About

Douglass, the fourth oldest Township in Berks County, was founded in 1736. Being seven miles in length and approximately two miles In width, ft has an area of thirteen square miles. The 2000 census placed the population at 3,327. Turning back the pages of history, we find that a petition was presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions in Philadelphia in 1736. stating that for several years about four miles from the high road leading to Philadelphia ?nd by McCalls Manor (now Glasgow) it was difficult for a single horse to pass without damage. The road was that bad. it was known as no mans land lying between Amity and New Hanover Townships. In pursuance of an order of the Court, the Surveyor General Benjamin Eastburn made a draft of the said land petitioned for and certified that the same did not interfere with any other township. Containing 7,000 acres, Douglass Township in the language of that Court was erected on June 7.1736. John Ball and James Yokum were appointed overseers of the highway. Andrew Ringberry was the constable. In 1716 Thomas Rutter. a Quaker, established the first successful forge in Pennsylvania along the Manatawny Creek m Douglass Township. From this beginning the iron industry grew by leaps and bounds from 1716 until 1954 when the mill was sold to Stainless, Inc. The site of the original mill is unmarked.

Greshville, the oldest village in the Township, was originally called Limestone due to the large amount of limestone quarried there. In 1853 when the post office was established in the village, the name was changed to Greshville in honor of Adam Gresh who had a store, tavern and distillery. Glendale, now Pine Forge, had a post office established in 1871. In 1883 a summer school was established under the name of the Glendale Seminary. D.M.B. Wann was the first principal. The first school in the Township was of log construction and was located across from what is now Gresh's greenhouse in Little Otey. One of the many Greshes in the area at that time taught the school which was operated on a tuition basis of a "few pennies per day." The Fritz burial ground, now receiving financial care by the Township Supervisors, contains the graves of early settlers of which many served m the Revolutionary War. The crude stone markers, many in Pennsylvania German, bear the names of Brunner, Gresh. Yorgey, Hanselman, Nagle, Spatz. Romich. Davidheiser. HatliekJ. Kuser. Reifsneider, Albrecht, Sahns, Honnelers. Koehler, Kielep, Steinruck, Hebbenheimer. Fegley. Reined. Handwerk and many others. The ground upon which this building has been erected bears special historical significance in being parceled from Romich farm. For more than 200 years this land had borne the Romich name. Being an early pioneer family they served their community and country well.