ROOTS & BRANCHES

OK, let’s get the name thing out of the way. Trappe is a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, borough with an evocative name.

It took that name from a tavern called “the Trap” that was operated by the town’s founder Jacob Schrack Sr., with the spelling altered over time as often happens.

I have an affinity for Trappe since my immigrant surname ancestor, sixth-great-grandfather Johannes Beydeler, settled near there and is buried in the cemetery of St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in the borough.

But what drew me to a lecture presented recently by Lisa Minardi, the executive director of Historic Trappe, was the fact that her topic was the 18^th century brick home she’s rehabbed and period furnished elsewhere in Montgomery, which happened to be built by Daniel Hiester, a collateral relation of my mother’s surname line.

More on that later, but first let’s talk about Minardi.

She’s long been known as a leading expert on all things material culture—furniture and decorative certificates known as fraktur being a couple of her particular points of expertise—and during her presentation she referenced that she’s been interested in history since attending a day camp at age 8 at the preserved Peter Wentz Farmstead, also in Montgomery County. Talk about coming by your life passion honestly and early!

Minardi has worked at Winterthur Museum and currently heads the Lutheran archives in Philadelphia.

And she has helped build Historic Trappe’s portfolio into four historic sites in the borough: the Speaker’s House (home of Frederick Muhlenberg), Muhlenberg House, Dewees Tavern, and the Muhlenberg Parsonage. It also is the local historical society and has the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies.

You’ll notice a lot of Muhlenbergs in that list and that’s because the guy considered the patriarch of the German Lutheran church in America, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, made Trappe his base from the 1740s onward as he went about trying to create order from the chaos of the frontier (He also kept wonderful diaries that happen to include information on my ancestor Johannes Beydeler’s wife Maria, who Muhlenberg buried in 1784 … never mind that the Beydelers were Reformed—probably no minister of that denomination was available so Muhlenberg “pinch hit”).

Historic Trappe sponsors loads of intriguing events—everything from recent Easter egg decorating to something they call “The Naked Bed Project”—all in support of preserving their properties. You can learn more about these events at its website, https://historictrappe.org/

A special annual event upcoming is the group’s Party for Preservation Gala, 5 to 9 p.m., April 14, at RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve, 100 Rivercrest Drive, Phoenixvllle. This year’s event will honor auctioneers and appraisers Debra and Ron Pook.

Another event of note will be at Minardi’s Daniel Hiester House in Sumneytown on May 4. She’s offering tours by timed ticket only (no walk ins!) on that day. I’ll be there!