5-26-2024 4:07am

Today in History--May 26, 1805: Boyertown Begins as Henry's Tavern at the Crossroads

Lesley Misko Editor

Ed. We found today's (and tomorrow's) entries from Margaret Harner's book One Day at a Time: a Social History of Boyertown, PA especially relevant as a pair. Today's entry provides details about our community's beginnings. Tomorrow's provides details about Boyertown's 100th birthday celebration. We didn't want you to miss these "historic" and fun entries and decided they deserved to be Top Stories.

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

May 26, 1805: Henry Boyer had bought land at a well-traveled crossroads and by 1805 there was a log roadhouse on the site. Local farmers gathered there at the end of their work day to relax and enjoy the socialization, and Henry’s tavern (site where the Boyertown Inn now stands) became a stage terminus where horses were changed and stabled for the lines running to Reading, Philadelphia, Pottstown, and Kutztown.

The neighborhood around his tavern became known as Boyers (just as King of Prussia was named for a tavern), and that name appears on early maps of the area.

A few artisans, a shoemaker, blacksmith, tailor, wheelwright and some professional people began to move into the locality; the Mennonites, Lutherans and Reformeds built churches, and it quickly became a village.

In 1835 the area was laid out in lots and streets were named. It is interesting to note that the only child of Henry Boyer who remained in Boyertown was a daughter Catherine, who, at the age of 15 married John Rhoads, age 30, a wealthy businessman. They had 13 children; one son, Dr. Thomas J.B. Rhoads became a pillar in the community.