Flow of the Big Spring

The Flow of the Big Spring by Romaine Stauffer is a fascinating narrative covering three centuries of life on the Big Spring Farm near New Holland, PA.  The big spring which gives the farm its name was frequented by Native Americans for untold years prior to Europeans' arrival in the area.  The spring became part of a tract of land farmed continuously since 1730, first by the Davis family (Welsh Baptists), then by the Summers family (Amish), and then, beginning in 1796, by seven generations of the Martin family (Mennonites).  The farm was bequeathed to a local historical group, the Swiss Pioneers Preservation Associates, in 2001, as a location for their trove of local agricultural historical artifacts and for the rebuilt Peter Martin Log Cabin (first built in 1786).

Illustrated profusely with pictures, photographs, and maps, this book recounts the lives of those living on the farm, and in so doing sheds light on the changing panorama of life in the New Holland area over the course of 300 years.  

•  Written by Romaine Stauffer
• Hardcover, 8½ x 11
• 204 pages
• Many photographs
• Well-indexed, footnotes, and sidebars