Bertolet Meeting House

08/05/2025

Join us for the Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 9. RSVPs welcome: https://evite.me/ShEYC4audx

07/25/2025

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07/17/2025

03/08/2025

Family and Friends, This Sunday (March 9) Daniel Bertolet's sawmill will be operating at its relocated home on the Daniel Boone Homestead Property in Birdsboro, PA. This is a rare opportunity to see a water-powered sawmill and a piece of Bertolet history in action.

🪵💦🪚We are excited to announce that the Bertolet Sawmill will be run during Pennsylvania’s Birthday on March 9th. The water-powered, vertical-blade sawmill was originally built nearby in Oley Township by Daniel Bertolet in 1810. It remained in service until the 1940s and was moved to the Homestead in 1972, where it was restored to full working order. The exterior, sleds, and saw are original, while the waterwheel is a replica. The Bertolet Sawmill is one of only three operational sawmills of its type in the country and is typically only operated once or twice a year at the Homestead.

The sawmill’s wooden waterwheel operates a vertical push-pull (up and down) saw to cut wood. Logs are placed on a small sled that moves automatically as the saw chews through the wood. The wheel is powered by a mill race constructed to run water from Owatin Lake. Sawmills like this one fulfilled the local need for sawn lumber, and some sawmills in the area even provided wood to as far as Philadelphia. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see the sawmill in action during Pennsylvania’s Birthday.

07/11/2024

Reminder: The Bertolet Meeting House Annual Meeting is always the second Saturday in August, and is a month away!

02/18/2024

It’s a snowy Saturday at the Bertolet Meeting House. ❄️

Photo credit: Elizabeth Bertolet

08/12/2022

Reminder:
The Annual Meeting is tomorrow Aug. 13 at Noon at the Bertolet Meeting House. All are welcome. Bring your own lunch.

07/05/2022

The Berks History Center's object this week is Jean and Susanna Bertolet's 1726 letter of introduction from Minfield! The letter was intended to give the Bertolets credibility as they embarked on their journey from Europe to Pennsylvania.

This week's object is a Bertolet family certificate from the eighteenth century.

This certificate was written and signed in 1726 by officials of Minfield, a community in the Palatinate region of what is today southwest Germany. It requests that the bearers, Jean and Susan (DeHarcourt) Bertolet, "be extended...every desired aid and assistance," as they "remove themselves to the new country of Pennsylvania."
Born to Huguenot families who fled religious persecution in France, the Bertolet lived as refugees in Minfield before immigrating to Pennsylvania and settling in Berks County's Oley Valley.

Tune in next week for the next object!