Bushkill Man - Locally Anonymous while Nationally Renowned

Local historian James Wright has an interesting article in the Express-Times about a Bushkill Township man who gained national renown, yet remained relatively unknown where he was born and raised (read it here).

Wright explains a little on the family lineage:

"...William H. Werner (1842-1912). Werner was born in Aluta, a village north of Nazareth, on Jan.18, 1842. He was the son of Frederick and Elizabeth Resh Werner. The Werners were an old Bushkill Township family descended from Jacob Werner (1741-1820)."

"In 1863, William married Lucetta Kunstman, the daughter of noted Civil War photographer William Kunstman of Nazareth."

And then explains how Werner at an early age could identify hundreds of bird calls and later became a taxidermist. He began what become an extensive collection of birds and animals and displayed them in their natural setting using real branches, leaves, etc. The work was first shown on Main Street in Nazareth, but later became the center piece of a museum in New Jersey and another in Alabama. Prior to that a part of his collection was displayed in the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia and since then some of Werner's work became a part of the Smithsonian collection.

The article also includes an explanation of what made his collection unique and how it grew and traveled.