He finds forgotten history in the hills and fields
Photo by Lancaster Newpapers. February 8, 2010
By LORI VAN INGEN, Staff Writer
Lancaster Newspapers
Walter H. Shirk loves finding "echoes from the past."
For years, Shirk has taken expeditions to find and photograph historical lime kilns, mile markers and carriage step stones.
Shirk first became interested in searching for lime kilns in 2008 when he saw the kiln at Poole Forge, west of Churchtown, before it was to be restored.
He later watched a burn demonstration in the lime kiln on the Narvon farm of his distant relative Robert Shirk during his Old Thresherman's Day.
The demonstrator, he said, was Christ Stoltzfus, formerly of Morgantown, who used to help fire the lime kilns at Maxwell Hill Quarry as a boy.
From there, Shirk's interest grew.
The 89-year-old Landis Homes resident searched the Internet to find out what he could about lime kilns.
"England has more of them and older than we do," he said.
Shirk has found lime kilns in Hartman Station Farm, White Oak Road, Prospect Road, Cherry Hill Orchard Road, Strasburg Pike and along Route 743 north of Elizabethtown.
The most recent one he and his brother, Jay, discovered was along Stone Hill Road in Conestoga several weeks ago.
"You always find then on an embankment so that they could drive wagons to it and fill it from the top," he said.
But, Shirk said, "they're fast disappearing." He had found two on Gypsy Hill Road, but when he went back later one of them was gone.
"People don't know what they are, so they use the stone elsewhere. What's left is a round place where the lime kiln was," Shirk said.
All but four local lime kilns were used for agriculture. The others were built for the iron industry, he said.
Farmers, Shirk said, used to burn limestone - first with chestnut wood and then coal beginning in 1812 - and when they finished, they'd rake the lime out front at the "eye" of the lime kiln, wet it down and crush it to powder with their feet or heavy instruments. They then loaded it onto a flat wagon and spread it across their fields.
Today, it's done with trucks and machinery, he said.
Shirk also is looking for the "fast disappearing" milestone markers along Routes 30, 23, 340 and 322. Starting from Philadelphia, every mile was marked with a stone, he said.
The most numerically complete set of markers Shirk has found is along old Route 230. He has numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 17, 18 and 20. He believes the number 2 marker would have been in the middle of what is now the bridge over the Route 30 bypass.
Shirk also looks for Mason-Dixon markers which had been put at every mile along the line, but he has found only two of them: one mile north of Route 896 along Elbow Lane and another one south of the village of State Line on Route 11 north of Hagerstown, Md. This last one had the "P" side plainly visible but the "M" side half buried.
"I was quite excited when I found this one," he said.
Shirk also found a three-sided monument on Welsh Mountain, where Lancaster, Chester and Berks counties meet. It was surveyed by a distant relative of Shirk's, Joseph Shirk, he said.
He also looks for township, county and state markers, he said, and has found one railroad mile marker in Lebanon County.
Shirk also tries to find old carriage step stones (horse blocks).
"Because the carriages were high, ladies used the step stones to get in the carriage or mount a horse," Shirk said.
Shirk takes photographs of all his discoveries, which he has put in a large album. He is considering publishing it as a book, he said.
"I'm still looking for (all of these objects) and investigate every time someone gives me a tip," Shirk said.
Anyone with a tip about such objects can contact Shirk at 509-5495 or wlshirk2@gmail.com.
Email Lori Van Ingen:
lvaningen@lnpnews.com
© 2010 Lancaster Newspapers
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