Berlin plans Whiskey Rebellion weekend
The 15th annual Whiskey Rebellion weekend in Berlin in southern Somerset County celebrates the historical roots of small-town life.
The fall festival harkens back to 1794, when frontiersmen spoke out against a whiskey tax imposed by the newly formed government of the United States. This year's festival will look at the Berlin community at the turn of the 20th century.
This year, the Whiskey Rebellion festival on Saturday and Sept. 28 will honor the frontiersmen's rebellion of 1794. The townspeople also will reflect on the 100th anniversary of Old Home Week, which was a weeklong celebration in October 1908 that promoted the improvements of the small town.
Last year, the celebration highlighted the 225th anniversary of the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps, the oldest and most continuous drum corps in the United States. This year the committee has been working with the Berlin Area Historical Society to help visitors get a better view of what is was like to live in the community and be part of its roots.
"The Whiskey Rebellion has always been about community and a sense of pride and patriotism," said Carolyn Sarver, the chairman of the committee. "Not only are we celebrating this rich heritage of government but also this year we are incorporating Berlin's history of the early 20th century."
At the historical society on Vine Street from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, volunteers will be continuously showing a 1937 parade video filmed in Berlin.
The society's Heritage Haus, located on Main Street near the society's building, also will be open during those times. The Heritage Haus is a historical house filled with donated antiques.
"This is a great way to bring two groups with like-minded goals together for a weekend celebration," said Paul Pritts, a longtime member of the society. "The history of Berlin goes back to our ancestors and people just like us who wanted to see what was best for the community."
The Old Home Week was started through the efforts of John Ream, George Brubaker and W.P. Shaw, a dentist in Berlin. It was held for a week and celebrated how far the town of Berlin had come in its history.
The history of the Whiskey Rebellion festival goes back to 1994, when townspeople got together to celebrate the bicentennial of the rebellion.
During the two-day festival, craftspeople will demonstrate some of the industries and activities of the times, including distilling. Craft vendors offer a wide variety of wares including pottery, woodenware, leather and other items that recall the 18th century.
Period re-enactors will be on hand to portray the activities of colonial times and a skirmish of the federal troops and local rebs will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sept. 28.
For a more modern appeal, an antique car show will also be in town during the weekend. An annual highlight of the festival is the grand parade down Main Street on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. There is also an after-dark ghost tour of the town at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
"This is America's second revolution and was fought over many of the same principles that the Revolution was fought over, such as a lack of representation, exploitation of rural, Western society and the question of the fundamental right to tax at all," said Doug Bell, a local historian who also serves as a local district magistrate. "Probably the most important thing was that it showed that the federal government held together and would take action. It was the first display of that power."
After the Revolutionary War, western Pennsylvania farmers were isolated from markets because of the rugged mountains. Their chief cash crop was grain but most farmers would distill that grain into whiskey in order to more conveniently haul it to market.
"Monongahela rye whiskey was an important part of the local economy and kept many families from poverty," Bell said. "Naturally, a tax on the source of their livelihood was resisted and the government sought to overcome the resistance, or as it was characterized 'rebellion.' America's second revolution had begun."
About 5,000 rebels decided to march to Pittsburgh in August 1794 to protest, and in the process a tax collector's home was destroyed and a Revolutionary War veteran was killed. President George Washington directed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Mifflin, to enter Berlin with more than 5,000 federal troops in the fall of 1794. Alexander Hamilton visited Berlin while the troops were stationed there and Gov. Mifflin set up his headquarters in the home of Christian Boerstler, a Berlin resident.
The end result of the rebellion is that several men were charged with treason through the Bedford County court because Somerset County was still a part of Bedford County at that time. It was formed out of Bedford County a year later in 1795.
Two men, Robert Philson and Herman Husband, were tried for treason in Philadelphia but charges were dropped the next spring.
Philson returned to the area and served as an associate judge.
One of his descendants, Robert Philson, will retire in October as a longtime attorney in Somerset. Husband, however, died on his way home from Philadelphia, where he was awaiting a trial that never happened.
