Family and Site HistoryThe DeTurk family is of French Huguenot descent. Isaac DeTurk immigrated to the Hudson River valley in New York in 1708 from Picardy in northern France. After the Protestant persecution in France, Isaac opted to flee to America after living for a time in the Alsace-Lorraine region. The DeTurks were among the many Huguenot refugees who emigrated to America. In 1712, Isaac came to the Oley Valley from New York and purchased three hundred acres near Friedensburg, present-day Oley. In 1725 he owned 300 acres and a homestead. DeTurk’s rent for this land was 10 Pounds per 100 acres plus an annual quit rent of one shilling. The 1734 tax list also includes Johan DeTurk (son of Isaac) as owning 300 acres. Even though his mother was still alive, it appears that Johan was farming and/or owned the same amount of land by 1750 and still owned it in 1775. Johan inherited the large family farm in 1761 after his mother’s death.
Johan, the only son of Isaac, was born in 1713. He married Deborah Hoch in 1740 and they had twelve children. Among the DeTurk children were Revolutionary War soldiers, one of whose equipment is on display at the New Jersey Washington Crossing State Park. Also, son John was the third owner of the old Exeter Township farm where Daniel Boone was born. There are currently many DeTurks buried in a family plot at the Daniel Boone Homestead State Historic Site and in a walled family graveyard on the original Oley farmstead. Johan and Deborah DeTurk were in their mid-50s when they moved into the farmstead ancillary building on the banks of Little Manatawny Creek.
Well into the 19th century at least, DeTurk descendants continued to own and occupy the family farm, or parcels from it. The 1854 Berks County Atlas shows a J. DeTurk as the resident, and the 1862 Berks County Atlas lists a Johan DeTurk for the property. According to the Oley Township map in the 1876 Berks County Atlas, DeTurks owned the land along the creek where the “ancillary” still stands. The 1759 tax list has Johan DeTurk paying thirty-five Pounds in taxes.
Social History
With Johan DeTurk apparently of Moravian faith, the DeTurk farm became the center of Moravian activity in the Oley Valley during the time of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), who was born in Dresden, became a bishop of the reformed Moravian Church and was active in the Moravian population around Bethlehem. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1741. He held a series of conferences whose purpose was an attempt to unify the various German branches of religion (Moravian, Seventh Day Baptists, Dunkards, Separatists, Lutherans, Mennonite, and Reformed). The third of Zinzendorf’s conferences was held at the DeTurk farm in the Oley Valley. Benjamin Franklin published a pamphlet on this “Conferenz”, which took place on the DeTurk property (possibly in the stone barn) from February 10-12, 1742. One significant accomplishment of the conference was the first Native American (three Mohicans from New York) baptism by the Moravians. Near the farm was also an early Moravian school.
Isaac DeTurk also took part in local political maneuvering. A petition for the creation of the Oley Road was signed by Isaac DeTurk in 1717. Apparently, however, the road was not approved until 1719. It is believed that modern-day Route 662 is the Oley (“Oaley” road on a 1719 survey drawing of the southern segment of this road system near the Schuylkill River). The northernmost stretch of the Great Road from Oley to Philadelphia would have coursed from Route 662, along the creek, past the DeTurk house. In 1720, Isaac signed the failed petition for the creation of Oley Township, which was chartered in 1740.
In 1876 in Oley, a J.D. DeTurk was listed as a carpenter and a George S. DeTurk was listed as a farmer. By 1958, the property was owned by Dwight Moyer and William Gotwalls and was vacant. In 1967, the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County obtained a 100-year lease on the property from the Gotwalls family. Funds were obtained from the Women’s Club of Oley for early stabilization and weatherization measures.
Architectural History
Located near Oley on the southern bank of the Little Manatawny Creek, which periodically floods the cellar, the multi-purpose ancillary building survives on the former farmstead of Isaacs DeTurk, succeded by his son Johan and Johan’s wife Deborah DeTurk. In 1740 Johan had built the larger stone house located across the lane fronting the ancillary. About a quarter-century later Johan and Deborah built and moved into the more modest ancillary dwelling, which also housed the farmstead granary in the attic, and a kitchen and vaulted food storage area in the cellar. The doorway lintel bears the inscription “Johan DeTirck—1767—Debora DeTircken”.
The embanked building is an example of the Huguenot and Germanic influence in the Oley Valley. The structure is a one and a half story, one-room plan building. There is a gable-front entrance with doors and a shutter with painted bird and flower motifs. The pent-hood over the front window is paired, for symmetry, with another on the windowless eastern bay of the gable-front. In 1931 there was a surviving interior wall cupboard with a painted decoration. These painted motifs are also reflected in Pennsylvania German painted blanket chests and wooden boxes of the same period. The lower-level ground floor consists of a vaulted “root” cellar with a kitchen on the north end. The storage cellar is separated from the kitchen by a stone wall. There is no interior staircase to the first floor. The chimney at the rear of the structure serves not only the kitchen fireplace, but also the smaller fireplace in the first-floor dwelling space
The first floor is a single room with a fireplace for heating and cooking. A narrow “winder” stair (not original) is the only foot-access to the attic, which is an open space with no significant trim work. A wagon-freight door with a pulley above opens into the attic. There is a massive, chamfered summer beam in the dwelling space to provide redundant support for the grains and other material stored in the attic, and a shorter “summer” (from French “sommier” for “packhorse” burden-bearing) in the cellar-kitchen. The original and replacement clay tiles for the roof were hand-made. In 1991, Lester Breininger hand-crafted.twenty-five roof tiles to replace lost ridge tiles.
The pent hoods of the building are open at their ends and are un-ceiled. In the mid-20th century, a large truck sheared off the eastern pent roof off the front of the structure. A kitchen addition to the east was connected to the first floor, with a door cut through the west wall. The kitchen addition was removed in the 20th century. Also, the original tile roof has been replicated. A bake-oven opening through has also been closed with stone. Originally, the exterior cellar door had a hood over it, which has been restored. Much of the original pointing remains and there is a section of original plaster extant on the first floor. The second story door is a replacement which closely replicates the original. All the shutters have been replaced. The attic granary is vented through a brick-ringed circular opening (classically an “oculus”) within the peak of the gable-front.
The Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County completed a restoration of the structure using funds from the Women’s Club of Oley in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2009-2011, the Trust conducted its most expensive structural restoration campaign to that date on any of its buildings, thanks to a generous grant from the Shelley Pennsylvania German Heritage Fund. The Trust received a PreservationPennsylvania award for a Special Historic Property Restoration for the 2009-11 project.
The Johan DeTurk cabin is open every day by advance appointment only. Please contact the Trust office at least 14 days in advance of your trip to make an appointment. Whenever possible, please supply two alternate appointment dates.
From Rt. 12 (Pricetown Road), take Rt. 73 East 3.8 miles. Turn right onto DeTurk Road. Turn right onto Historic Lane. Go 200 feet to the cabin.
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