In 1729, Conrad Weiser came over with Germans from the Palatinate and settled near Womelsdorf, where he is buried in the family burial ground; marked by boulder; his granddaughter was married to the “Patriarch” Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg; farm and burial ground of Conrad Weiser, purchased by the Burks County Historical Society, is to be maintained as a Memorial Park. The Dutch came in 1730; their descendants still reside on their ancestral estates; they named the river, flowing through the county, Schuylkill (hidden creek); Indian name was Manai-unk. When war was declared between England and France, the French found the Indians eager to join them against the British, and after Braddock’s defeat at Fort Duquesne in 1755, they devastated these peaceful settlers, by fire and slaughter, until 1778, when they were driven beyond the Alleghenies. This region has become famous for wine making; vines are grown on Mount Penn, Neversink, and the Alsace Mountain slopes; over fifty years ago, George L. Reiniger left the fertile vineyards of Wurtemberg and settled here, where the soil, scenery, and environment seemed so much like the fatherland; these vineyards are now used for the cultivation of dahlias. READING, county seat; population 107,784; was laid out in 1748 by agents of Richard and Thomas Penn; named for Reading, in Berkshire, England. Courthouse on Penn Common, Fifth and Penn Streets, built, 1762; present building in 1840, on north Sixth Street; colonial with Ionic porch; cupola eighty-four feet above the roof. In the park are equestrian statue of General David McMurtrie Gregg, by H. Augustus Lukeman, New York; the Firemen’s Monument; “The First Defenders”; and Frederick Lauer, all designed and made by P. F. Eisenbrown, Sons & Company, Reading; the bronze statue of President McKinley, reliefs and eagles, was designed by Edward L. A. Pausch, Buffalo, New York. Prison, Penn Street and Perkiomen Avenue, red sandstone, castellated Gothic, built, 1846; architect, John Haviland. A two story building, northeast corner of Fifth Street and Penn Square, was built in 1764 for a tavern; Washington stayed here in [Illustration: THE JAIL AT READING _John C. Haviland, Architect_] 1794, en route to join troops against the Whiskey Rebellion; now Farmers’ Bank; it is marked as the oldest building in town. The Hessian camp ground, southwest of Reading, is also marked.