Pennsylvania Dutch Guide-Book

by Pennsylvania Dutch Tourist Bureau

State Museums and Properties

By HOWARD E. ROHLIN, B.A., M.A.
Field Museum Curator for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers three properties in the area covered by this guide. Each one is, in its own way, unique. Cornwall Furnace is a fascinating relic of the earliest days of American industry. The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley recalls the days when horses provided transportation, coal oil provided light and the majority of our citizens lived and worked on farms. The Ephrata Cloister is a monument to the freedom of conscience which since the days of William Penn has been a precious part of the laws of the Commonwealth. The three present a lively and varying picture of the colorful past in old Pennsylvania.

Cornwall Furnace is a monument to the great colonial iron industry which flourished in the Furnace Hills of Lebanon and Lancaster Counties. In the region ore was abundant and so was the timber necessary for the charcoal so voraciously consumed by the old blast methods. Cornwall and the area surrounding constituted one of the most important munition centers of the Revolutionary era.

CORNWALL FURNACE

The Cornwall Ore Banks was the largest open pit iron mining operation in the United States, until the opening of the Mesabi. During its active operation more than twenty million tons of ore were removed. Begun in 1739 by Peter Grubb, the Furnace now stands essentially as it was after renovations of 1845-56, when the water-powered force draft system was replaced by steam. The early machinery is still in place and the plans for restoration include its reactivation.

The village of Cornwall is one of the finest examples of a “company town” in the state; laid out, built and maintained by the corporations which have operated the furnace and mine. The furnace, mine and village are an outstanding memorial to the better side of the paternalistic system so common in nineteenth century industry.

The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley could well be called the Commonwealth’s attic. Begun as a private collection by the brothers George and Henry Landis it has now become one of the country’s richest and most varied collections of materials dealing with rural Americana. If you have ever wondered what happened to this or that gadget that you vaguely remember on grandfather’s farm; stop wondering. It is probably at the Farm Museum.

The Museum has everything from dead fall mouse traps to steam powered tractors. Its collection of early Pennsylvania farm implements and craft tools is outstanding. Its collection of early pistols, rifles and guns is excellent. In its country store and in the restored Landis House the feeling of the gay nineties and the turn of the century Pennsylvania have been recaptured.

PENNSYLVANIA FARM MUSEUM OF LANDIS VALLEY

The annual Craft Days at the Museum have proven immensely popular. During this two-day event all of the ancient crafts represented in the museum collections flourish again—hand weaving, spinning, potting, furniture and tin painting, candle-making, printing, quilting, braiding, etc. All are demonstrated in appropriate settings. The Conestoga Wagon is again hitched up and steam tractors, charged up, haul wagon-loads of children through the nearby fields.

So extensive are the collections that some part of the display is sure to be of great interest to the visitor.

Today the museum includes many types of structure typical of small rural Pennsylvania communities of the past ... residential and commercial buildings which provide an authentic background for the demonstration of rural arts, crafts and cottage industries.

Ephrata Cloister is the oldest of the properties in this area administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Erected between the years 1730 and 1750 it is a unique monument to a holy experiment that failed.

This outstanding choral group was founded in February, 1959, for the express purpose of performing the music of the Cloister, as recreated by the Director and Founder of the Chorus, Mr. Russell P. Getz. During the summer season, a series of public recitals are given on the Cloister grounds. For information regarding dates, contact The Cloisters, Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

Here on the banks of the Cocalico, under the leadership of Conrad Beissel, a protestant monastic community was established and for a time flourished. In buildings of a medieval style, reminiscent of their German homeland, the Seventh Day Baptists worked and lived and sought to withdraw themselves from a sinful world. The Saron or Sister House recalls the harsh and primitive conditions under which the nuns of the order lived. The almonry was the center from which the hospitality of the order was extended to all travelers. The printing press of the order, one of Pennsylvania’s oldest, was used in the preparation of the great Mennonite work, the Martyr’s Mirror, the preparation of which was the biggest printing job done in colonial America.

Short lived as the community was, it was in its day famed throughout Europe and America. It was too much the personal creation of Beissel to long outlast his death and under his successor, Peter Miller, a period of slow and mellow decline began. The community made its contribution to the American Revolution in caring for the wounded brought to Ephrata from the battlefield at Brandywine; many of the Brothers of Zion joined the dying as victims of the camp fever brought to the Cloister by their patients. The community was forced to burn its great buildings on Zion Hill in order to wipe out the infection.

Since 1941 when the Commonwealth acquired the property a very complete and meticulous restoration has been in progress. The attempt to duplicate in our day the workmanship of the eighteenth century and to capture the other-worldly spirit of the original builders has been a difficult task, but any visitor to the Cloister will be convinced that the result has justified the efforts.

Two additional properties in Lancaster County are being developed and will be administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission:

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg is now under construction on property adjacent to and joining the Strasburg Rail Road.

Robert Fulton birthplace near Wakefield, in Little Britain Township. This is an authentic restoration of the original farmhouse where Robert Fulton was born November 14, 1765.

The Susquehannock State Park, administered by the Dept. of Forests and Waters, is located on a high observation site on the mighty Susquehanna River. Opened in 1965 primarily for picnickers, sightseers and nature lovers, it affords a magnificent view both up and down the river. The Park is near the huge Muddy Run Hydro Storage Electric Generating Plant. In addition, several atomic power plants have been built or are being built on the banks of the Susquehanna River in this area.