Oley Valley High School - Olean Yearbook (Oley, PA)

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THOMAS S. KNECHT A. B., Albright College English Latin German We, the graduating class of 1948, proudly dedicate our 1948 Olean to Mr. Thomas S. Knecht for his thoughtful, patient and never-ending guidance. Mr. Knecht is ct man of keen understanding and wide experi- ence. As a missionary, he pio- neered in many parts of China. As an educator in the Oley Schools, he has taught for the ii past twenty-one years in the grades and the high school of our district. His unbounded profession has been a source of great inspiration to a host of pupils. We offer evidence of his great loyalty, noble character, and excellent scholarship. Class of Forty-eight, you have selected a theme which presents a challenge to each of you. As pioneers, the UNCHARTED ETERNAL lies before you and, as you advance in the van of progress in school, home, and church, you will leave behind blazed trails. Your enduring worth depends upon your wise use of God's great gift, personal choice. He intends it as a blessing. Use it fool- ishly and it will prove a curse. f Consult your conscience, as the mariner watches his compass, but let it. as the compass, be centered upon a divinely appointed goal. Thus advance, not alone, but with a heavenly escort. Accept a part of Holy Writ which, God grant, may you use. He, hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Five

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Four FOREVVORD The Senior Class of 1948 is again presenting the annual yearbook. This year we have chosen for our theme Pioneers in the Home, the Church, and the School . School life in Oley has many details of the early pioneers. For your information and enjoyment we are presenting our teachers as missionaries , the underclassmen as explorers , our school activities as adventures and the seniors as the pathfinders . All through our school years we have been pioneering under the guidance of the missionaries . They have prepared us to enter the struggles and solve the problems of the outside world. We, the pathfinders , are constantly struggling to find the right path in life. Incomplete and imperfect as the Olean may be, we are now submitting it to you for your approval, hoping that you may have pleasure in looking over our school record. We began at the bottom and climbed step by step, until finally we have reached the peak of pioneering under our Alma Mater. As the years grow sacred, we will turn back the pages of time and see, spread out before us, our most cherished and beloved memories. As our pioneering begins in the outside world, may these sacred memories encourage us to move Step by step, but always forward .

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ix PIONEERS IN Tl-IE HOIVIE With Pioneering as our theme, we are dividinq it into three parts. Let us first consider the pioneers in the home. The first settlements were made at the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Oley originally was called Oleka by the Indians. because it resembled a kettle. The Germans construed it Olich, signifying oil. Many of the first settlers of Oley were French Huguenot refugees, who fled from their native country under the persecutions which prevailed in the reign of Louis XIV. Sometime later Queen Anne of England induced many of these oppressed Protestants-French, German and English-to emi- L grate to Arrerica. They came to this wilderness in S1 ..l.l . ,gk 4.1,-e -tiff' we f? w search of l'omes and an asylum of religious freedom. Some of these early pioneers coming from France were Isaac DeTurck, who took up a tract of 300 acres in the very heart of Oltey in 1712: Peter Bertolet, who settled here in 1720. and lean Bertolet in 1726. iirrggmnvly Many of the original estates of the early pioneers are still in possession of their descendants. One of the most important of these is the Fisher Homestead built in 1801 by Henry and Susanna Fisher. who came to Oley from Heidelberg Township. This home was owned for many years by Daniel D. Fisher and is now owned by Frank Fisher, his grandson. Members of the Society of Friends. called Quakers, also made some early settlements in Oley. These, like the Huguenots, were refugees. but came mainly from England. Some German Quakers from Germany also found their way here. These also fled their native land on account cf oppression and persecution. One Quaker. Iohn Keim, believed to be one of the first settlers of the Oley Valley. arrived in 1698 and settled near Pikeville. Yost and Hans Yoder emigrated from a German-Swiss canton and settled along the Manatawny before 1714. Many of the descendants of these early settlers are still living in this community. Take the DeTurck family, for example. Isaac DeTurck was the one who originally started what is lznown as the DeTurck homestead. Two of his qreat-qrandsons. Abraham, Ir., and lohn, were among the prime movers for the erection of Frieden's Union Church. In the fifth, sixth and seventh generations the DeTurck name and blood were associated with some of the important families of Berks County, such as Van Reed, Leidy, C. K. Whitner. founder of Whitner's Store in Reading. Hoch. Hiester and many others. The Bertolet family is another one that still resides in Oley. lean Bertolet's great-grandson, Daniel Bertolet. was a very important man in Oley and is described as a man of iron will, marvelous industry and deep convictions . A son of lean Bertolet married and lived for a number of years on a portion of the original DeTurck farm. which for many years was owned by Israel M. Bertolet. The Herbein family is known for its interest in the church and as teachers and successful farmers. Ionathan Herbein is listed among the taxpayers of Oley Township in 1752. The original Herbein homestead probably was located near the Oley line, where many of the earlier Herbeins lie buried in a private cemetery on the original farm. One branch of these Herbeins moved to the vicinity of Strausstown. Another homestead that has stayed in the same family for many years is the Kaufman home. This home was built by David Kaufman, who came to Oley from Germantown in 1720. As his family became larger he added another tract of land, thus we have two Kaufman homesteads. but one family. This home has been handed down from father to son, until today it is in the hands of the Frank Kaufman estate. The Kaufman family is noted for its efficient farmers and preachers. CContinued on Page 633