Limited tickets available for German dinner

Don Schroeder, Brigitte Shackleton and Elaine Timm will tell about the 725th birthday of Bergholz and other adventures in Germany at the annual Harvest Dinner of the Historical Society of North German Settlements in WNY.

The dinner will be held at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at St. James Fellowship Hall, Rohr Street near Niagara Road, Bergholz.

The menu will be the traditional breaded pork chops, potatoes, gravy, local squash, wedding cabbage, applesauce made from local apples, homemade pies and all the trimmings. The cost is $20, of which $10 may be considered a donation toward the rebuilding of the Einhaus, a house-barn formerly located on Stoelting Street in Bergholz.

The number of tickets is limited. They may be paid at the door if they are ordered in advance by calling Diane at 716-731-9763 or Jack at 716-731-9384.

The celebration at Bergholz in Germany was a full weekend, beginning with a bonfire at the Firemen's Water Supply Pond on Friday night. A historical parade went through the village on Saturday morning, and there were music and dancing, sales and information booths later on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Shackleton, who was born in Germany, visited there with friends and relatives. Timm and Schroeder did genealogical research in other villages in the area.

They presented to the mayor of Bergholz a copy of Eugene W. Camann's book, "Uprooted from Prussia - Transplanted in America" which Shackleton translated into German, and a proclamation from Robert Cliffe, supervisor of the Town of Wheatfield.

A copy of the book was also given to the Heimatmuseum in Bruessow, a sister museum of Das Haus, the Society's heritage museum in Bergholz in Wheatfield.