History Of Frog Hollow

 Elsie Krammes enjoyed summer reading in a hammock on her family property known as Frog Hollow just outside of Friedensburg, PA.  Through a trust, she asked South Schuylkill Garden Club to develop the property into a garden park in memory of her maternal grandfather Sanuel Ryland who died in the Civil War.

     With great community support, trails were laid out, the summer cottage turned into a pavilion, benches built along the trails, the homestead repaired, some timber harvesting completed.  Scout projects continued with trail naming, more benches, outdoor amphitheater and flag pole, reworking of the parking area, trail maintenance. construction of foot bridges, tree identification markers placed.

    ‘Arts in the Hollow’ and ‘Spring Time in the Hollow’  were public programs during the 1990s.  Wildflower walks, picnics and crafts in the Hollow continued until 2020 when the trust fund was dissolved and the property transferred to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Friedensburg.  With interest from Schuylkill County Conservancy in keeping the area public, a grant was obtained for purchase of Frog Hollow Nature Area as the second owned Schuylkill County Park in 2024.

FAMILY LINAGE 

     Samuel Burkhart Riland could trace his heritage to the aristocrat Lord John Riland of England.  John Riland, Lord John’s son, born in 1738, was the first Riland to come to American.    John came to Berks County, PA around 1750 and married Rachel Sylvester.  Records indicate that John Riland served in the Revolutionary War, and later bought lands belonging to Penn heirs.  John and Rachel had 10 children.  Their third child, Andrew, was born in 1767, had a grist mill.  In 1821 he married Sarah Schoch, with whom he had two children and later Elizabeth Mullen and had seven more children.  His only brother, William had gone to Schuylkill County. Andrew walked to  Schuylkill Haven and was well pleased with the country and in 1839 he removed his family to a farm not far from Friedensburg.  The seventh of this nine children was Samuel Burkart Riland II, born near Friedensburg in 1839, and was honored by Elsie in her bequest of the Frog Hollow property.

     Samuel married Mary Fischer in 1860.  When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted and was stricken with typhoid fever and died in Norfolk, VA in 1863  His two children, Catherine and Elizabeth was born in 1863, four months after Samuel died.  In 1844, Elizabeth married Gordon D. Reed and bore Elsie Riland Reed in 1902, the seventh of their eleven children. They lived at Frog Hollow until 1895.  Elsie married Edward Krammes in 1938 and had no children.