The Kaup Estate, a founding farmstead in the Village of Hometown, is marking 195 consecutive years of lineal ownership by the same family.

Monday on Labor Day, 100 guests joined with descendants of founders John and William Kaup, who, before 1830, settled the farm along what is now Route 54. Those early settlers were descendants of Christian Kaup, who arrived at the port of Philadelphia aboard the ship Snow Fox on Oct. 12, 1738.

Hosts of the event were Kaup descendants Marria Elizabeth Kaup O’Malley Walsh, Liz O’Malley Corinchock and Jim O’Malley.

Walsh said the estate has designated Nicole Lipinsky to take the reins of estate management. Lipinsky is the daughter of Liz Corinchock.

“Nicole will be the eighth generation of the Kaup Estate,” said Walsh. “Nicole and cousin Jill will take over the land.”

John Kaup established one of the area’s first licensed taverns, the “Home Sweet Home Hotel.” The hotel served as a stage coach stop on the old post road between Tamaqua and Hazleton. That name is believed to have led to the community’s original 1830 name, “Village of Home,” today’s Hometown.

The rich history was appreciated but guests, some of whom share in the story.

“My father knew so much,” said Judy Keller Johns. “I always wished be would have been interviewed before he was gone.” Her father, the late John Keller, was a direct descendant of Benjamin Keller, who, in 1834, built an adjacent farmhouse on Holland Street.

The Kellers were neighbors of the Kaups and among Hometown’s earliest settlers in what was alternately known as Tamaqua Heights. The Keller home too had longtime family provenance being occupied by that family until 1881.

As for the Kaups, William was an advocate of public school education, assisted in establishing the common school system in 1853.

He also helped transport the “Catawissa” engine from Philadelphia to Berks County. The Catawissa was the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal Company’s first locomotive that ran between Port Clinton and Tamaqua in 1833. The 1829 railroad is regarded as the first in the United States to transport coal using a steam engine and is believed to be the oldest rail line in the New World still in use for its original purpose.

In 1980, the Kaup farmstead was designated a Pennsylvania Century Farm, part of a program to stress the importance of farms to citizens of the commonwealth. In 2021, Marria Walsh announced that the estate will adhere to land conservation provisions of the Clean and Green Act and will not be developed, per the wishes of her mother, the late Elizabeth Kaup O’Malley.

The four-hour celebration included picnic-type food, entertainment provided by the 60-member Cressona Band, and a grand finale pyrotechnics display.