1999 Hepler Family Reunion Memories
1748 Celebrating 251 years in America! 1999

LEANNE TOTH'S MEMORIAL SPEECH
AT GOTTES ACKER CEMETERY

Leanne Toth

PRESERVATION: THE KEY TO OUR PAST, A LIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

We come here today to this beautiful Mahantango Valley, united by a single purpose: to pay tribute to our Hepler ancestors. At this cemetery on this day as in years past we pause from our busy lives to remember just who it is we are and how we got here. How fortunate we are that the people who came before us left their footprints here in the earth - left us a trail to follow, should we choose to look down and see it.

What I hope to do today is to sound a wake-up call to all the generations present, the oldest as well as the youngest. We only know of our ancestors through the history, customs, and way of life that have been preserved for us and passed down to us. Now it is our solemn task to continue that preservation for generations yet unborn.

Preservation means to protect from injury, peril, or other adversity; to keep or maintain intact; or to treat so as to prevent decay or passing away. We MUST preserve our heritage, the documentation that supports it, and those liberties that our ancestors were willing to risk their lives for and that we now take for granted. Future generations will need to be able to see it, to hear it, and to touch it in order to remember it once we are gone.

Casper and Susanna Hepler did not want to leave their homeland in Germany. But neither did they want to continue to pay outrageous taxes, to be subject to possible religious persecution with every change in leadership, nor to fear for their lives if they spoke what was on their minds. They wanted to be able to defend themselves and have a say in who would govern them. Courageous, bold - these seem far too weak of adjectives to describe them leaving all they knew to come to America for the promise of a new life and the freedom to live it as they saw fit. Yet today, we constantly stand on the threshold of losing those very rights they were willing to risk their lives to obtain. The right to free speech, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to believe in God and incorporate that belief freely into our existence, the right to vote for our governing officials - we NEED to preserve, that is, keep or maintain intact, these liberties so that our grandchildren will never have to leave America for another country where these rights might be promised. We cannot sit back and watch them slip away, bit by bit - it is not fair to future generations, nor does it honor our ancestors.

We also must preserve, that is, treat so as to prevent decay or passing away, our wonderful German heritage. The delicious ethnic foods we enjoy - the pot pie, the schnitz und knepp, the shoo-fly pie; the stories about how life was on the farm when our grandparents were growing up; the beautiful sound of our unique Pennsylvania Dutch language: all this and much more is in danger of fading away if we do nothing to preserve it NOW. How can we possibly know why we are so resourceful by nature if we cannot look back and see the necessity of that trait for our ancestors' survival? Our living grandparents will be grateful that someone is interested enough not only to hear all their stories but also to make sure that they will continue onward. We need to find a way to "light a spark" in our relatives' minds so that they can remember what they thought was long ago forgotten. We also must MAKE the time to take those Pennsylvania Dutch language courses and learn it well enough to incorporate it into our souls and the spirits of our children. Without our efforts to preserve this rich heritage, it will also fade away bit by bit - it is not fair to future generations nor does it honor our ancestors.

Additionally, we must preserve, that is, protect from injury, peril, or other adversity, the documentation that supports our heritage. Without written documents and artifacts, there is no history. Some of our valuable records have already been thrown out as trash, been lost in floods, or gone up in flames. In the past, Roman armies destroyed major archives in the Holy Lands. And as recently as 60 years ago, shortages of metals brought on by world wars forced the collection and melting of some of our artifacts for issuance of new items. We must actively seek out the documentation of our past and work to preserve it. Church as well as secular records need to be copied, computerized, and stored on microfilm or CDs in climate-controlled conditions. The impermanence of tombstones means the record we make today - via photograph and writings - may someday be the only evidence that a person ever existed on earth. Photographs need to be copied and given to as many people and historical societies as possible so that if one copy is lost, others will still exist. And acid-free materials need to be used to mount those precious photographs, Frakturs, and certificates so that they have a better chance to withstand the ravages of time. We need not only to preserve this documentation but also to create indices of where it is located. Then we must PUBLISH these lists, spreading copies of them everywhere, so that everyone can come to personally know their heritage as we do. Without our efforts the very written proof of our existence will slip away, bit by bit - it is not fair to future generations nor does it honor our ancestors.

So today I ask each of you - from the youngest to the oldest - to work to preserve that which we hold so dear and that which we stand here today to remember. History was once the future of a generation past. It can come to life only when we use what we have had preserved for us. WE are now the caretakers. We MUST act accordingly. To quote from my cousin, Avice's book, "How can we possibly know where we're going if we don't know from whence we came?"

Leanne Kimmel Toth August 22, 1999

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