Northkill Amish Settlement, Berks County, Pennsylvania
The first organized Amish settlement in America, by 1740

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On Old US 22, just behind Roadside America with its miniature village and silly massive Amish statue, stands a memorial to the Northkill Amish settlement. The historical marker also notes the often-told Indian attack on the Jacob Hochstetler family, in which three members were killed and three were taken captive. The Northkill Creek, which gave its name to the settlement still flows nearby. The Blue Mountain, the easternmost ridge of the Alleghenies, formed the boundary between legal white settlement and Indian territory.

The Hochstetler homestead is occupied by a young family that prefers privacy over busloads of Hochstetler descendants on a pilgrimage. To the west stands the abandonded Melchior Detweiler homestead.

Seven miles east are two other memorials to the former Amish community--the homestead of Jacob Hertzler and the Northkill cemetery. A marker by the buildings names the property "Contentment." The well-preserved stone house and stone-gable barn are currently owned by a former New Jersey resident who welcomes visitors. If he's not too busy, he will invite visitors to sign his guest book.

 

 

Behind the barn, a cow path leads to the enclosed cemetery shaded by a lone Spruce tree.
In the cemetery is a memorial placed in 1901 to Jacob Hertzler, first known Amish bishop in America, his second wife, Catherine Ruegy, and their son Jacob. Bishop Hertzler was born 1703 in Switzerland, immigrated in 1749 and died in 1786. Additional stones mark the graves of Johannes Beiler (d. 4 October 1758) and Elizabeth Beiler (1795-1838). Grave markers for members of a non-Amish Kline family, who once held deed to the cemetery, also exist. Presumably many other Amish are buried here, but no stones remain to mark their identity.

 

                   

"The Northkill settlement has traditionally been seen as the mother from which the other estern Pennnsylvania Amish communities sprang." It's sister community was "located on the Irish Creek between Bernville and Centerpoint. . . . "The region was first opened to settlement in 1736. In that same year, Melchoir Detweiler and Hans Sieber arrived in Philadelphia on the Princess Augusta. Within a year Sieber located along the Irish Creek and Detweiler eventually chose a spot on the Northkill near the Mountain. "Of the 1737 passengers on the Charming Nancy, Jacob Beiler, Christian Burki, Christian Hershberger, Christian Kurtz, Christian Lichti, Jacob Mast, Abraham Miller, Christian Miller, Jacob Miller, Ulrich Spicker, Henry Stehly, and Hans Zimmerman found their way to the Irish Creek and Northkill areas. "Of the large group of 1742 arrivals, Hans Gerber, Hans Gnagi, Jacob Good, Christian

Miller, Christian Yoder, Sr., ChristianYoder, Jr., Jacob Yoder, Christian Zook, Johannes Zook, and Moritz Zook also chose the upper Berks Setting. Two years later, Christian and Samuel King, Hans ans Stephen Kurtz, Johannes Snyder, Michael Stuckey, and Yost Yoder joined the others. "In 1749, the settlement was strengthened by the coming of Christian Fisher, Bishop Jacob Hertzler, Hans Lantz, and Jacob and Joseph Mishler. The following year Hans Blank, Andreas and Johannes Hooley, John Mast, and Michael Troyer cast their lot with these already there. In addition, Isaac Kauffman Jacob Hochstetler and possibly others had made their way to the Northkill region upon reaching the American shores. "At it's peak the Irish Creek-Northkill Community contained about forty Amish families or approximately 150-200 persons, making it the largest and most dominant of the early Amish settlements in America" (S. Duane Kauffman, Miffliln County Amish and Mennonite Story, 1791-1991, pp. 19-20).

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Early Amish Land Grants in Berkes County, Pennsylvania, Published by Pequea Bruderschaft Library, Gordonville, Pa, 1990, p. 4.

For more on the cemetery, see Joseph F. Beiler, "Our Fatherland in America, The Hertzler-Hartzler Family," The Diary of the old Order Amish Church of America, Gordonville, Pa., Vol 7, No. 7, July 1975.

Photos by John E. Sharp