William Stahley Troxell (June 11, 1893 – August 10, 1957) was an American writer in the

Pennsylvania German The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spea ...

language. Born in Rising Sun, Pennsylvania, Troxell's dialect pseudonym was ''Pumpernickel Bill''. He was a frequent author of dialect columns in the Allentown ''Call-Chronicle'' (later ''

The Morning Call ''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after ''The Express-Times''. In 2020, the newspaper permanently closed its Al ...

'') newspaper from 1925 to 1955 and served as president of the Pennsylvania German Society from 1952 to 1957. Troxell was a popular teacher of Pennsylvania German, as well as a prolific author of poems, pageants, and radio shows. He was a graduate of Kutztown State Teachers College and Muhlenberg College. Troxell, a member of the German Reformed Church, died in Allentown and is buried at Neffs Union Cemetery in

Neffs, Pennsylvania Neffs is a small village located mainly in North Whitehall Township but also in Washington Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lehigh Valley, which has a population of 861,899 and is the 68th most populous metropolitan a ...

. He was a member of the

Lehigh County Historical Society Lehigh County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1904, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting the history of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The Historical So ...

and the National Society of Sons of the American Revolution. Troxell was a founder of the Grundsau Lodge movement and its fersommlings as well as an early supporter of the Kutztown Folk Festival.

Bibliography

*''Aus Pennsylfawnia: An Anthology of Translations into the Pennsylvania German Dialect'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938, 1949) *J. William Frey, ''A Morphological and Syntactical Study of the Pennsylvania German Dialect of Pumpernickle Bill'' (M.A. Thesis,

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, 1939; typewritten). *J. William Frey, ''Supplement to a Morphological and Syntactical Study of the Pennsylvania-German Dialect of Pumpernickle Bill'' (1939) *(with Thomas Brendle), ''The Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Tales'' (1944)

References

*Obituary, ''The Morning Call'', August 11, 1957, pp. 2, 15.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Troxell, William S. 1893 births 1957 deaths Poets from Pennsylvania German-American history Pennsylvania Dutch people American writers in Pennsylvania Dutch Pennsylvania Dutch culture