UPPER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — From more than 350 miles away, Tracy Beers felt her father’s pain.
She imagined Leroy C. Stahler Jr., a lifelong farmer, watching helplessly as his life's work went up in flames on Saturday night.
Beers answered the phone at her central Vermont home early Sunday morning. It was her sister, Trish Kehs, calling from Limeport to inform her the main barn at their father’s farm on East Saucon Valley Road burned to the ground just before midnight.
“But I know my dad. As he watched the fire, I believe there was a tear in his eye.”Tracy Beers, daughter of farm owner Leroy C. Stahler
The two-alarm blaze lasted five hours before it was put out. No cause has been determined. An investigation is underway.
Millions of dollars in equipment and structures were lost. Destroyed were trucks, planters, combines, tractors and an assortment of farming tools.
That doesn't include the loss of income from the loss of harvesting and hauling equipment.
Insurance won’t cover the total loss.
Farming practically ground to a halt, a future uncertain.
“I called my father,” Beers, 55, said in a phone call from Vermont on Tuesday morning. “My dad is a man of very few words. He didn’t say what his thoughts were while he watched the fire.
“He told me was able to get two tractors and the planters pulled out before the building was engulfed. He didn’t say much more.
“But I know my dad. As he watched the fire, I believe there was a tear in his eye.”
'It's all he's known'
During a visit to the site of the fire on Tuesday morning, the faint smell of the blaze remained. The 150-by-60-foot barn was reduced to an expansive mound of charred rubble.
Stahler Family Farm employee Mark Fox was the only person visible on site. He was asked the whereabouts of Stahler.
“He’s out in the field planting seeds,” Fox said. “He’s a farmer.”
That news came as no surprise to Beers.
“At 73, dad’s a tough nut,” she said. “Farming is the only thing he knows. It’s all he’s done his entire life, working on a farm. No vacations. No hobbies except hunting.”
“I grew up on the original farm on East Saucon Valley Road where the Promenade Shops are now. My dad farmed all that land and in the Coopersburg area, too. It’s all he’s known.”Tracy Beers, daughter of farm owner Leroy C. Stahler
Beers said her father is determined to rebuild and continue farming until the day he dies.
“It’s what he does for a living,” she said. “It sustains him. Just as it did his father, who farmed until he died around 90.”
In addition to growing corn, wheat and soybeans, Stahler also sells seeds to Seedway LLC, of Emmaus, which provides farm and turf seed throughout North America.
Beers said the entire affair has been “freaking mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting” for the family.
“I grew up on the original farm on East Saucon Valley Road where the Promenade Shops are now,” she said. “My dad farmed all that land and in the Coopersburg area, too. It’s all he’s known.”
'Anything I can do hands-on'
A farming family that dates back well over 100 years is looking to rebuild.
A GoFundMe social fundraising site has been established to help sustain the Stahlers. It has raised more than $16,000 of its $80,000 goal.
A 1987 Southern Lehigh High School graduate, Beers will arrive at the family farm on Monday with a broken heart and broken leg from a snowboarding mishap.
“I want to see if there’s anything I can do hands-on,” she said. “I also plan to get more of our family history from him about us farming in the Lehigh Valley.
"Hopefully, that will move people to donate to the GoFundMe site.”
Beers has one more thing — the first thing — she plans to do.
“I can’t wait to put my arms around my dad,” she said.
