Travel Guide to Historic Boehm Sites in Lancaster Co., PA
James A. Galloway
2004

Historic tour of sites associated with our Boehm - Beahm - Beam family in Lancaster Co., PA.

1. The tour begins at Boehm’s United Methodist Church. To get there, travel south from the city of Lancaster on SR 272 / US 222 to the town of Willow Street. Here, US 222 will go left on Long Lane at a traffic light, but you will go straight and follow SR 272 on south to Baumgardner Rd. There will be signs announcing Boehm’s United Methodist Church as you approach Baumgardner Rd. Turn right there (west) and go less than a block to Boehm’s Rd. and go left to the church at #100. Boehm’s Chapel is behind Boehm’s United Methodist Church.

2. Boehm’s United Methodist Church and the chapel stand on a portion of the farm of our immigrant ancestor, Jacob Boehm. As you stand at the front door of the chapel and look out over the hill to the west, you will be viewing the major part of the original farm of 381 acres on which Jacob Boehm settled circa 1717. In 1791, when the chapel was built, it faced a road that ran along the crest of the hill.

3. Retrace your steps back to Boehm’s Rd. and thence to Baumgardner Rd., where you will make a left. After a very short distance, you will pass some houses on your right. Behind these houses on a wooded knoll is the old Boehm/Hess cemetery where our pioneer and his wife were buried, along with children and family members who died prior to 1791, after which time the chapel cemetery was used. In 1929, Maj. Morris Stanley Beam stated that he counted 29 Boehm gravestones in the Boehm/Hess cemetery, but we could only find one of Tobias Beam by 1983.

The stone wall around the cemetery was built there in time for the bicentennial celebration. The stone had come originally from Rev. Martin Boehm’s house and was supplemented by stone found locally around the area of Willow Street. There is supposed to be a legal easement to the cemetery along the west side of the field behind the houses that was used by buses and cars during our bicentennial year. By questioning some of the neighbors along the road there you can probably get information about where to park while walking to the cemetery, or if the field is dry enough and the easement is clear, you can drive there.

4. If you wish to visit the former Boehm farm, travel west on Baumgardner Rd. to the next road to the left, Radcliff Rd., and then the first lane left and on to the mobile home or the large red brick farmhouse. As you travel this lane, look to your left up the hill and you will have a picture perfect view of Boehm’s Chapel. There are two generations of the Frye family that are present-day owners of the farm. They are knowledgeable of the Boehm history and are members of Boehm’s United Methodist Church. Ross and Nancy Frye, or their son and daughter-in-law, can show you where the foundation and basement of Rev. Martin Boehm’s house are located, beneath one of their barns, and also show you what the stone from Rev. Martin Boehm’s house was used for before it was taken up to the pioneer cemetery. Remember that this farm nurtured our family for over 100 years and Rev. Martin Boehm’s heart was warmed there.

5. Return to Radcliff Rd. and go left and travel to Byerland Church Rd., where you will make a right and go on Mt. Hope Rd. At this intersection, you will notice the Mennonite Church on the SE corner, while on the NW corner you will see what looks to be a little log cabin. This is actually the oldest known Mennonite meeting house still standing in the United States. It was built by our immigrant ancestor, Jacob Boehm, between 1747 and 1755, when Jacob was ordained Deacon of the Byerland Mennonite Congregation. At any rate, this little log building is the oldest structure built by our Boehms that still exists today. You may want to park in the present day church lot and walk across to the log building for it gets soggy there. Also, the parking lot is a good vantage point for photos if foliage doesn’t hide the view.

6. Return to Byerland Rd. and this time head east and go until it connects with SR 272. Turn left here onto SR 272 and go north. Before you come to Willow Street, about where the highway splits into separate north and south lanes, you will see a state historical sign erected by the Highway Dept. The sign itself was paid for by donations from the descendants of Rev. Henry Boehm, Rev. Martin Boehm’s son. It reminds us of the importance of Boehm’s Chapel.

7. Continue to the traffic signal at Penn Grant Rd., which is the first signal you will come to and proceed to the large Mennonite Church on your left. This church is at the corner of Penn Grant Rd. and Hans Herr Rd. Turn left here and proceed north on Hans Herr Rd. If you wish, you can stop at the cemetery at the rear of the church and visit the graves of the Hans Herr family. You will find out who Hans Herr was at your next stop. The Herr house sits next to the road and will be coming up on your right. Enter into the parking lot just beyond the house. Now it costs nothing to park or to walk the grounds. The reason that you are here is to view the house itself, which is a carbon copy of the house that Rev. Martin Boehm built on the home farm in 1750. This is the German style of home building with the center chimney w/fireplace openings in every room whereas the English style had two chimneys at each end of the house. If you want to enter the house, there is a fee. You can go into the office and get the story of Hans Herr without paying if you wish.

8. Leaving the Hans Herr house parking lot, return to Hans Herr Rd. and turn right and proceed to the stop sign at Beaver Valley Pike (US 222). Turn right here onto US 222. Take this highway on towards Quarryville, but we will be turning off before going that far. After about 5 miles, you will see a large black on white sign on the right that directs you to “PPL.” This shows you where the Penn Power & Light sub-transformer station is located on Camargo Rd. and that is in the direction you want to go. Beyond the PPL on your left, you will see some houses. Watch for the house numbers. You are looking for #507 Camargo Rd., which is up a gravel lane on the hill, behind these houses. Now you will think, “What are we doing here?” Well, this property first belonged to John Beam, brother of Rev. Martin Boehm. This John was the miller in the family and as you proceed up the driveway you can view a creek bed and it was on your left where the mill stood. In the days of John Beam, this was a deep and swift flowing stream before the water was diverted. John Beam left this property circa 1766 and he and his wife Mary joined Henry Kagy, who headed a group of Mennonites migrating to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia at New Market. From Virginia, John Beam sold this property to his brother Abraham Beam in 1768. So, this property is an important one in our family since it nurtured both John Beam, the pioneer in Virginia and Abraham Beam, the pioneer to Ontario, Canada. Abraham built the house you are now looking at in 1770 and it has been added to several times. It was here that

Abraham’s wife, Barbara Herr Nissley Beam, grafted her famous apple from orchards they began on this property. It was also here that Abraham Beam lived when he went to jail in 1781 for a year for harboring and feeding British soldiers in the barn during the Revolutionary War. Abraham and Barbara Beam joined the trail of the Black Walnut in 1788 and moved themselves, together with their youngest son Martin, from here to Ontario, Canada. Presently, this property is owned by Bob and Milley Groff, who are willing to show this historic property to visitors.

9. Now, back-track to US 222 and turn right and retrace your steps about 5 miles to the “Y” in the highway where SR 741 takes off to your right. Follow SR 741 approximately 3 ½ miles into the village of Strasburg. You are now on Main St. and you will continue to the center of town where Decatur St. crosses Main St. There is a traffic light here and you should turn right here onto Decatur St. Go 2 blocks to Funk St. and turn right onto Funk St. As soon as you can turn your car around, do so and park at the corner of Funk and Decatur near the stop sign. Look across Decatur St. and see the open area and next to it a double red brick house. The house you are looking at was built in 1811 by Jacob Beam, son of Rev. Martin Boehm, as the First Methodist Church of Strasburg. A cemetery was set aside south of the church in the open area that you are looking at. The cemetery area continued around the rear of the house. At that time, Funk St. crossed over Decatur St. and gave access to the church and cemetery. What makes this site important is the fact that Jacob Beam’s wife was buried there in 1811 and Jacob himself was buried there in 1836, after which the church was sold and the cemetery closed. We think that “Mama Beam” was also buried there in 1822. The congregation built a new church on West Main St. in 1836 on the same site as the present United Methodist Church and began a new cemetery. During the years between 1836 and 1941, the old church building on Decatur St. housed several different organizations and all of the gravestones in the cemetery were stacked beside Funk St. A local historian named Wilmer Eshelman recorded the names on the stacked slab monuments in 1941. By that time, many of the slabs were already carted away, but those of Jacob Beam and wife Barbara were still there. Probably “Mama Beam’s” had already disappeared. All of the stones became stepping-stones in gardens and liners for cisterns in Strasburg. We don’t know exactly where our ancestor’s were buried, but we know that they still rest in the yard of that red brick house on Decatur St.

10. Turn left onto Decatur St. and go back to the traffic light, where you will make a right turn onto Main St., so that you are once again on SR 741. When you come to the “Y” at the edge of town, keep to the left staying on SR 741. You will almost immediately come to the Strasburg railroad on your left and the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum on your right. Both of these attractions are great places to visit and one can easily spend a whole day there. Since the Strasburg railroad travels through Jacob Beam’s farm on it’s trip to Paradise, it is also part of our family history. I’m talking about the same Jacob Beam buried back there on Decatur St. in Strasburg. Also, at different times the railroad had coaches named “Cherry Crest” after the road fronting the farm.

11. Now, back to SR 741. Keep going east past Paradise Lane then Eshbenshade Rd. and turn left onto Cherry Hill Rd., which is next and dead-ends at SR 741. As you travel north on Cherry Hill Rd., you will be paralleling Jacob Beam’s farmland. You will come to a large sign on your left announcing Cherry Crest Farm before you come to the railroad crossing. Turn left into the lane and proceed past the big barn on your left to the house. Study the stone house and ponder just what you are viewing. This stone house and the older portion of the barn were built in 1774 by the Ferree brothers and purchased by Jacob Beam in 1794. Jacob lived there as a gentleman farmer, having two tenant families to do the farm chores. The plantation, as it was called in the early days, contained some 300 acres. The Strasburg railroad right-of-way, which bisects the farm, was surveyed in 1833, but Jacob never lived to see the railroad in operation. This is the plantation where Rev. Henry Boehm visited with Bishop Asbury and where Rev. Henry Boehm lived for a time while ministering at Strasburg Methodist Church (which Jacob built in 1801 as Elder). Jacob controlled his other holdings in the county from here. He owned several buildings in Strasburg, located on the southwest side of the village center on Main Street, as well as several other farms in the county. To this plantation came “Mama Beam” in 1800 after her husband died in Ontario, Canada in 1799. Her daughter, of course, was Jacob’s wife. “Mama Beam” lived there until she died in 1822, surviving her daughter by 11 years, so “Mama Beam” and Jacob must have been compatible. Before Jacob’s death in 1836, his daughter Catherine, who had married Sam Binkley, moved her family into the plantation house to care for the aging Jacob. After Jacob died, the Binkleys moved to West Carrolton, OH and were buried in the Evergreen Cemetery.

The Coleman family now own Cherry Crest farm, and you can rent a room from them for the night for $100.00, that doesn’t include breakfast in the morning. If you do stay the night, perhaps you will see the spirit of Jacob or “Mama Beam.” The Coleman’s not only operate Cherry Crest as a farm, but in the fall, it is open as a tourist attraction called “The Amazing Maize” that draws thousands of folks each year.

12. Leaving Cherry Crest, return to Cherry Hill Rd. and turn left and cross the railroad tracks. Travel just over a mile to a “T” at Paradise Lane. Turn right and then an immediate left onto Singer Ave. It’s only a short block to US 30 (Lincoln Hwy. East). This is a very dangerous intersection due to heavy truck traffic on this two-lane section of US 30. Turn left here and head west towards Soudersburg. In about ½ mile on your left, you will see a black on white sign at the side of a driveway up against a tall hedge. Behind this is an old white house with a circle drive in front. This house is #2948 US 30 East and is a private dwelling not open to the public, but it is the old First Soudersburg Methodist Church, built by Jacob Beam in 1801, with Rev. Henry Boehm being the first minister. If you turn into the driveway in front of the sign and drive along the old church property, you may view the cemetery that has never been destroyed, as was the case in Strasburg. You can turn around at the end of the driveway or in the field if it isn’t soggy.

13. Turn left onto US 30 again and drive slowly if traffic allows. You are now in Soudersburg and on your left (south side) there are houses and buildings. Behind these buildings from the old church that you just left, to Soundersburg Rd. was the farm of Martin Beam, grandson of Rev. Martin Boehm, and son of Jacob Beam of Cherry Crest Farm. This Martin was the Beam Pioneer who went to Germantown, OH in 1830. His Soundersburg farmhouse no longer exists but stood beside the creek that runs beneath US 30. An Amish family named Stoltfus own the farm now and live in the house built in the mid 1800’s. There is no use stopping here, for there is nothing to see, unless you want to turn left at Soundersburg and go just a short distance to the Ronks Rd. covered bridge, which in the early 1 800s was only a ford at the west end of Martin’s farm.