Barrie Miller rapped on a snare drum, hoping to rally some would-be patriots to renounce their allegiance to King George and take up arms for independence.
To the right of his make-shift camp on the grounds of the Daniel Boone Homestead, he’d set up a gunsmithing station and a rack displaying several of his own hand-crafted rifles. Each took six to eight months to construct.
Miller, a staff historic interpreter at the Exeter Township museum, highlighted a rifle like the one that would have been used in the American Revolution by John DeTurk, a farmer who lived on the homestead in the 1770s.
The Montgomery County man was among the dozen or so staff and volunteer interpreters who spent Saturday in colonial garb, hoping to spark a love of history in a new generation.
“Our history is our future,” said Miller, of Layfayette Hill. “If we don’t appreciate the people who gave us what we have, we won’t appreciate what we have.”
Miller and other interpreters come back each year for a simple reason.
“Most of the people who do this – they just love history,” he said.
Celebrating America
Rain dampened attendance at the homestead’s annual Independence Day program, which usually draws between 200 and 300 people. But families started to trickle in as steady rain gave way to cloudy skies and the occasional drizzle in the late morning.
The homestead’s event was one of several Independence Day celebrations scheduled across Berks County.
Wyomissing’s parade was rained out by rescheduled for Sunday. At Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Union Township, celebrators staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and listened to patriotic music.
The July 4 program is one of the biggest annual events organized by the Friends of the Daniel Boone Homestead, said Amanda Machik, the museum director.
The nation’s birthday, she said, provides a chance to learn about the times that led to American independence.
“We’re trying to keep this focused on the military aspect of life in the 18th Century, the revolution and the role that Berks County and the homestead had in the war,” she said.
The war didn’t come to Berks. Continental troops in Valley Forge saw that British soldiers didn’t pass Philadelphia.
But Berks Countians, like DeTurk, left home to fight, Miller said. Pennsylvania didn’t have a publicly sponsored militia, he said, because it was founded by Quakers, who were pacifists. But Benjamin Franklin formed a separate military association to support the revolution.
In the back of a barn, Nathan Kiefer of Exeter Township, demonstrated how colonial families made clothing from flax.
He’s been volunteering at the homestead since he graduated from college in 2012. He started coming to the museum to help out his mother when she volunteered there and was hooked.
He said he hopes to share his passion for history and show that while much has changed since colonial times, some things haven’t.
“They were people just like us with the same kinds of problems,” Kiefer said. “They just didn’t have those modern conveniences to handle those problems.”
Keeping the story alive
At the Bertolet Log House up the hill, Rod Farmer of Bryn Mawr and Charles Undercuffler of North Coventry Township discussed life in colonial log cabins. Both are members of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, an educational group that focuses on colonial-era shooting.
“It’s just kind of trying to keep the story alive,” Farmer said.
And by interpreting history, he said, enthusiasts can better understand the past’s complexity. During the revolution, for example, colonists were divided into thirds: Those who wanted independence, those who wished to remain under British control, and those who were indifferent.
“You don’t realize that when studying it in school, because it’s kind of a drudge,” Farmer said. “But when you start to live with it a little bit, you start to see what happened and why it happened.”
And there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing the beginnings of a new history fan, Undercuffler said. For the first time, he was joined by his 12-year-old nephew, Kyle Rath of Upper Pottsgrove Township.
Back at the barn, 8-year-old Olivia Barrohn was thinking about playing the role of interpreter herself one day.
Her favorite presentation had been in the Daniel Boone House. She said she felt like a bit of a “sneaky spy” peering into the famed frontiersman’s life and history.
“I think it’s pretty amazing,” the Amity Township girl said. “Because you get to learn about the history and how things are much different.”
Contact Liam Migdail-Smith: 610-371-5022 or lsmith@readingeagle.com.
