Holly Bros. ‘Handkäse’ Cheese Was Once a Souderton, Pennsylvania, Staple

Sept. 13 was a red-letter day in Souderton, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: A ceremony at the borough’s Holly’s Hill Park unveiled a new 3-by-4-foot interpretive sign commemorating the Holly brothers and their cheese factory, which once stood on the site.

Souderton Borough had only been incorporated for five years in 1887 when an enterprising pair of brothers named Charles and Theodore Holly moved their cheese-making operation into the rural village of about 600 residents. Their German immigrant father, Adam, had brought along his recipe for “Handkäse” — literally meaning “hand cheese” — when he came to America from his native country in the early 1870s.