Welcome to the Jean Bertolet Memorial and Bertolet Cemetery. The listed coordinates will take you to the cemetery gate where you will be investigating this small historic cemetery to get the information needed to calculate the final coordinates.
Parking is available by pulling off onto the grass on the east side of the cemetery.
History of Jean Bertolet:
JEAN BERTOLET – EARLY LIFE IN EUROPE
The ancestors of Jean Bertolet left France through religious persecutions, shortly after 1685, and with others of their friends and neighbors, settled in and about the village and district of Chateau D'Oex, Canton Vaud. Switzerland. Jean Bertolet's father's name was also Jean. The name seems to have persisted as a family name, to modern times. Jean Bertolet was born in Chateau D'Oex, but when he was a young man went to Minfeld, near Karlsruhe, Germany, in which neighborhood were living other French refugee families. There he married Susanna Harcourt, daughter of Jean Harcourt, a farmer of Muhlhofen, nearby. They settled down on a farm in the neighborhood for fourteen years, had five children, and then, in April 1726, left for Pennsylvania. Doubtless, Jean Bertolet was the only one of the name who came to or ever lived at Minfeld, for there is absolutely no record or knowledge of any one else bearing the same family name in the community.
JEAN BERTOLET — IN AMERICA.
In the fall of 1726, Jean Bertolet, with his wife and five children, Abraham, Maria, Jean, Esther and Susanna, arrived in America. He chose as his home a fertile spot in the heart of the Oley Valley, Berks County, Pennsylvania. When Jean Bertolet settled here Reading was unknown and hardly a house marked the spot where it now stands. Most of the country which is now thickly settled and in a high state of cultivation was then covered with forests occupied chiefly by Indians and wild beasts. It is said he came to Oley, Pennsylvania, because his wife's sister, Anna Maria Weimer, a widow who married Isaac DeTurck, had with her husband come to America in 1709, and after living in New York about three years, settled in Oley some time in 1712. One of the first substantial houses in Oley was built by Jean Bertolet in 1731. The date was cut upon the frame over the door. The location selected by him is delightful. No part of the valley excels it for agricultural purposes. Several of the now adjacent farms were then included in his land. In his new home, as in the old across the water, Jean Bertolet directed his chief efforts to the cultivation of the soil. In addition, however, he exerted himself to secure the education of his children. To this end he engaged, among others, Dr. George De Benneville, founder of Universalism in America, who preached, practiced medicine and taught at the same time, and who, on September 24, 1745, married Jean Bertolet's daughter Esther. On April 4, 1757, Jean Bertolet sold his homestead farm in Oley to his son Frederick, who apparently lived with him. The original deed is now in possession of Mrs. Catharine Parker, No. 441 South Sixth Street, Reading, Pa., a direct descendant of Frederick. It is signed in Jean Bertolet's own hand, in two places, first at the foot of the deed, where the signature is accompanied by a seal, and again on the back of the deed, where the signature follows a receipt for the purchase money. Jean Bertolet died in 1757, aged about seventy. Jean Bertolet is supposed to have been buried in the family burial plot on his farm near Oley Line, and the Bertolet Family Association, on Sept. 4, 1902, erected thereon to his memory a granite stone suitably inscribed.
The Puzzle:
A=Enter the cemetery and find any headstones that have the Revolutionary War marker next to them. How many Revolutionary War veterans are buried in this cemetery? A is that number.
B=Find the Jean Bertolet Memorial that was erected by his descendants. Look at the inscription on the bottom: "A _____ upright French Huguenot Bishop. B is the number of letters in the missing word.
C=Find the headstone for Maria Louisa. Look at her age listed at the bottom. C is the number of days listed when she died.
D=Find the headstone for Catharina Bertolet. Look at her age listed at the bottom. D is the first digit in the number of years listed when she died.
E=Find the headstone for John A. Bertolet. Look at his age listed at the bottom. E is the second digit in the number of year listed when he died.
F=Look at the blue historical "Jean Bertolet Memorial" sign at the top of the steps outside the graveyard. There is a code listed that is made up of 4 letters. F is the numeric value of the 4th letter (A=1, B=2, etc)
Final Coordinates:
N 40 20.ABC W 075 46.DEF
CHECKSUM: A+B+C+D+E+F=17