A startling discovery during a house restoration sparked late author Kathy Miller Scogna’s interest in local history.
Scogna was renovating her home in Lower Heidelberg Township in the 1980s when she found the oldest section of the former farmhouse was built of logs.
Wanting to learn more, Scogna headed into the Berks County Recorder of Deeds and other offices of the county courthouse, said her son, the Rev. Joshua Lickter of Roseville, Cal.
Her research later led to area historical societies, heritage centers and the state archives.
As her knowledge of the region grew, Scogna was tapped by Lower Heidelberg’s 150th anniversary celebration committee to write a volume on the township’s history.
Her book, “Lower Heidelberg Township: Now and Then,” published in 1992, would be the first of five volumes on Berks history, most centered on the western part of the county.
Scogna, 74, died Oct. 20 of natural causes at her home in Roseville.
“Kathy’s contribution to the body of knowledge on Berks County history, particularly that of western Berks, was significant,” said Berks historian George M. Meiser IX, who with his wife, Gloria Jean Meiser, coauthored the 25-volume Passing Scene series on Berks history.
Scogna’s first book was followed by “The History of Marion Township” in 1994, “North Heidelberg Township: History and Lore” in 1996, “The Ford at the Schuylkill: A Glimpse of Early Reading, Pennsylvania, from Lenapehoking to Frontier Outpost” in 1998, and “A House of Bread: The Jesuits Celebrate 70 Years in Wernersville” in 2000.
She was a frequent contributor to the West Berks Crier newspaper, as well as the Historical Review of Berks County, the quarterly publication of the Berks History Center.
Scogna served on the boards of the Berks History Center, Heidelberg Heritage Society, Berks County Association for Graveyard Preservation and Friends of the Conrad Weiser Homestead.
She was associate editor of the Historical Review from 2000 to 2002, when she was named editor.
During her year at the journal’s helm, Scogna helped modernize and digitize the publication’s design process.
Although her interest in Berks history began after she moved to Pennsylvania in the 1970s, Lickter said, Scogna’s love for history began in childhood.
“My sister was passionate about the past,” her brother Char Miller said. “I suspect some of her intense engagement came from living in a household in which everyone read books, and a lot of them.”
Miller, the W.M. Keck professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College, Claremont, Cal., said he and his siblings were avid readers as children. They made weekly trips the local public library and toted stacks of borrowed books into a house already stocked with shelves of volumes on history, biography and other topics.
“Also foundational was Kathy’s keen sense of the power of stories to reveal the lives and actions of those who came before us,” he said. “And wherever she lived, she explored the landscapes — physical and human — that contained clues as to how people organized themselves, worked together and created community.”
Miller said his sister’s books on early Reading and Berks were meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated and just plain smart.
“Her insights were those of an historian, but also of a teacher,” he said. “She showed her readers what she had learned, and in the process they came away with a better understanding of the places they called home. What a gift.”
Scogna was predeceased by her husband, Joseph R. Scogna Jr., and sister the Rev. Helen Moore. In addition to her brother Miller and son Lickter, she is survived by four other children: Jezra Johnson Lickter, Nicholas Scogna, Kalli Scogna and Jason Scogna; two grandchildren, Elliott Lickter and Keanu Scogna; and sisters Barrie Gollinger and Nicola Miller.
Contributions in Scogna’s memory can be made to the Berks History Center, 940 Centre Ave., Reading, PA 19601, or online at berkshistory.org
Source: Berkshire mont
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