Local History Tales Returning to Boyertown’s Studio B

BOYERTOWN PA – Popular local historian, educator and writer Bob Wood, will return during April for a series of “informal discussions” of local history. His presentations will be held on two remaining Sundays (April 14 and 28) from 1-2 p.m. at the Studio B Art Gallery, 39A E Philadelphia Ave. They’re free to attend an open to the public.

Additionally, on April 21 (Sunday) also from 1-2 p.m., guest speaker Sandra Kring Leonard will tell the story of one of her ancestors, known as “Indian Eve.” It describes Eve’s kidnapping by Indians, and her rescue eight years later by the British military.

Wood, who serves as a gallery adjunct at Studio B, regularly authors article in a variety of publications and also has published four books of local history.

Here are the April programs in detail:

• April 14, “Translations from the 1794-1804 Business Accounts of Johannes Markley, Blacksmith.” the accounts are recognized, Wood reported, as a primary resource about life in New Hanover during the late 18th Century. Its pages provide an unquestionable record of who-was-who in the Fagleysville area in 1794, and the goods they purchased. For anyone who needed apple trees, lime, indigo, shoe leather, mill parts, axes, and all manner of blacksmith work, Markley was the man to see;
• April 21, “The Story of “Indian Eve.” Born in New Hanover during 1740, Eve Hilbert Ernst and two children were taken hostage by Indians in Bedford County in 1777. They were forced to walk to Fort Detroit. Eight years later, as described by Leonard, Eve and the children were rescued by the British. They were required to walk home. It’s “an astonishing story,” organizers say; and
• April 28, “When Trees were the Only Fuel.” Wood observes that, before canals and railroads brought coal to the region in the 1840s, wood was the only fuel. It was used “not only for homes but all manner of necessary industries.”

Studio B receives financial support for programs and other activities under a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the federally funded National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo provided to Travel With The Post by BCTV.org