Aunt Betsy

Just off my loom are table runners that I wove in a goose eye twill variant. The pattern is based on a diamond patterned tablecloth owned by the Keim family who lived in Berks County’s Oley Valley. The family traces back to Johannes Keim, who came to Pennsylvania, found good soil to till in the valley, returned to Europe to start a family, and then returned with them in 1707.

Two centuries later, the household had dwindled down to five unmarried sisters. The last one to die was Elizabeth in 1911. She had never traveled by car or train in her entire life, preferring to stay close to home. Her estate included a nearly 100 handwoven table linens — including the one I’ve replicated here and am calling “Aunt Betsy” in her memory.

“Aunt Betsy” tablerunner, The Bullfrog Inn

By most accounts, the family was a mystery. During an audit of Betsy’s estate following her death, a probate lawyer — exasperated by the complexities of entire ordeal — said “this estate is as peculiar as the Keims themselves were.” Indeed, they were fairly isolated and kept modern conveniences at a suspicious distance. The Keims preferred to stick to the old ways and traditions on their 300-acre farm.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Keim (1829–1911), American Folklife Institute

A lasting vestige of the Keims on the Oley Valley landscape is the home that Johannes Keim’s son Jacob built in 1753. It still stands along Keim Road in Pike Township and is a designated National Historic Landmark, being a significant example of German colonial architecture. And, if you believe it, Betsy’s ghost still lingers there.

Keim homestead, Oley Valley, Berks County

Pius, The Bullfrog Inn