THE GREAT WALL OF TWO WILLIAMS... Guest Lecture Series featuring world renown Geil expert, William Lindesay on Wednesday, June 18th at 4:00PM at the DHS Barn. In 1908, Doylestownian William Geil (1865-1925) made history by traveling along the whole length of the Great Wall of China. His travelogue was eventually gifted to another William, from Liverpool in England, in 1991, because Lindesay had recently made an historic traverse of the Great Wall, in 1987 — on foot. This fortuitous introduction heralded a new phase of Great Wall exploration, for both Williams. In this talk , William Lindesay will share his story of following William Geil all along the Great Wall, and back to Doylestown. There will also be ‘A Graveside Tribute to Dr. William Edgar Geil’ led by William Lindesay on the morning after the presentation on June 19th at 10.30 am in the Doylestown cemetery. Tickets for June 18th can be purchased in advance on EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/next-world-renown-geil-expert-william-lindesay-at-dhs-tickets-1371888257709?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl (fb)

For #ThrowbackThursday: Southeastern Pennsylvania, known as one of the Commonwealth's most fertile agricultural regions, attracted substantial German immigration during the colonial era and continued to do so throughout the next century. By 1810, the area along Dyers Road (now Main Street) north of Dutch Lane (Broad Street) became locally recognized as "Germany,” due to the significant presence of residents of German descent. Within the current boundaries of Bucks County, the concentration of German settlers was less pronounced compared to neighboring counties, and the establishment of a German-language press did not occur until the end of the 1820’s. It was then that Doylestown emerged as a journalistic hub for German newspapers, boasting six separate secular publications and one of a religious nature. The two most prominent were: Der Morganstern (1835-1889), a weekly which developed from an anti-Masonic, anti-Democratic journal into a decisively Republican one; and The Bucks County Express (1827-1918), a weekly which upheld the policies of the Democratic Party. The area contained a distinct culture, including folkways and traditions, and German was widely spoken. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Doylestown, organized in 1861, established St. Paul's Lutheran Church in 1868 at the corner of North Main and Spruce Streets. Church services were conducted in German on Sunday mornings and in English on Sunday evenings. Shops carried German foods, and Oscar Bigley operated the "Germany" Baker, a shop at 341 North Main Street in 1898. He advertised "a full supply of bread and all kinds of cake constantly on hand.” James Michener, in The Doylestown of My Early Years (1907-1921), recounted “Doylestown was a quiet, delightful country town with several marked characteristics. It was, for example, divided into two easy-going friendly communities: the English section comprising about three-quarters of the town, and a northeastern hiIly segment we called Germany where that language was often spoken and where those sturdy Mennonites who had come from the neighboring farms clustered. When my family moved into Germany (North Main Street) in the 1914 period, many children my age spoke German, and I first appeared in newspapers in l9l7 by invading the home workshop of a fine old German shoemaker, a most inoffensive man, and tearing from his wall a gaudy portrait of the Kaiser, an act which wartime Doylestown applauded.” Following World War I, the designation "Germany" was no longer applied to the area. Photo caption: 1898 - The horse-drawn wagon reads: “Oscar H. Bigley, bread and cake, North Main Street, Doylestown.” Sources: “The Assimilation of German Immigrants 1840-1900”, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 133, no. 1, January 2009. Waldenrath, Alexander. “The German Language Newspress of Doylestown.” Bucks County Historical Society Journal, Spring 1974. (fb)