The DeTurk Education Center at the Daniel Boone Homestead

The DeTurk Education Center, located at the Daniel Boone Homestead, was built in 1812 by Samuel DeTurk. The 250 acres in the Oley Valley (Exeter Township) of Pennsylvania were originally purchased by the couple Squire Boone (an English Quaker) and Sarah Morgan (a Welsh Quaker) in 1730. When the Boone family moved in 1750, Squire’s cousin bought the property. Later on, in 1770, half of the Homestead was sold to Samuel DeTurk, and the other half was sold to his brother, John. The DeTurk family were German, and they operated a Pennsylvania German bank barn on the Homestead. The Education Center that still stands on the property was initially built as a farmhouse; today, it is utilized for educational purposes for the public. The Daniel Boone Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

In 1718, the first settlers of Exeter, Pennsylvania arrived to establish their new home. By 1741, the township was formed, “named after a district in England whence the first settlers came.”¹ Here, the London Company owned six thousand acres of land, granted to them by William Penn in 1699. In 1730, a part of that land was presented to Squire Boone, who was originally from Philadelphia County. His son, Daniel Boone, was born in Exeter Township in 1734. In 1750, the Boone family moved to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina; at the time, Daniel was 15 years old. Daniel would become “best known for his exploration and settlement of the region now known as Kentucky.”²

Upon the Boones’ relocation, Squire’s cousin, William Maugridge, bought the Boone House and a portion of the Homestead. Eventually, in 1770, Pennsylvania Germans John and Elizabeth DeTurk bought half of the Homestead property from Maugridge’s daughter; the other half went to John’s brother, Samuel. William Penn had offered religious freedom to the oppressed, and his colony of Pennsylvania had become a haven for persecuted individuals. Partly because Penn’s mother was German, he traveled there to promote the Quaker doctrine and its establishment in Pennsylvania. Many of these German immigrants were men educated in ancient and modern languages, art, and music. By 1752, the Germans were the majority of settlers in Berks County, as they claimed land and constructed homes, churches, and schools there.

The German DeTurks established their livelihood as farmers on the Homestead property. Due to the favorable location, climate, and soil conditions, farming during this time in Pennsylvania was of the subsistence type. Nearly all of the needs of families were supplied by the farm, forest, and nearby water sources. Additionally, most farm work was done by hand – with the exception of the plow – until the 1840s. Although much agriculture during the eighteenth century was marked by little progress, Pennsylvania German farmers did not follow that model and are considered, by some historians, the best husbandmen (farmers) in America during the colonial period. Many had experience as peasant farmers in Germany, where intensive farming was necessary to produce income. From those experiences, they were accustomed to living off of only the essentials. Furthermore, the lively Quaker religious life and their view of farms as “legacies” generated “stability, sobriety, and industry” in colonial German agriculture.³

The Pennsylvania German bank barn was another distinctive part of the Germans’ colonial agriculture, appearing later in the eighteenth century until about 1900. It was most commonly seen in the southwest and central areas of Pennsylvania. As its name suggests, the barn is banked, meaning it has a projecting forebay/overshoot, around seven to eight feet in length. The upper level of the barn is flanked by mows and consists of a granary (a place for animal feed). Below, there are stables and stalls to house horses, milk cows, beef cattle, and/or sheep. Additionally, this type of barn nearly always has a gable roof. The farming systems associated with the Pennsylvania bank barn often produced “cash grain (usually wheat), feed grain (mainly oats and corn), and hay; and livestock and livestock products – beef, dairy, hogs, and pork.”⁴ Based on its “centralized organization and gravity-fed multi-level arrangement,” the Pennsylvania German bank barn, as displayed on the Homestead, demonstrates a response to labor efficiency needs and a “highly mechanized, diversified grain-and-livestock agriculture” system.⁴

Although John DeTurk died in 1808, his family continued to reside on their Pennsylvania farm into the 1820s. Along with John, Samuel DeTurk, the constructor of the DeTurk Education Center, was buried in the DeTurk cemetery on the Homestead in 1815. By the 1930s, much of the farm and properties were dilapidated, leading the founder of the Boy Scouts of America, Daniel Carter Beard, to organize a committee to preserve the Homestead. Because of his interest, in 1938, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired the property. As part of President Franklin Roosevelt's initiatives during the Great Depression, the National Youth Administration (part of the Works Progress Program) began repairs and developments. The Daniel Boone Homestead is still operating today and is open to the public for historical exhibits, programs, and tours. Specifically, the DeTurk Education Center can be rented to community members to provide education related to the historic Daniel Boone Homestead and its Pennsylvania settlers.

¹. Wagner, A. E. & Balthaser, F. W. The Story of Berks County (Pennsylvania). Reading, PA. Eagle Book and Job Press, 1913.

². Daniel Boone, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed July 3rd 2022. https://www.doi.gov/american-heroes/daniel-boone.

³. Bressler, Leo A. Agriculture Among the Germans in Pennsylvania During the Eighteenth Century. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 103-133. Published April 1955.

⁴. Pennsylvania Barn, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Accessed July 2nd 2022. http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/agriculture/field-guide/pennsylvania-barn.html.

5. DeTurk, Eugene P. History and Genealogy of the DeTurk, DeTurck Family. Hassell Street Press, 2021.

6. Fletcher, S. W. The Subsistence Farming Period in Pennsylvania Agriculture, 1640-1840. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 185-195. Published July 1947. JSTOR.

7. Pennsylvania SP Boone, Daniel, Homestead Site and Bertolet Cabin, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed July 2nd 2022. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994686.

8. The Daniel Boone Homestead. Accessed July 3rd 2022. https://www.thedanielboonehomestead.org/.