On Thursday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., "Remembering Inventor-Machinist Chester Ruth and Celebrating the Cradle of Tolerance and Diversity in Southeastern Pennsylvania" will take place at Landis Valley Christian Fellowship, 2420 Kissel Hill Road, Lancaster. Gwendolyn M. Ruth Dickinson will share a presentation on her recollection of her grandfather, William Chester Ruth, as a creative mechanic and spiritual and family leader. The presentation will be followed by a light lunch and then a talk by Dr. Leroy Hopkins, retired Millersville University professor. Hopkins will present historical context for the Lancaster and Chester county area as a place of tolerance and opportunity.
Born in Chester County, Ruth moved by the early 20th century to Gap, where he had a blacksmith and machine shop. The son of a South Carolina slave, he was by the early 1920s a well-known and capable blacksmith to Amish, Mennonite, and other farm families of eastern Lancaster and western Chester counties. His genius for solving mechanical problems led him to design and patent a machine feeder used between the thresher and straw baler, a cinder-spreading truck, self-raising elevator, and other machines. He also followed in his father's footsteps as a lay leader of his church.
Hopkins will talk about the Underground Railroad and displaced African-Americans, Quaker ethics and abolitionism, and Pennsylvania German agricultural and work craft technology, and he will suggest how the interplay made this region of the state a continuing success of William Penn's experiment.
After the speakers' presentations, Bruce Bomberger, curator, will be available at the permanent agricultural exhibit in the Bitzer Building at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Landis Valley Road off Oregon Pike, Lancaster, to interpret and answer questions about machinery built by Ruth that is on display.
The free event includes a complimentary lunch at noon, but preregistration is required by Tuesday, June 4. To register or for more details, readers may call Cindy Kirby-Reedy at 717-581-0590 or visit http://www.landisvalleymuseum.org.
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