William Bird 1706-1761: Ironmaster of Berks County, PennsylvaniaWilliam Bird started from humble beginnings as an indentured servant and a woodcutter for an ironmaster. Through hard work he became an ironmaster in his own right, owning large tracts of land and building a gristmill, three refinery forges and a cold blast charcoal furnace in his lifetime. He was instrumental in establishing Berks Co., Pa. He owned two plantations, one at the mouth of the Monocacy Creek in Amity Township and one at the mouth of Hay

Salladasburg

Clearfield

Funkhouser

Brethren (River)

Pittsburgh firecracker celebrations

The Leaders

this book includes amusing anecdotes

Based on actual events

It is easy to understand why it required years of meticulous record-keeping to cover so many families (144 different surnames up to 1850)

and Swedish and German Lutheran

Although he had limited formal education

but instead chose to coin new words in the dialect