This is a story of love, honor and respect—and of a promise kept.

 

Today, many Kistlers in the US can trace their lineage to Abraham Kistler (my 4th great grandfather), who immigrated to Sherman's Valley from Berks County about 1790. Most of his siblings followed the Great Wagon Road to North Carolina. However, Abraham followed his father-in-law Michael Loy to Perry County, where, more than two centuries later, I found both of them buried close to one another at Lebanon Lutheran Church in Loysville. I tell about this in Across the Blue Mountain, a book that is partly a historical novel and partly a non-fiction memoir of the search for my Perry County heritage. (Available on Amazon.) Here is an excerpt from the book:

 

My car is laboring up the flank of Blue Mountain, climbing the blue-green wall over Sterret's Gap (formerly Croghan's Gap) into Perry County. This is the same route the early settlers took. On a roadmap, Perry County is shaped like a ragged pennant flying in the breeze. The staff of the pennant is the Susquehanna River above Harrisburg. The northern margin of the pennant is Tuscarora Mountain and the southern margin is Blue Mountain. … There's a dip in the ridge at the top but to call it a gap is being generous. It's a long, white-knuckle climb and I'm amazed that settlers crossed here with heavy wagons. …

 

Ever since discovering the "Blain, Penna" postmarks in the Wooden Box [a trove of old letters that started my decades-long quest to uncover the story of the Kistler family] and realizing that the village of Kistler was nearby, I suspected that I had ties to Perry County. [A] sketch of the Kistler family found in the Berks, Lehigh and Perry county histories includes information about an Abraham Kistler who migrated from [Berks County] to Perry County (then Cumberland County) about 1790. [I later confirmed that Abraham was my ancestor.] Now I'm on my way to Perry County, searching for Abraham and the homeland I've never seen.

 

With the car in low gear, I coast down the mountain, cross beautiful Sherman's Creek and turn towards Loysville. The town is named for Michael Loy who was among the first Berks County Germans to settle permanently in Perry County. I am his direct descendant: Abraham Kistler married his daughter Mary. In the center of Loysville is Lebanon Lutheran Church. It sits on land donated by Michael Loy and Martin Bernheisel in 1794.

 

Putting on my jacket, I have a lump of anticipation in my throat. Abraham should be here. It is cold and damp and I scuffle through fallen leaves going from stone to stone. The oldest are written in German, their eroded inscriptions difficult to read. But some of them also have modern brass plaques next to them, so I quickly find Michael Loy's stone near the church wall. But I can't find Abraham's stone. Overgrown with lichens, the stones are hard to decipher. I try looking at different angles to increase the contrast. Finally, I see a German "K" on a stone near Loy's. Squinting, I can barely make out: "Hier ruhen die Gebeine von Abraham Kistler--starb den 10 April 1833--im 73 Jahre seines alter."  (Here rest the bones of Abraham Kistler--died April 10, 1833--in the 73rd year of his age.) My eyes well up. 

 

…Abraham's [stone] is the oldest [extant grave] marker [in my Kistler line.] [But where was his land?] From the Perry Historians I obtained a survey of a 151-acre tract that Abraham once owned in the vicinity of Elliottsburg. (He eventually owned about 400 acres.) From this rough sketch I try and fail to locate the property using a topographic map. Years later a co-worker helps me determine north on the sketch, using the surveyor's calls scrawled on it. It is one of those Eureka moments that punctuate the life of the genealogist: With the map properly oriented, I suddenly realize that the entire north side of the village of Elliottsburg is on Abraham's land. 

 

Several years elapse before I can return to Perry County and make a pilgrimage to Elliottsburg. Located in the very center of the Perry County pennant, it is a quintessential Pennsylvania village: A string of modest two-story siding-clad houses hugging the two-lane road, two churches and a timber mill. There are Kistler stones in the Messiah Lutheran Church graveyard. To my delight, the rolling ground above the town, the bulk of Abraham's tract, remains farmland. There I find a couple of historic tenant houses and gorgeous views of the mountain ridges that enfold Perry County. I have finally found my Sherman's Valley homeland.

 

Leaving Elliottsburg, I head toward Loysville. … [Once there] I am shocked by what I find. Lebanon Church has been converted into apartments. The building needs paint. Abraham's stone had apparently fallen over, face up. There is a bare spot in the grass where it had been. In this position the weathering has accelerated alarmingly and the inscription is unreadable. I am dismayed but thankful that I found it when it was still legible and have photographs of it. Thankfully, someone had the decency to mount it upright again. I make a mental note to someday install a brass plaque at the base of the stone and include the full inscription. 

 

I proceed to Zion Lutheran Church in Blain to visit the grave of my great-great-great-grandfather Samuel Kistler, Abraham's son. Fortunately, his stone is hefty and will be readable for another hundred years. Finally, I go to the Methodist Episcopal Cemetery perched on a small ridge at the edge of town. The view from that spot—the village with its church spires framed by surrounding farms and massive mountain ridges—is one of the most idyllic I have ever seen. I often dream about it. Among the tombstones on the narrow bench at the top of the ridge is that of John A. Kistler… the man whose letters I found in the Wooden Box. The letters that brought me to Blain.

 

The circle is complete.

 

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