West Seven Stars And Beyond PDF Download

"I don't consider myself a historian - - I'm a dairy farmer on a farm one mile from Kimberton ..." starts this narrative by Clyde Scheib, who devised a historical account, over a lifetime, of the landmarks and events closest to his house in rural Pennsylvania. The nearby village of Kimberton was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad where locals, including Emmor Kimber and John Vickers, shielded fugitive slaves on the road to the north. In the center of the village is the 18th century Kimberton Inn (1796) and the Sign of the Bear Tavern that has sheltered drovers and stage coach passengers along their travels. George Washington's troops marched through the village in 1777 after the Battle of the Brandywine. Looking out his window and across a field, the author sees remnants of the Sowbelly Railroad, a nickname for the DL&R line, that struggled to aid industrial growth in the mid to late 1800's. Taking center stage of this historical narrative is a single road, West Seven Stars, where the author has lived his entire life. The Kennedy Covered Bridge (1856) has provided passage over the French Creek for over 150 years and has survived man's intrusions. Next to the bridge is the Rudolf Steiner influenced Kimberton Farms, which became the Kimberton Waldorf School. The biodynamic Seven Stars Yogurt Farm and historian Estelle Cremers farm near the historic Seven Stars Inn (1754) completes "the end of the road." Close by is the historic Parker Ford village that thrived with the Gerard Canal segment of the Schuylkill River Canal. Horse drawn boats pulled next to the canal on a towpath, with locks allowing boats to pass to another level and aqueducts crossing creeks; all part of the transportation revolution between 1815 -1890. Travelers stopped at Parker's Tavern (1766) to rest, either off a boat on the canal or a horse and wagon en-route to Philadelphia. At Parker Ford, George Washington lead the Continental Army across the Schuylkill River in the fight against the British (1777). Down the road, the author attended Hickory Grove one room schoolhouse, where the teacher taught all grades and boarded with the families during the school year. The Scheib Genealogy shows the family lineage and connections with Brownback and Swinehart families; all with long local lineages. Also, the Scheib Genealogy shows the German ancestral village and Swiss heritage. The creation of the nearby Revolutionary Soldiers Cemetery was a preservation effort to the memory of twenty-two fallen soldiers in the Revolutionary War, spearheaded by the author. The presentation of these storylines in close proximity to his house, shows Clyde Scheib's approach to preserving local history in rural Chester County, Pennsylvania.