylvania Dutch woodworkers. Besides the pioneer sawmill built by the Biebers, there were two other sawmills operated by Gideon Hoch and Peter Lobach. Jacob Keim, a fellow Huguenot, lived on the farm adjacent to the Biebers, and was a pioneer wood turner. Samuel Lobach, relation to Peter the founder, specialized in making bamboo Windsor chairs. Thus, one of the most identifiable clues about the presence of these Alsatian immigrants at Lobachsville was the folk art symbol inscribed on the Colonial workshop door of Jacob Keim: four flat hearts arranged in a pattern that outlined two tulips. I have seen such a motif on another local 1774 dower chest done in the Queen Anne style with turned feet, unique to the area.
This early American cultural melting pot, mainly in southeastern Pennsylvania, was made up of naturalized Rhineland citizens who swore allegiance to the United States but assimilated with English laws and standards. However, with everyday work habits and living customs, they followed in their native Rhineland fashion and continued this unique German dialect in America rather than formal High German, which soon became known as “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Dr. Alfred L. Shoemaker, founder of the Folklife Movement in the 1950s, preferred the native and inclusive American term Pennsylvania Dutch to describe these people rather than the misnomer, Pennsylvania German, as many other scholars. Following in Dr. Shoemaker’s footsteps, The American Folklife Institute journal, published in the 1970’s, was enamored in the field research of United States folk culture, architecture, and antiques, mainly recorded throughout the greater Delaware Valley with an area of expertise in Americana achievements and agrarian life, past and present, in the journal’s early years.
Lobachsville, founded by French Huguenot Peter Lobach in 1745, became a community of skilled Pennsylvania Dutch woodworkers.