Kempton marks milestone with parade, celebration
In a sense, all roads in northeastern Berks County lead to the village of Kempton.
Indeed, organizers of Kempton's 150th anniversary celebration chose it as a theme for the village's sesquicentennial, which was held Saturday at the Kempton Community Center.
"Kempton Roads, Take Me Home," a 160-page commemorative book with 200 color photographs, pays homage to the village and the valley surrounding it in Albany Township.
Frank Lyter, Kempton Community Center president, said the area retains a deep sense of the past.
"In a lot of ways, it hasn't changed that much," said Lyter, a consultant to the utility industry. "It looks a lot like it did 100 years ago."
Nestled below the south face of Hawk Mountain, Kempton is part of the Allemangel, a region settled by émigrés from the Palatinate in southern Germany and parts of Switzerland in the early 1700s.
They were farmers and established a culture that survives in the form of rolling fields of corn and soy, Pennsylvania Dutch bank barns adorned with Hex signs and arched stone bridges built before the Civil War.
Since it was established in 1874, Kempton has been the economic and cultural center of Albany Township.
To this day, five generations after it was founded, farmers bring their harvests of corn, soybeans and wheat to Albright's Mill in Kempton.
Shirley Wessner, 85, whose husband is part owner of the mill, still works part-time in the office. Over the years, she's volunteered at the Kempton Fair and other events at the community center. She helped out in Kempton's 125th anniversary celebration in 1999.
The organization of the event for the150th, she said, shows community spirit remains strong, particularly among younger people who were active in putting together the celebration.
"The people are good in this area," Wessner said. "They get together and do things."
Lucy Trexler Muth, whose family has been in the area for six generations, recalls when soybeans, potatoes and limestone were shipped from the area on the Reading Railroad's Schuylkill & Lehigh branch.
Muth lives in Trexler, a historic village a stone's throw from Kempton, where her family has done business since the early 1800s.
Her great-grandfather ran the Trexler General Store, and her father, Albert E. Trexler, manufactured potato cutters from around 1930 to 1960.
"People around here celebrate where they live, the place they call home," said Muth, president of the Albany Township Historical Society. "They have a great loyalty to the area."
Old time celebration
Kempton kicked off its sesquicentennial celebration on Saturday afternoon with a parade that had a rural, down-home favor.
The first vehicle in the line was a Jeep that belonged to the late Donald Meyers, who played Santa Claus in the area for generations.
Katie Follweiler Schafer, who chairs the 150th anniversary committee, said Meyers equipped the Jeep with Santa's reindeer.
The Kutztown High School marching band led a column of 40 floats, antique cars and residents dressed as figures who played a role in the region's history.
Jonathan C. Bond, an artist who has painted the region's landscape for 50 years, gave a sesquicentennial tribute.
In the commemorative book, Bond created a timeline highlighting landmark events in Kempton's history — the first automobile in 1903, the creation of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934 and a free concert given by Willie Nelson on the community center grounds in 1992.
Speaking in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, Gary Bond read a short history of Kempton, which became a village after the Lehigh & Schuylkill Railroad arrived in 1874.
"Before the railroad, Kempton was just one house and a small hotel," he said. "With the railroad, the town grew quickly."
The celebration included a military tribute, a Dave Kline concert at the WK&S Railroad station and a panoramic view of the area from a tethered hot air balloon.
Inside the community center, organizers assembled a display of farming, household and business artifacts. Included was a display of Kempton as seen in a dozen volumes of "The Passing Scene" by George M. Meiser IX and Gloria Jean Meiser.
A proud people
Mark and Kristine Amey — he's a potter and she's a weaver — moved from Bucks County to Albany Twp. in 1978.
They love the country, Kristine said, but they have bonded with the people. A relative newcomer, Kristine is on the board of the historical society.
"I value the pride they have," she said, "in their history, culture and community."
That sense of wonder about the region and its natural surroundings is apparent in the attention to detail in "Kempton Roads, Take Me Home."
In full color, it amounts to a photographic history of Kempton and Albany Township.
The layout takes the reader on a photographic tour across a landscape marked by virtually every road in Albany, including Little Round Top Road, Hawk Mountain Road and Lover's Lane. "A Road to Kempton," a whimsical painting by Jonathan Bond, shows a rabbit running down a country road with the Pinnacle in the background.
Acknowledging inspiration from John Denver's timeless song about West Virginia, the book's authors say the song's longing for a simpler way of life mirrors the sentiment of residents of the greater Kempton Valley.
The book isuhrich available for $40 at Albright's Mill; Dietrich's Meats and Country Store; BAD Farm in Kempton or by mail ($50 postage paid) by calling 610-756-6154.
Originally Published: September 29, 2024 at 7:44 a.m.
