When you let the GPS route you to places, it sometimes sends you down interesting roads. Today, we…read morewere routed through this neighborhood and along the somewhat steep hills, I spotted this marker and cemetery. We stopped to take a look.
The marker reads, "Peter Berst came to America with his four children, Peter, Jr., Regina Rachel, Elizabeth Margareth, and Johannes. In 1765, Peter warranted this land, which would pass to Johannes, and in time, to John Jr. John Jr. was instructed to keep the burial ground "in good fence forever". In 1875, John Jr.'s son, David, sold the property to Caroline Shoemaker. Eventually, the land was sold to Allen Walton. In 2001, the burial ground was donated to the Derry Township Historical Society."
Peter was the first to be buried in what is now known as the Berst Family Cemetery. There are now 20 or so memorials.
The Bersts were the original owners of the land that would later become the site of the Hummelstown Brownstone Company quarry. In 1863, they permitted two entrepreneurs to begin quarrying stone from their property. This modest operation grew rapidly, and by 1867 it had evolved into the Pennsylvania Brown Free Stone Company. Eventually, under the leadership of Allen Walton, the company was rechartered in 1891 as the Hummelstown Brownstone Company.
This quarry became one of the most prominent producers of brownstone in the United States, rivaling even the famed Portland quarries in Connecticut. The stone was used in hundreds of buildings across the country, and the Berst family's decision to allow quarrying on their land played a pivotal role in that industrial boom.
A quiet cemetery in a quiet community but behind it, the story of an industrial capital.
[Review 1042 of 2025 - 690 in Pennsylvania - 24596 overall]
