History

No diaries, journals or letters from our initial settlers survive and it may be safely assumed at this late date that none exist.  Until the availability of documents of the first industrialization of the iron industry, beginning in 1716 to 1720, the only other statements that are available to us are from church records.

Colebrookdale is best known among museums of the county and among historians today for its early heating stoves designed by the German pioneers who settled Colebrookdale lands as quickly as timberland began disappearing in the making of charcoal.  

A petition of "sundry inhabitants of Colebrookdale" had been presented to the court of quarter sessions at Philadelphia on September 7, 1741, asking that the district be set up as a second class township.  This was granted in December of the same year.  The Borough of Boyertown was carved out of Colebrookdale in 1866.  

Washington Township was formed out of Colebrookdale and Hereford in 1839.  The census of 1800 listed 671 persons in Colebrookdale, yet by 1908 there were only 520 taxables. 

Despite this low concentration of people in the face of industrialization, A Colebrookdale post office was opened on February 4, 1828, ten days prior to the establishment of a Boyertown office, and the 13th established in all of Berks County.

In 1964, the Pennsylvania State University completed a study on the advisability of merging the Borough of Boyertown and Colebrookdale Township.  After hearing much public criticism from both Boyertown and Colebrookdale residents, the merger never took place.  

In November of 1965, the residents of Colebrookdale Township voted to have the Township become a First Class Township, therefore stopping the Borough of Boyertown from annexing additional lands.  On January 3, 1966, the first meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Colebrookdale Township, as a First Class Township was held at the Liberty Fire Company’s Social Room.

Information taken from: "A History of Colebrookdale Township", by W. Edmunds Claussen. (A full text is available at the Township Office)

The Colebrookdale Police Department boasts a long proud history of service to the community. Established in 1952, the township’s first police department was comprised of Officers Lynwood Youse and Grant Groff, who sported five-point badges and gray and black department patches with a Keystone symbol.

Prior to this, according to W. Edmunds Claussen in his "History of Colebrookdale Township," there was not sufficient need for a police department. Claussen reported that during the early 1900s, "you were trotted back to the woodshed," if accused of a crime. By 1910, Henry Gruber, Chief of Police in the Borough of Boyertown, and his officer Charley Kline helped to fight the local crime. Gruber, by the way, moonlighted as the leader of the Gabelsville Band!

The department hired its first full-time Chief of Police, Daniel Sands, in 1967. Roland Schock also worked for the department from 1970 through 1981, serving his last eight years as the department’s first sergeant. Upon Sands’ retirement in 1990, then-sergeant Michael Bullick was promoted to the chief’s position. During his tenure, the department, which was already contracting services to the Borough of Bechtelsville, also began providing coverage to Douglass Township/Berks County, and the name of the department was changed to the Colebrookdale District Police Department. The partnership with Douglass Township was to last only three years; however, 24-hour services to Bechtelsville continue to this day.

During these years, the Colebrookdale District Police Department initiated the training of officers in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. Instruction was offered to students in both the Colebrookdale and Boyertown Elementary schools and eventually to those at the junior and senior high school levels.

The Colebrookdale District Police Department took on its first four-legged department member in 1992 when Officer Jack Harris trained and brought on board his canine partner, a German Shepherd named Zachary. During his five years of service, Zach also performed off-duty demonstrations for a variety of community, church and school groups. In 2000, a bomb-sniffing dog, Jolt, and his handler, Colebrookdale Officer David Guida, began responding to local threats and was on loan to several other neighboring districts until Jolt’s sudden passing in July 2005.

Late in 1995, the department hired its third Chief, who was already a 19-year police veteran when he came to Colebrookdale. A former sergeant with the West Pottsgrove P.D., Lawrence J. Mauger brought with him an enthusiasm for technology and an untiring community spirit. Under his leadership, the department established a Drug Tip Hotline whereby concerned citizens can offer police helpful information while maintaining anonymity. In addition, the Colebrookdale District Police Department participates in the county’s Youth Aid Panel, Berks County Drug Task Force, the Boyertown Area Community Partnership, and also participates in the area’s Communities That Care program.

Our current Chief, Christopher Schott, has been with the department since the end of 1981. 

Colebrookdale also joined the Ches-Mont Emergency Response Team (CMERT) with which three Colebrookdale District Police officers serve as hostage negotiators. The department has initiated an annual Shop With A Cop program for local kids, raised funds for charities during Cops and Lobsters events, and participated in the annual Police Week festivities held at the Coventry Mall, as well as the Thunder In the Valley community food collection event.

Today’s officers receive many forms of training and instruction on an annual basis in an effort to make the Colebrookdale District Police Department one of the most up-to-date departments in the area. Police reports are now done on laptop computers, and speed limit violations are detected through the use of the ENRADD laser system as well as the conventional VASCAR equipment. State-of-the-art computers offer access to a variety of data base information.

Nine full-time and one part-time officers currently provide round-the-clock coverage. They are assisted by two secretaries and a crossing guard. Patrol vehicles are easily distinguished "black and whites" displaying the township’s "apple" logo.

Keeping with their mission statement, "To Protect and Serve," Colebrookdale’s officers are proficient in a variety of law enforcement related areas, and would be happy to offer their services in the form of presentations to your community, church or school organization. Please contact Chief Schott at 610-367-5550 to make arrangements. The department is headquartered at 765 W. Philadelphia Avenue, just one mile west of Boyertown along Route 73.

(information researched by former Colebrookdale Officer Todd A. Fox and police secretary Ramona Peifer)