Life on Willit Run Farm operated on one simple rule: do good.
“You do things the right way or not at all!” Martha Coyle recited, “You work together.”
It was here that Martha and her brother John grew up, nurtured and profoundly shaped by the farming partnership modeled by Ed Scheffey, “Pappy” to Martha, and Esther (their uncle and aunt by blood who, due to family circumstances, became their adoptive parents).
Ed Scheffey had always wanted a dairy farm. He began saving his money fastidiously while working full time as a master carpenter and part-time at a dairy in Pottstown with the hopes of ultimately buying his own land and herd to tend someday.
It was at this Pottstown dairy that Ed met Dr. John Pratt who saw in Ed what bankers could not: a good, hard-working man with a bright future.
In May 1940, with financial support from Dr. Pratt, Ed and his wife Esther purchased their farm, a property hand-picked by Ed himself: 94.5 acres in Union Township just south of the Schuylkill River.
It held promise, it held potential, and most of all, it held water. Ed knew the success of his dairy would rely in no small part on the vitality of the property’s narrow creek, as this was the primary source of water for the pasture and Ed’s herd. Ed’s biggest question then, when surveying his land, was posed at this stream: “Will it run?” he asked.
Thus, Ed’s dairy earned its name: Willit Run Farm.
To do good you worked together; together meant community, and community included the land.
Thus, tending the farm and its herd of over 35 cows was a family affair but never felt burdensome. Ed treated his herd like family and tended the land with care, employing contour farming and crop rotation to prevent erosion and maintain the soil’s integrity. The farm’s footprint was actively mediated and water – particularly the health of the pasture’s creek – remained forefront in Ed’s mind.
With assistance and planning from the Berks County Conservation District, Ed installed an innovative diversion ditch following the natural contour of his land, which, following heavy rains, intercepted surface runoff and guided it safely towards the creek. Doing so slowed the rainwater down, abating its erosive power, which protected Ed’s topsoil and the creek itself.
Martha and Richard Coyle, owners of Willit Run Farm.
When Martha and John inherited Willit Run Farm, they committed themselves wholly to upholding their Pappy’s legacy of “doing good” and this meant placing the farm under a conservation easement, which would prohibit or severely limit future subdivision and development of Willit Run Farm.
One by one, across Berks County (and beyond) farmland is the subject of appetite for many would-be developers. Already cleared of rock, debris, and deforested, farmlands are prime target locales for solar farms, warehouses, and other infrastructure. While development stands to urbanize or generate income the sacrifice of open space for this end strips away the heritage and sustainability of the landscape for proud landowners, like Martha Coyle.
When Martha first began pursuing an easement for Willit Run Farm in 2007, circumstances prevented her from easing its full acreage, so she settled on an easement to protect 29.5 acres along the property’s southeastern border. Then in September 2021, after 15 patient years, the conditions were ripe for change. Working with Berks Nature and with funding provided by WeConservePA, the Coyles successfully amended and restated their conservation easement, this time on the entirety of their 94.5-acre farm.
But Martha didn’t stop there. In 2023, Martha purchased and annexed 13.34 acres of land from her neighbors, where the two properties meet on the north-east corner of her property. Like Ed, Martha could see clearly the relationship between clean water and healthy landscapes. These 13 acres are bordered with trees that flank yet another headwater creek to the Schuylkill River, much like the stream for which her Willit Run Farm is named.
Trees are river guardians: they stabilize stream banks, shade the water against the sun’s oppressive heat, and buffer rivers against polluted stormwater runoff. The obvious implications for water quality at work on these 13 acres was justification enough for Martha to pursue its purchase.
Thus, the annexed acreage was brought into the fold of Willit Run Farm and added to the lands protected by her original conservation easement with yet another amendment.
Now all told, Martha has successfully conserved over 100 acres of land in Union township over the course of nearly two decades.
Willit Run Farm looks decidedly different today than it did when Ed first purchased the farm in 1940, but the heart of Ed’s conservation ethic still beats. The farm is larger now, its fields turned to grasslands of native plants and its shallow creek now sheltered by patches of woodland and 13 acres of forests upstream.
For Martha, the stewardship and now protection of Willit Run Farm is an act of appreciation and responsibility; appreciation of her Pappy and Esther, who worked against all odds to earn full ownership of the property, and responsibility to live their legacy to “do good”.