Dillman Bomberger : A Lancaster County Farm Boy

 

Dillman Bomberger's family roots reach deep into Lancaster County's fertile soils. His Ancestry.com family tree is filled to overflowing with ancestral Plain-Sect farmers and hard-working farm wives.

Dillman was born in 1879. He was a grandson of Mennonite Bishop Christian Bomberger (1818-1898) and wife Catharine Hess Bomberger (1819-1875). The bishop's farm was a short walk from the farm where Dillman was born and raised, on Bomberger Road. Dillman was a great-great-great-great grandson of the Bomberger immigrant ancestors: Christian Bomberger (ca. 1682-1742) and Maria Bomberger (dates not known).

Christian and Maria emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1722, from Eschelbronn, Germany, located in the Kraichgau. Christian and Maria are thought to be the first European settlers in this region of Lancaster County.

 

Dillman Bomberger: Grandson of Mennonite Bishop Christian Bomberger

 
Above: Dillman photographs his father's family with a cable-release camera.

Dillman sits next to his younger brothers Guy and Norman, while other young relatives stare intently at Dillman's photographs. The five sons of Bishop Christian Bomberger stand shoulder to shoulder in the back row, with Dillman's father David in the center of that row. The bishop's oldest son John Bomberger, on the right, wears a plain hat and suit, while the youngest son Amos defies Mennonite plainness with his stylish hat and suit.

 These five brothers are: (right to left): John Hess Bomberger (1845-1923), Christian Hess Bomberger (1848-1916), David Hess Bomberger (Dillman's father) (1855-1926), Amos Hess Bomberger (1860-1935), Henry Hess Bomberger (1863-1939). It is difficult to identify the women in this photo, although I assume the brothers' wives are seated in front of them.

These five Bomberger brothers all had the middle name Hess, because their mother was a Hess: Catharine Hess. 

 

 

 
Above: Dillman poses with his family, as published in the 1986 book Bomberger / Lancaster County Roots / 1722-1986. 

Dillman's mother, Emma Jane (Dillman) Bomberger, wears a properly-Plain prayer covering and cape dress. Emma grew up in Farmersville, Lancaster County. Her father, Isaac Dillman (1832-1912), was an active member of the Church of the Brethren, an Anabaptist denomination whose members are theological cousins of the Mennonites. Isaac Dillman was a well-know coachmaker in Farmersville, and for 50 years he produced buggies and carriages for the local community.

 

 

 

 
Above: Dillman holds his horses in a carriage with his parents and two brothers.

The Bomberger family is transporting a bunch of cat-tail stalks, presumably for decorating someone's house.
The carriage was undoubtedly made by Dillman's grandfather, Isaac Dillman, who operated a coachworks in nearby Farmersville.

 

Above: Dillman photographs another picnic with his family.  Two of the boys are holding hard-boiled eggs on forks.

 

Above: Dillman's brother Norman rides a horse pulling the grain reaper.

Below: Bringing in the sheaves. Dillman's brother Guy is on top of the wagon.

 

Above and below: The Bomberger farm at 194 Bomberger Road, Lititz, where Dillman and his brothers were raised.

 

 

The house was constructed of hand-hewn logs. The logs were later covered with wood siding. This house was originally built as a Germanic one-and-one-half-story dwelling, and the second floor was added later. Dillman's  brother Norman owned this farm until his death in 1988. The farmhouse was then replaced with a modern house. The bank barn survives.

The log house had an unusual construction technique: the horizontal logs were mortised and tenoned into both vertical and diagonal timbers, which was a survival form of European half-timbered architecture. Very few other log house in this area exhibit this construction technique.  

 

Above: Dillman's father and two brothers rebuilding the tobacco shed attached to the east end of the barn.
They are increasing the height to match the roofline of the main barn.

 

 

Above: A steam tractor at the Bomberger farm. Dillman's brother Guy stands behind the barnyard gate.
Below: The tractor is attached to a threshing machine. Dillman's brother Norman is perched on the machine at the far right. 

 

 

Above and below: Hard-working friends of the Bomberger family. Dillman identified them in a label as the Zartman family, but he did not provide more information about their identity.

 

Above: Dillman squeezes the rubber bulb of his camera's shutter-release tube to photograph his family.

 

Above: Bowler hats and pocket-watch fobs. Dillman poses with his two brothers. Guy is on Dillman's right and Norman is on his left.