Jean Bertolet – Oley Valley, PA, USA - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

The grave of and memorial to Jean Bertolet located in Oley, near the Exeter line, and not far from Mordecai Lincoln, the ancestor of the great President, and George Boon, the ancestor of Daniel, the pioneer of Kentucky.

Jean Bertolet was noted for his deep piety and benevolence. He was wont to visit his Indian neighbors and relieve their wants and often gave them religious instruction and prayed with them in their humble cabins. He was one of the first Moravians of Oley and on terms of the closest intimacy with the leading men of the Church, especially Count Zinzendorf, who preached in his house in 1741 and 1742.

Jean Bertolet died in 1754 and was buried on his estate, his wife having preceded him. It may be here remarked that the references to the Bertolets as being Swiss Germans is incorrect. They were characteristic Huguenots and French was their mother language. The French bible of Jean Bertolet, printed by Francois Perrin in 1567, and which was doubtless carried by earlier generations through the fires of persecution, is still preserved by his descendants and contains his family records and other valuable notes written in French.

The following is taken from the book “A genealogical history of the Bertolet family : the descendants of Jean Bertolet (1914)”

JEAN BERTOLET – EARLY LIFE IN EUROPE

Summarizing these investigations, the writer believes the following facts to be fairly well established. The ancestors of Jean Bertolet left France (probably some part of Brittany) through religious persecutions, shortly after 1685, and with others of their friends and neighbors, settled in and about the village and district of Chateau D'Oex, Canton Vaud. Switzerland. Jean Bertolet's father's name was also Jean. The name seems to have persisted as a family name, to modern times. Jean Bertolet was born in Chateau D'Oex, but when a young man went to Minfeld, near Karlsruhe, Germany, in which neighborhood were living other French refugee families. There he married Susanna Harcourt, daughter of Jean Harcourt, a farmer of Muhlhofen, nearby. They settled down on a farm in the neighborhood for fourteen years, had five children, and then, in April 1726, left for Pennsylvania. Doubtless, Jean Bertolet was the only one of the name who came to or ever lived at Minfeld, for there is absolutely no record or knowledge of any one else bearing the same family name in the community. S. E. Bertolet, Reading. Pa.

JEAN BERTOLET — IN AMERICA.

In the fall of 1726, Jean Bertolet, with his wife and five children, Abraham, Maria, Jean, Esther and Susanna, arrived in America. He chose as his home a fertile spot in the heart of the Oley Valley, Berks County, Pennsylvania. When Jean Bertolet settled here Reading was unknown and hardly a house marked the spot where it now stands. Most of the country which is now thickly settled and in a high state of cultivation was then covered with forests occupied chiefly by Indians and wild beasts. It is said he came to Oley, Pennsylvania, because his wife's sister, Anna Maria Weimer, a widow who married Isaac DeTurck, had with her husband come to America in 1709, and after living in New York about three years, settled in Oley some time in 1712. One of the first substantial houses in Oley was built by Jean Bertolet in 1731. The date was cut upon the frame over the door. The location selected by him is delightful. No part of the valley excels it for agricultural purposes. Several of the now adjacent farms were then included in his land. In his new home, as in the old across the water, Jean Bertolet directed his chief efforts to the cultivation of the soil. In addition, however, he exerted himself to secure the education of his children. To this end he engaged, among others, Dr. George De Benneville, founder of Universalism in America, who preached, practiced medicine and taught at the same time, and who, on September 24, 1745, married Jean Bertolet's daughter Esther. On April 4, 1757, Jean Bertolet sold his homestead farm in Oley to his son Frederick, who apparently lived with him. The original deed is now in possession of Mrs. Catharine Parker, No. 441 South Sixth Street, Reading, Pa., a direct descendant of Frederick. It is signed in Jean Bertolet's own hand, in two places, first at the foot of the deed, where the signature is accompanied by a seal, and again on the back of the deed, where the signature follows a receipt for the purchase money. Jean Bertolet died in 1757, aged about seventy. Jean Bertolet is supposed to have been buried in the family burial plot on his farm near Oley Line, and the Bertolet Family Association, on Sept. 4, 1902, erected thereon to his memory a granite stone suitably inscribed.

About the Memorial:

The fifth meeting of the Bertolet Family Association was held at the above place on Thursday, Sept. 4, 1902. At eleven a. m. the unveiling of the Jean Bertolet memorial stone took place in the old Family Burial Ground, about two miles from Oley Line. More than 200 were present. The ceremonies were opened with prayer by the Rev. N. B. Grubb, Philadelphia. He was followed by Samuel E. Bertolet, Esq., Reading, who for the memorial stone committee presented the stone to the Association. The address of acceptance was made by Levi A. Bertolette, Wilmington, president of the Association. The business meetmg, after lunch on the lawn of Mrs. J. B. Jack's residence, was called to order by President L. A. Bertolette at 2 p. m. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. The treasurer reported funds in the treasury amounting to $62.60; expenditures, including expenses of incorporation, $42.33, leaving a balance in his hands of $19.23. The monument committee, D. H. Bertolet, chairman, reported as follows : The contract for the making and erection of a suitable memorial stone was awarded to Mr. Shenton, of Pottstown, his bid having- been $125.00. The Association having been incorporated during the year, the secretary was directed to read the charter, which was immediately adopted

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Bertolet Cemetery - Oley Valley, PA

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