Burgess vs. Mayor
By Brendan Strasser
For its first 40 or so years after its founding, Kutztown was administered according to what could mercifully be called “frontier justice,” meted out haphazardly by constables and a county government a half-day’s ride distant in Reading. Originally, when baronial founder George Kutz laid it out in 1779, residing in Kutz’s Town required the payment of an annual tax modeled on medieval precedents. A resident “subscribed” to Kutztown with the payment of an annual ground rent to Kutz and, later, his descendants, similar to a tribute paid in crops or a quit-rent paid in lieu of feudal service in a scheme quite typical of German villages. (In Manheim, Lancaster County, glass-maker Henry William Stiegel donated land on which to build a Lutheran Church, requiring a tribute every June of “One Red Rose if the same shall be lawfully demanded,” providing Mildred Jordan with the title and subject of her famous novel, One Red Rose Forever. Stiegel was undoubtedly inspired by nearby Lancaster, America’s oldest inland city, known even then as the “Red Rose City” in recognition of the symbol of the House of Lancashire in England.) One could not hold title to real estate free and clear of encumbrances until well into the 19th century, and even as late as 1936, the Borough was still selectively assessing Kutz’s tax before it was declared obsolete.
In part due to Kutztown’s tax burden, measured not in red roses but in cold, hard pounds sterling and considered onerous in an era that had just sloughed off oppressive taxation on the part of the British crown, the settlement grew slowly, its small size demanding little by way of civil ministrations. When Theophile Cazenove, agent for the Holland Land Co., visited during his tour of the Mid-Atlantic states in 1794, he found about 50 homes, equating to a population of about 250-300 residents. (It must be noted, however, that at the time, nearby Allentown, which would become Pennsylvania’s third largest city, had only 80-100 homes.)
As the town became, by the second decade of the 19th century, “thickly settled” (to use the choice phrase of New England road signs), its citizens petitioned by a special Act of Assembly for the creation of a municipal authority separate from the township government they found tiresome. This action was allowable only by incorporation as a borough, which occurred on 1 March 1815, with the first town officers elected at a town meeting that 7 April at the “house of Daniel Levan.” While not stipulated, this Daniel was almost certainly the son of Jacob Levan, Jr. and certainly not the original Daniel Levan who built the home and tavern east of town, passed on to his son-in-law, George Kemp, by 1788 and remaining in the Kemp family for almost the next 200 years. The “house of Daniel Levan,” in other words, was quite probably the hotel that stood on the northwest corner of W. Main and Whiteoak Sts., later site of the Pennsylvania House--for many years the town polling place and, with its wide wrought-iron balcony overlooking the town square, the ideal spot for the Burgess to make necessary public pronouncements--and the Farmers Bank & Trust Co. (now Muller Auction House).
Appropriate to arrangements such as found in Berks County, descended from the patterns of German village settlements, Boroughs were governed by a Burgess, a term derived from the same root and used to designate an incorporated municipality’s magistrate. The term is also, of course, related to the German title Burgomeister, literally “Master of the Borough.” (Remember that scoundrel of children’s Christmastime TV specials, the Burgomeister Meisterburger, who outlawed toys, compelling Kris Kringle to descend chimneys by cloak of night, thus begetting a legend?) Appointed to supervise the first election were Henry Heist and Jacob Levan, Esquire, who were elected as first Burgess and first Town Council President, respectively, that same evening.
Eight days later, on 15 April 1815, the first Town Council--composed of Motheral Wilson, Dewalt Wink, Peter Gift, George Fister, Jonathan Grim, and John Kutz, with Levan as President (totaling seven members, later reduced to six)--held its first meeting, and among its initial orders of business was to accept Heist’s resignation, based on an Act of Assembly forbidding anyone holding a U.S. government position to hold another office. Since Heist was the town’s federally appointed Postmaster, he could not also serve as Burgess, and so Dewalt Bieber replaced him. (Heist later served legitimately after retiring from the post office.)
The duties of the Burgess were specified only in terms of what was forbidden to that office, and surely many municipalities, in ignorance, passed their share of illegally enacted ordinances, some of which are still on the books, even if not enforced. Thus, it has been largely a ceremonial position, one given to cutting ribbons, kissing babies, and working cooperatively with the town’s actual governing body, its Council. Assisting the Burgess was the Town Clerk, a position today roughly equivalent to that of Borough Manager. Whereas Burgesses typically changed every year (the length of that office’s term), Kutztown’s Clerks often held their offices for years at a time: among those who served in that capacity at least ten years through the 19th and early 20th centuries were James Donagan, William S. Bieber, J. Daniel Wanner, and Albert S. Heffner.
In about 1917, at the end of Dr. N. Z. Dunkelberger’s tenure, the Burgess’s term was extended to two years, and later to the familiar four. When the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania recodified its municipal code in 1961, it formally eliminated the office of “Burgess” and replaced it with that of “Mayor,” thus making Ira T. Moyer the last Burgess and first Mayor of Kutztown, with Woody Mertz the first elected Mayor. As evidenced by numerous Council meetings over the past several years, Pennsylvania has a “strong Council / weak Mayor” system, with the Mayor’s only real authority (and even that only partial) being over municipal law enforcement.
Given below is a complete roster of Kutztown’s Burgesses and Mayors since incorporation, along with their years of service. Dates are inclusive of actual occupancy of office rather than of time spent as Mayor-elect.
Burgess Term
Henry Heist 1815, 1822
Dewalt Bieber 1815-1817
Daniel Levan 1818
George Breyfogel 1819-1821
John Kutz 1823
Jonathan Prime 1824
John Palsgrove 1825, 1826, 1831
Jacob Esser 1827
George A. Odenheimer 1828
John Fister 1829, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1854
Daniel Bieber 1830
Peter Gift 1833, 1837
William Heidenreich 1836, 1842, 1843, 1847
George Bieber 1838, 1845
Daniel Bieber 1839, 1846, 1848
John V. Houck 1840
Dr. William Bieber 1841
Jacob Graeff 1844, 1852
David Fister 1849, 1865-1867, 1871
Daniel B. Kutz 1850, 1855
David Levan 1851
Reuben Sharadin 1853
Fayette Schadler [Schödler] 1856
Hiram F. Bickel 1857, 1858
Dr. Jeremiah S. Trexler 1859
Benjamin H. Kutz 1860
William Helfrich 1861
Jacob Sunday 1862
Dr. Charles H. Wanner 1863, 1864
Paul Hilbert 1868, 1869
John Humbert 1870
Lewis Hottenstein 1872
J. Daniel Wanner 1873, 1874
Daniel Hinterleiter 1875
Simpson S. Schmehl 1876
John M. Graeff 1877
Reuben Dewalt 1878, 1890
Walter B. Bieber 1879, 1880, 1885, 1886
Daniel W. Sharadin 1881, 1882
Dewalt F. Bieber 1883, 1884, 1889
J. D. Sharadin 1887
Jacob B. Esser 1888
Conrad Gehring 1891-1896
John R. Gonser 1897-1899
Charles D. Herman 1900-1902
C. I. G. Christman 1903-1905
Jeremiah T. Fritch 1906-1909
Dr. Henry W. Saul 1910-1913
Dr. N. Z. Dunkelberger 1914-1916
George Bieber 1917-1919
George Charles Herman 1920-1921
Dr. U. S. G. Bieber 1922-1930
Harry B. Yoder 1931-1934
Ralph M. Bard 1935-1942
Joseph Lambert 1943-1946
Ira T. Moyer 1947-1961
1 Sept. 1961: Burgess changed to Mayor due to law passed by PA Gov. Lawrence: Ira T. Moyer first mayor of Kutztown
Woodrow W. Mertz 1962-1965
Judge Forrest Schaeffer 1966-1969
Donald Buchman 1970-1977
James W. Schwoyer 1978-2001
Gennaro A. Marino 2002-2005
Sandra Green 2006 - 2017
James Schlegel 2018 to present
