BUTLER COUNTY’S HARMONY RECEIVES PSAB HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARD
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, DECEMBER 1753: WHAT IF WASHINGTON HAD BEEN KILLED
MENNONITE BISHOP’S 1816 HOUSE A GIFT TO HISTORIC HARMONY
HISTORIC HARMONY FINISHES BARN RESTORATION PROJECT
FRENCH & INDIAN WAR’S WESTERN PA. ROOTS ADDRESSED AT HARMONY MUSEUM
HARMONY MUSEUM SETS ANOTHER GERMAN DINNER - 6/19/04
COMMUNITY CELEBRATED, AWARDS PRESENTED DURING HARMONY MUSEUM HARMONIEFEST
HARMONY MUSEUM HOSTS MAY 15 LOCAL ARTISTS SHOW
CANDLELIGHT, TROMBONES ON ICE MARK HARMONY’S HOLIDAY SEASON
HARMONY’S CHRISTMAS MARKET OFFERS TASTE OF GERMAN CHRISTMAS
NEW HARMONY MUSEUM EXHIBIT TELLS HARMONY LINE HISTORY
"FOREST RAN RED" TO BE SHOWN AT HARMONY MUSEUM
CRAFTS, MUD STOMP, CONCERTS: HARMONY’S DANKFEST & BICENTENNIAL HARMONY


HARMONY BOROUGH                           HISTORIC HARMONY INC.
Municipal Building 218                                 Mercer St., P.O. Box 524
217 Mercer Street, P.O. Box 945                Harmony, PA 16037
Harmony, PA 16037                                    724-452-7341
724-452-6780                                            
www.harmonymuseum.org
www.Harmony-PA.gov
 

BUTLER COUNTY’S HARMONY RECEIVES
PSAB HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARD


    CHAMPION, Pa., June 7 -- Harmony Borough, one of western Pennsylvania’s few National Historic Landmarks and celebrating its bicentennial this year, today received the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs’ Historic Preservation Award for its comprehensive commitment to preserving heritage resources while emphasizing economic and community revitalization. With a population of about 1,000, it is nestled in a valley next to I-79 about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh in Butler County.
    Council President Jeffrey Smith and Vice President Charles Beighey accepted the award during PSAB's 93rd Annual Conference at Seven Springs Mountain Resort. The association created the award last year in partnership with the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Gettysburg was the inaugural recipient.
    "This award belongs to all residents of Harmony, who have long been interested in their heritage and since the 1980s have applied it with increasing effectiveness in pursuit of economic benefit," Smith said. "In the process, Harmony has become synonymous with important history and preservation leadership in Butler County and our region, and this award extends that reputation statewide and beyond.
    "To be in the same preservationist company as Gettysburg, the site of one of the most significant events in American history, is truly a great honor for Harmony. While I recognize that our heritage and historic assets are really quite extraordinary, I hope our success encourages other boroughs, no matter their size or tradition, to work hard to preserve their own history."
    Municipal government’s longtime and productive partnership with Historic Harmony, the area’s volunteer, nonprofit historical society and preservation advocate, has been a significant factor in Harmony’s preservation efforts, with Council providing legislative and political access and the society providing historical expertise. Smith said benefits of this relationship are reinforced by contributions of the borough’s Historic Architectural Review Board and enthusiastic involvement of businesses and residents.
    Harmony’s formal preservation efforts took root in 1969 when the importance of historic preservation was described in its comprehensive plan, which recommended creation of an historic district. In 1974, eight blocks at Harmony’s center and the noncontiguous Harmony Society cemetery about five blocks away in Jackson Township were designated a National Historic Landmark District, the first in Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia. After Historic Harmony completed an historic sites inventory, in 1986 Council established a local historic district identical to the National Landmark District. In the 1990s the local district was expanded substantially at the request of property owners.
    John Ruch, president of Historic Harmony, described the PSAB award as "important for the recognition it shines on borough government, property owners, residents and others for all they have accomplished together. Harmony represents many important pieces of American history, beginning with Native Americans and the French & Indian War. This award is wonderful encouragement for everyone to redouble their efforts to realize full economic advantages of the community’s historic resources, from restoration investment to expanded heritage tourism."
    Harmony’s National Historic Landmark District designation recognized its national heritage and culture significance as the founding home (1804-1814) of the Harmony Society of immigrant German religious Separatists, probably America’s most successful 19th century communal group. National Historic Landmarks, according to the National Park Service, possess exceptional value in interpreting U.S. heritage and "are places where significant historical events occurred... prominent Americans worked or lived...represent ideas that shaped the nation...provide important information about our past, or that are outstanding examples of design or construction." Landmarks comprise only about 2,300 (three percent) of sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other 73,700 Register properties are of primarily state or local significance.
    Of Pennsylvania’s 152 National Historic Landmark sites, including seven NHL Districts, only 22 are in the western tier and Harmony’s district was the first in the commonwealth outside Philadelphia, which has three.
    Ruch said Harmony is Butler County’s most significant historical site and among the most important in the region, with a heritage far richer than just the Harmony Society relationship that gained the town National Historic Landmark status. Some highlights:

* In the mid-18th century a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) village called Murdering Town was situated on the north side of the Connoquenessing Creek near the future site of Harmony. Virginia Maj. George Washington and his party stayed there in November 1753 during his mission that precipitated the French & Indian War. A month later, Washington was shot at a few miles from Murdering Town by an Indian that he and guide Christopher Gist identified as allied with the French. Some historians consider it the first shot of the French & Indian War.

* The road linking Pittsburgh and Erie passed though Harmony in the early 19th century. On it was transported some of the materiel for the ships with which Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British fleet on Lake Erie in September 1813, a critical American victory in the War of 1812. Volunteers who reinforced Perry’s small force marched what is now called Perry Highway (today’s U.S. 19) to Erie and camped at Harmony, where they crossed the Connoquenessing on a bridge constructed by the Harmony Society.

* In 1815 the Harmony Society sold the town and surrounding land to Lehigh County blacksmith Abraham Ziegler, a Mennonite who became Harmony's second founder. His and other Mennonite families resettled the area. The farmstead of Ziegler’s eldest son, David, including an 1805 Harmony Society barn now owned by Historic Harmony, the region’s oldest barn, have been designated eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, as is the nearby 1825 Mennonite meetinghouse, oldest west of the Alleghenies, also owned by the historical society.

* Lutheran Rev. Jacob Schnee of Pittsburgh agreed in 1816 to buy the town and, backed by prominent businessmen founded a pioneering boarding schools for girls in the Harmonist building on the diamond that is now the main Harmony Museum facility. Upon Schnee's personal bankruptcy, Ziegler sold the town in lots; the Harmony Institute for Young Ladies lasted until the mid-1820s. The Mennonite congregation faded away early in the 20th century, but many area residents are their descendants.

* Stephen Foster, then a child of eight, and his mother and siblings lived in a former Harmony Society house for several months during 1832 after the future composer’s family lost their home in Lawrenceville, now part of Pittsburgh. The much-altered building survives.

* The area was part of western Pennsylvania’s oil and gas boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; in the 1870s Pennsylvania produced nearly all of the world’s oil, with Butler County accounting for about 75 percent of the total.

* Charles Flowers, a former coal miner, made fine percussion rifles in Harmony ca.1850-1890 and was one of the region’s last masters of the classic Pennsylvania style of hunting and target rifles.

6/7/04
CONTACTS:
Harmony Borough: Jeff Smith, 724-452-6780 or harmonyborough@zoominternet.net
Historic Harmony: John Ruch, 724-316-6002 or hmuseum@fyi.net
PSAB: Nicole Faraguna, 717.236.9526, Ext. 44 or nfaraguna@boroughs.org

 

HARMONY MUSEUM SETS ANOTHER GERMAN DINNER

HARMONY -- The Harmony Museum has canceled a house and garden tour scheduled for Saturday, June 19, replacing it with another of its popular homemade German dinners to be served from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. that same day at its Stewart Hall.. Proceeds benefit museum operations.
    The dinner menu will offer German style beef or pork served with red cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables, spatzle (German pasta) and a dessert. The cost is $10 per person, and reservations are recommended. The museum’s previous dinners have been sellouts.
    For additional information and reservations, contact the Harmony Museum, 724-452-7341 or, toll free, 888-821-4822.
    The museum is operated by Historic Harmony, a volunteer nonprofit historical society. It has nine historic properties in Harmony and adjacent Jackson Township.
    Celebrating its bicentennial this year, Harmony was founded in 1804 on lands in what was then Connoquenessing Township, as the first home of the communal Harmony Society of pacifist German Christian Separatists. A National Historic Landmark, Harmony is at the site of an Indian village visited by young George Washington during a 1753 mission that precipitated the French & Indian War. Nearby, a "French Indian" fired at Washington in what some historians consider the war’s first shot.
    When the Harmonists left in 1814, the area’s resettlement was led by Mennonites. Their congregation faded away early in the 20th century, although many descendants reside in the area. A pioneering school for young women opened in 1817 in what is now the main museum building on the town diamond. Harmony and adjacent Zelienople became boroughs in 1840. Jackson and Lancaster townships, in which most Harmonist-Mennonite lands were located, were created in 1854, so this year also marks their sesquicentennials.
    Harmony’s successful preservation efforts, coupled with economic and community revitalization, won it the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs’ 2004 Historic Preservation Award.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341

 

 

 

FRENCH & INDIAN WAR’S WESTERN PA. ROOTS
ADDRESSED AT HARMONY MUSEUM


HARMONY, Pa. -- Slippery Rock University professor and historian David Dixon will describe Western Pennsylvania roots of the French & Indian, which became the global Seven Years’ War, at the Harmony Museum’s Stewart Hall on Tuesday, May 11. Admission is free for the 7:30 p.m. program, another in a series of events that also mark this year’s Harmony’s bicentennial. Refreshments will be served.

This spring marks the beginning of the nation’s six-year 250th anniversary commemoration of the French & Indian War. Conflict was assured when, in late 1753, George Washington, just 21, delivered Virginia Royal Gov. Robert Dinwiddie’s demand that French forces leave British territory. France considered the "Ohio country" part of New France, and refused.

Dixon participated late last year in 250th anniversary commemorations of the 1753 mission, which twice took Washington through what became Butler County. Traveling to meet French officers south of Lake Erie, he stayed with Delawares (Lenni Lenape) at their Murdering Town, which became the site of Harmony. Returning a month later, a "French Indian" shot at him nearby. Some historians argue it was the war’s first shot.

In spring 1754, troops and Indian allies led by Washington came back to the region to reinforce Virginians building a stockade at the Forks of the Ohio, but the French had expelled them and built Fort Duquesne. That May 28, at Great Meadows (southeast of Pittsburgh), Washington ambushed the party of Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, dispatched to warn the British out of New France. Jumonville and a third of his men were killed. Then, on July 4, a large force under Coulon’s brother, Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers, forced a humiliating surrender on Washington at his hastily erected Ft. Necessity in the same area.

These events were the first skirmishes of what would be called the French & Indian War, the beginning of what in 1756 became history’s first global conflict, the Seven Years’ War, pitting Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain. The North American fighting ended in 1760; the 1763 Treaty of Paris also brought peace to Europe and India, and ended France’s North American ambitions.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822
4/23/04

 

 

HARMONY MUSEUM HOSTS MAY 15 LOCAL ARTISTS SHOW

HARMONY, Pa, -- More than a dozen artists and artisans who contribute to the area’s growing reputation as an arts community will showcase their work at the Harmony Museum’s Stewart Hall on Saturday, May 15. The show and sale, sponsored by the Harmony Business Association, will be open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and admission is free.

Works on display will represent a variety of media, including paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolors, drawings in inks, pencil and charcoal, and ceramics and pottery. Most will be for sale, and the artists, many of whom also work on commission, will be available to discuss their work.

Among those participating are Joan Bobchak, Marge Gardner, Jan and Paul Jay, Daniel Jimick, Nita McCreery, Jan Piciernicki, Clay Purviance, Bruce Shakely, Diane Smith, Dorothy Shumsky and Ray Zielinski.

A National Historic Landmark rich in history, Harmony is celebrating its bicentennial during 2004. The area’s written history began with an Indian village that was visited in 1753 by 21-year- old Virginia officer George Washington during his mission to demand the French get out of British territory, setting the stage for the French & Indian War. A "French Indian" shot at him nearby.

Permanent settlement of Harmony and its immediate area was begun in 1804 by the pacifist communal Harmony Society of religious German Separatists. They left in 1814, with resettlement led by Mennonites whose congregation expired early in the 20th century. With many area homes and other buildings restored or refurbished, the community’s architectural character remains reminiscent of rural Germany.

Guided museum tours will be available during the show. Exhibits include Native Americans, Washington’s 1753 mission, the communal Harmony Society, Mennonite resettlement, 19th century Charles Flowers longrifles, Victoriana and the area’s oil eras, and more.
Harmony is in western Butler County at exits 87-88 of I-79, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh and 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and 30 miles south of I-80.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822
4/23/04

 

 

 

COMMUNITY CELEBRATED, AWARDS PRESENTED
DURING HARMONY MUSEUM HARMONIEFEST

HARMONY, Pa., Feb. 15 -- Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum, presented Heritage Awards for preservation and restoration during Saturday evening’s annual Harmoniefest dinner and historical program, which was also the first of many anticipated community celebrations during 2004 to mark Harmony’s bicentennial and sesquicentennials of Jackson and Lancaster townships.

Heritage Awards were presented to:

* Erich and Karen Huy, Jackson Township, preservation and facade restoration of a 1920 Arts and Crafts house at 211 S. Pittsburgh St., Harmony.

* Thomas and Helen Oliverio, preservation of their late 19th century Victorian home at 100 S. High Street, Zelienople. In 1966 the Zelienople mayor and his wife were cited for preserving the Rapp-Stewart House in Harmony.

* St. Gregory Roman Catholic Church, preservation and restoration of its 1911 St. Gregory School, 115 Pine St., Zelienople, oldest area school building still used for that purpose, which was updated while restoring its original architectural character.

President John Ruch noted that Historic Harmony has presented 84 Heritage Awards since 1991 "because more and more property owners recognize that preservation and restoration and adaptive use have economic as well as aesthetic value. In addition, many are demonstrating that they care about the architectural face of community history and can excite others about it as well. This year’s honorees represent all of these progressive virtues, and we congratulate them for jobs well done."

Historic Harmony also made Zelienople Attorney Philip P. Lope an honorary member and presented him a plaque in recognition of his longtime generous service as legal counsel to Historic Harmony.

A full house audience, including several public officials, filled the museum’s Stewart Hall. The program concluded with a concert by a chamber group of the Old Economy 1830 Orchestra and Singers, which reprise musical groups of the communal Harmony Society that founded Harmony in 1804. Their performance of music from the archives at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, founded in 1824 as the Harmony Society’s final home, included compositions by Christoph Muller, Harmony Society "renaissance man" whose Harmony home still stands a half-block from the museum.

Ruch told the audience that architect Roger A. Weaver, whose office occupies the Muller House, was absent because he was in southwestern Indiana to represent Historic Harmony at the Harmoniefest held Friday evening in New Harmony, where the Harmony Society resided 1814-1824. Weaver gave a presentation there on "200 years of Harmony, Pa."

Jackson and Lancaster were among 20 Butler County townships created on March 29, 1854. Jackson, cut from Cranberry and Connoquenessing townships, was named for President Andrew Jackson. Lancaster was also formed from part of Connoquenessing Township. There is no record of how it was named; but the origin appears to have been its principal village, Middle Lancaster, founded in 1835 by black preacher Thomas Baldwin.

Half a century earlier, in the fall of 1804, Georg Rapp and the first of his Pacifist German Separatist followers began building Harmony and developing farms and mills on thousands of surrounding acres. The Harmony Society moved west to build New Harmony, then came back to western Pennsylvania to establish Economy, now Ambridge, where the celibate commune faded away as the 20th century began.

In 1815 the society sold its Butler County property, including Harmony, to Mennonite Abraham Ziegler, and several Mennonite families settled on area farms while Ziegler occupied a Harmonist house on Harmony’s diamond. While the Mennonites also faded away a century ago, Harmony and its neighboring townships have continued as a living community with a unique history of national importance, and many of their descendants reside in the area.

Each year the Harmony Society marked the commune’s anniversary with a celebration they called Harmoniefest. Historic Harmony’s annual Harmoniefest celebrates the community’s entire heritage and history.

Contact: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341
2/15/04

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HISTORIC HARMONY FINISHES
BARN RESTORATION PROJECT

HARMONY -- Restoration of western Pennsylvania’s oldest barn advanced substantially when installation of replacement siding and related repairs were completed last week.

The barn, on Mercer Road in Jackson Township, was built in 1805 by the communal Harmony Society of German Separatists that founded Harmony 200 years ago. It has been owned since 1999 by Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum.

It was re-sided with vertical hemlock boards. Wood representing Pennsylvania’s state tree was also used in replacement doors. The siding work began in January, but was interrupted by a delay in delivery of all the boards needed. In addition, a cracked post and two small areas of deterioration in still beams, revealed when old siding was removed, were repaired.

"We were not replacing original siding from 1805,:" said Historic Harmony President John Ruch. "That was obvious anyway, but our architectural consultant, Roger Weaver, concluded that this is at least the second time the siding has been replaced."

Major structural repairs, critical to the building’s restoration, were completed a year ago. Extensive slate roof repair was done previously.

"Because the structural work last year was completed at less cost than anticipated," Ruch said, "we decided we needed to move up siding replacement. Gaps between boards allowed rain and snow inside. It took a while to get the new material, but now the building is weather tight and much more secure overall."

Barn specialist Seth Byler of Volant performed the structural work last February as well as the siding project. All of the work was funded with a $15,000 Department of Community and Economic Development grant, sponsored by State Rep. Dick Stevenson, and contributions. Last fall, electrical service was also installed.

According to Ruch, the next project will be to install two-inch-thick floor planks in three bays from which inadequate 20th century flooring was removed last year. He said the historical society is buying floor planks from a smaller old barn in eastern Butler County, but is looking for more. Most planking in two center bays appears to be original or old replacement.

Historic Harmony purchased the barn to assure its preservation. It was built to shelter sheep by the communal Harmony Society, which left the area in 1814, and is the only Harmonist-built barn remaining among the three communities the society founded during the first quarter of the 19th century: Harmony, New Harmony, Ind., and Ambridge, Pa.

Harmony and extensive lands around it were purchased in 1815 by Mennonite Abraham Ziegler. Many Mennonite farm families settled on former Harmonist land that became parts of Jackson and Lancaster townships. The barn was on the farm of Ziegler’s son, David, who modified it in the 1850s, perhaps in repairing tornado damage.

Contact: Kathy Luek, Administrator 724-452-7341

2/19/04

 

 

MENNONITE BISHOP’S 1816 HOUSE
A GIFT TO HISTORIC HARMONY

HARMONY, Pa. -- The Bishop John Boyer House in Jackson Township, built in 1816 by the first pastor of Harmony’s 19th century Mennonite congregation, has become the ninth historic property of the volunteer, nonprofit organization that operates the Harmony Museum.

Lillian Frankenstein of Zelienople donated the Boyer house to Historic Harmony, and the deed transfer was recorded this week. The 2 1/2 story cut stone building is on 1.2 acres at 295 Perry Highway (U.S. 19), at the north end of Mercer Road. A large spring house is in the hillside behind the house.

"We are grateful that Mrs. Frankenstein valued the significance of this property to the area’s and Butler County’s heritage, for her desire to preserve it for the benefit of future generations, and for her confidence in Historic Harmony to provide that protection," said John S. Ruch, Historic Harmony president.

"We are pleased to accept one of the most important structures involving the Mennonites who had a major influence in the area during the 19th century. Many descendants continue to do so," he added. "Most surviving Mennonite structures are outside of Harmony’s National Historic Landmark District, which relates largely to the communal Harmony Society that founded the town.

"We have made no decisions regarding the long term future of the Bishop Boyer House," Ruch said. "It is a private residence, will likely remain one for some time, and therefore stays on the tax rolls."

Boyer, also a farmer, supervised construction in 1825 of the Mennonite’s meetinghouse, or church, on Wise Road about a half-mile south of his home, where the congregation had established its cemetery 10 years earlier. He may have patterned the church on the 1755 Hereford meetinghouse in Berks County from which he came to Harmony. He died in 1828. The meetinghouse and cemetery have been an Historic Harmony property since 1977.

Harmony, which celebrates its bicentennial in 2004, was founded in 1804 by German religious Separatists led by Georg Rapp who organized as the Harmony Society, 19th century America’s most successful communal group. Nearly all of its members lived in Harmony, including those who worked the commune’s outlying farmlands. The Harmonists moved in 1814 to southwestern Indiana, returned in 1824 to build Economy (now Ambridge) in Beaver County, and dissolved in 1905.

When the Harmonists left, they sold about 7,000 acres, including the town, to blacksmith Abraham Ziegler, a Lehigh County Mennonite considered Harmony's second founder. The Zieglers were accompanied in settling the area by several other large Mennonite families, principally the Boyers, Moyers, Rices and Wises. Many were farmers who, unlike the Harmonists, built homes on their farms in what became Jackson and Lancaster townships, which celebrate their sesquicentennials in 2004.

After failing to sell the town to a Pittsburgh pastor who founded a girls’ boarding school in a Harmony Society warehouse on the town diamond (now the Harmony Museum), Ziegler sold it in lots containing Harmonist-built houses, mills and commercial buildings.

Mennonites had a significant presence through much of the 19th century, but the congregation had dwindled to an aged handful of members when it closed the meetinghouse in 1902. An Amish Mennonite Brethren congregation recently became the first group in a century to worship there regularly.

Historic Harmony was founded in 1943 to preserve and promote the area’s unique history, encourage preservation of historic sites and foster tourism in support of community quality of life, economic development and related objectives. Its Harmony properties are the museum, the adjacent Mercer Street Harmonist Wagner House and nearby Harmonist-era log house museum annexes, Main Street’s Mennonite-era Henry Denis Ziegler log house museum annex, and the part of the Harmonists’ Vineyard Hill containing Rapp’s Seat, the Harmonist leader’s meditation site above the Connoquenessing Creek. Historic Harmony’s other Jackson Township properties are the Mennonite meetinghouse and cemetery, Harmony Society cemetery on Pa. 68, and 1805 Harmony Society barn on Mercer Road.

CONTACT: Historic Harmony President John Ruch, 724-316-6002 or 724-452-8834, or Administrator Kathy Luek, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822.

12/30/03


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WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, DECEMBER 1753:
WHAT IF WASHINGTON HAD BEEN KILLED

HARMONY, Pa. -- Suppose young Virginia militia Maj. George Washington had been killed 250 years ago this month in either of two incidents in western Pennsylvania wilderness: On Dec. 27, 1753, a "French Indian" shot at him several miles from Harmony (then the site of an Indian village called Murdering Town). Two days later, he tumbled from a raft into the ice-choked Allegheny River.

Would someone else have led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolution? Who would have been the new nation’s first president? Could the United States have formed without him?

Answers to these and other "what if" questions can never be known. The Native American’s musket shot, perhaps the first of the French & Indian War, missed its mark in wintery wilderness somewhere northeast of today’s Evans City, Butler County, about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. And when he fell into the river, Washington somehow got back onto the raft and warded off hypothermia at an island campfire.

American history unfolded as it did because Washington cheated death twice within about 48 hours while returning from meetings at a French fort near Lake Erie that precipitated the French & Indian War, during which he would survive more close calls.

The 250th anniversary of the dramatic but little-known shooting that could have changed the course of history will be commemorated on Saturday, Dec. 27, with events organized jointly by Historic Harmony, which operates the Harmony Museum, and Evans City Historical Society.

The observance begins at noon north of Evans City with a hike on a trail near Pa. 528 much like that traveled by Washington, guide Christopher Gist of Cumberland (then Wills Creek), Md., and the treacherous native. The Indian, apparently a French ally, offered to show major and guide a quick path to the Forks of the Ohio but led them away from the future site of Pittsburgh. Reenactors Jason Cherry of Butler as Washington, Ken Cherry of Butler as Gist, and Todd Johnson of McKeesport as the Huron Ghost in the Head, will join the hikers. [A shuttle will pick up hikers at trail end, so anyone wishing to participate must register with the Harmony Museum, 724-452-7341, by Friday, Dec. 19.]

At 2 p.m., two miles east of Evans City at a Daughters of the American Revolution monument marking the 1753 incident, the Cherrys and Johnson will reenact the shooting, then describe Washington’s journey. Author and Slippery Rock University history professor David D. Dixon will explore consequences for American history had the young Washington died that December 250 years ago.

In October 1753 Washington, only 21, had no military experience. Volunteering for the hazardous mission, he was appointed a major in the militia by Virginia’s royal governor, Robert Dinwiddie, and set off from Williamsburg to deliver Dinwiddie’s ultimatum that the French leave British territory. In mid-December he reached Ft. LeBoeuf (Waterford, Pa.), where French officers rejected Dinwiddie’s demand. Traveling in difficult winter conditions, Washington made it back to Williamsburg in mid-January to tell Dinwiddie the bad news. When Washington left Ft. LeBoeuf, the French moved quickly to strengthen their regional presence, evicting Virginians erecting a fort at the Forks of the Ohio and building Ft. Duquesne there.

On May 28, 1754, several miles northwest of Great Meadows (near Uniontown, southeast of Pittsburgh), troops and Indian allies led by Lt. Col. Washington ambushed a small French party headed by Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, who had been dispatched to warn the British out of New France. Jumonville and one-third of his men died. On July 4 a large French force under Coulon’s brother, Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers, forced a humiliating surrender on Washington at the hastily erected Ft. Necessity at Great Meadows.

These were the first skirmishes of the French & Indian War (1754-1760), which would help trigger history’s first global conflict, the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) that pitted Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain. The 1763 Treaty of Paris brought peace to North America, Europe and India, and ended France’s North American ambitions.

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HARMONY, Pa.:
Historic Harmony, the historical organization that operates eight Harmony Museum sites in and near Harmony, a National Historic Landmark in Butler County celebrating its bicentennial during 2004, announced its calendar of major events. Harmony is at I-79 exits 87-88, 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and 30 miles south of I-80. For more information phone 724-452-7341 or, toll free, 888-821-4822, or e-mail hmuseum@fyi.net.

2004 Harmony Museum events:

Saturday, Feb. 14, 2004 -- Annual Harmoniefest dinner and regional history program at Harmony Museum’s Stewart Hall, 5:30 p.m., reservations required by Feb. 10. Members of Old Economy Village’s recreated 19th century Harmony Society orchestra will perform Harmonist, Mennonite, other music. First event of yearlong celebration of Harmony’s 2004 bicentennial and sesquicentennials of neighboring Jackson and Lancaster townships. Harmoniefest commemorates February 1805 founding at Harmony of the communal Harmony Society by German Separatists who established the town in late 1804.

Saturday, June 19, 2004 -- Annual Historic House & Garden Tour and Lunch, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Self-guided tour of historically and architecturally significant buildings and inviting gardens begins at the Harmony Museum’s Stewart Hall. Includes some museum properties.

* Saturday, June 19: 5-8 p.m., Harmony Museum German Dinner, Stewart Hall

* Thursday, July 1: 8 p.m., Harmony Business Association concert, Allegheny Brass Band & Zambelli fireworks, Harmony Inn

* Thursday, July 15: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Dixie Doc, Harmony Inn

* Thursday-Saturday July 15-17: Zelienople-Harmony Area Chamber of Commerce Horse Trading Days, Zelienople & Harmony.

* Saturday, July 17: 10 a.m-4 p.m., HBA Local Artists Show & Sale, Stewart Hall; time TBA, Anything That Rolls Race, Mercer Street

* Thursday, July 29: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Hewlett, Anderson & Waslousky, Harmony Inn

* Thursday, Aug. 12: 7:30 p.m., HBA concert, Vanilla Soul, Harmony Inn

Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 28-29, 2004 -- Annual Dankfest pioneer crafts festival in and around National Historic Landmark District. Costumed artisans demonstrate authentic crafts that were part of 18th-19th century pioneer and rural life. Museum and landmark district tours, German and other foods, entertainment, antiques and crafts shopping throughout quaint village. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday, Noon - 6 p.m. Sunday.

* Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 28-29: 11 a.m.-6 p.m./Noon-6 p.m., 34th annual Harmony Museum Dankfest; 5 p.m. Saturday, fiddle contest, Museum Barn

Harmony Bicentennial Week, Saturday, Aug. 28-Saturday, Sept. 4

* Saturday, Aug. 28: 11 a.m., Parade, Spring St. to Museum Barn; 7 p.m., HBA concert, Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough, Museum Barn

* Monday, Aug. 30: 7 p.m., "Iptingen, Germany," illustrated presentation on George Rapp’s home town by John Ruch, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Eugene & the Nightcrawlers, Museum Barn

* Tuesday, Aug. 31: 7 p.m., "Harmony, The Movie," debut showing of Harmony video, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Sweet Adelines, Museum Barn

* Wednesday, Sept. 1: 8 p.m., Whimsy and the Lots, Museum Barn

* Thursday, Sept. 2: 7 p.m., "The Harmony Line," illustrated presentation about 1908-1931 Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railroad interurban by John Makar, Stewart Hall; 8 p.m., Seneca Valley High Barbershop & Beautyshop concert, Museum Barn

* Friday, Sept. 3: 8 p.m., John Burgh Band Square Dance, Museum Barn

* Saturday, Sept. 4: Noon-4 p.m., Doc Stewart Babies Reunion, Stewart Hall, and Emma Kaufmann Farm Camp Reunion, Borough Building; 8 p.m., Grand Finale, Old Economy Orchestra Concert & Zambelli fireworks, Museum Barn

Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 13-14, 2004 -- Annual Weihnachten Platz (Christmas Place) crafts market at museum’s Stewart Hall and other historic buildings. Festive holiday shopping for quality handcrafted items by dozens of artisans in an historical setting like that of internationally popular Christmas markets in German towns and villages, with demonstrations, entertainment, food, refreshments, museum and National Historic Landmark District tours. Additional shopping for antiques and specialty items at village shops. Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 12, 2004 -- Annual Candlelight Christmas, with rooms of museum buildings decorated for the holiday season, illuminated with candles and oil lamps. Walking tours of National Historic Landmark District, lined with luminaries, are available. Entertainment, refreshments, shopping at museum’s and other inviting antiques and crafts shops throughout Harmony’s old town section. 2-8 p.m.

(CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Harmony Museum Administrator, 724-452-7341

6/8/04

CANDLELIGHT, TROMBONES ON ICE MARK HARMONY’S HOLIDAY SEASON

HARMONY, Pa. --Holiday decorations, a Trombones on Ice concert on the diamond, a crafts market and special displays highlight the Harmony Museum’s annual Candlelight Christmas, 2-8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12. The old-town center, a National Historic Landmark District, takes on a special glow from luminaries after sunset.

Rooms in the main museum building and Wagner House annex, as well as the nearby Ziegler log house, are decorated by designers and museum volunteers. Crafts, wine tastings and refreshments are offered, and the cozy museum store is another gift-shopping opportunity. A $1 donation per adult is requested for admission to the museum’s Candlelight Christmas, and a 3 p.m. walking tour of the Landmark District is available for a small fee.

This is Harmony’s fourth holiday season with a free Trombones on Ice concert, created by Bruce Lazier of Lazier’s Harmony Music Studios and now established solidly as part of the historic town’s Christmas tradition. Brass players from throughout western Pennsylvania are invited to join in, students who play in school bands or their own groups as well as adult amateur and professional musicians. Lazier says he won’t be surprised if 80 or more musicians join this year’s spontaneous band for the concert that begins at 2 p.m. on the steps of Grace Church of Harmony.

At the museum, visitors can also enjoy toy displays -- including model train layouts complementing the museum’s newly installed rail lines exhibit. And Harmony’s bicentennial -- settlement began at the debut of winter 1804 -- gets a final tribute with a borough-prepared display of old postcard views.

Harmony, which retains the quaint architectural character of an old German village, is 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, 30 miles north of Pittsburgh’s Point and 30 miles south of I-80 at I-79 exits 87-88. The area’s recorded history began with a Delaware Indian village, called Murdering Town, that was visited by young Virginia Maj. George Washington during his late 1753 mission to demand French withdrawal from British territory, sparking the French & Indian War. The war’s first shot was fired at Washington in nearby woods by a native allied with the French.

Pacifist German Lutheran Separatists founded Harmony in 1804, and their communal Harmony Society soon gained international renown. After they left in 1814, resettlement of the area was led by Mennonites, whose congregation faded away early in the 20th century. Additional aspects of local history interpreted by the Harmony Museum include pioneer life in a log house, an early 19th century boarding school for girls, the outstanding Pennsylvania-style percussion rifles of gunsmith Charles Flowers, the oil and gas boom of a century ago, and the medical practice of country doctors.

11/23/04

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822

 

HARMONY’S CHRISTMAS MARKET OFFERS TASTE OF GERMAN CHRISTMAS

HARMONY, Pa. -- Artisans, craft vendors and Butler County’s only winery offer a taste of the Christmas season in Germany at the seventh annual Harmony Museum Weihnachten Platz. The holiday marketplace features shopping, food, drink and live entertainment 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13-14.

Weihnachten Platz (Christmas Place) provides festive holiday shopping for quality handcrafted items in an historical setting, adapted from Germany’s popular Christmas markets.

Vendors will sell and demonstrate in the museum’s Stewart Hall and adjacent grounds at Main and Mercer streets in the heart of Harmony’s National Landmark District, as well as at the adjacent Wagner House annex and two nearby log houses. Goods include Santas, decorative redware, imported handmade German articles, stained glass, woodenware, candles, rustic country items, jewelry, fiber arts, bath products, dried herbs and flowers, and holiday ornamentations.

In addition, Historic Harmony Auxiliary quilters sell their handmade works, and members of Ellwood City’s Fiber Arts Guild demonstrates spinning and weaving. The Wine Kradel of Sarver offers private label wines in the museum’s cavernous 195-year-old wine cellar. The museum shop in the Wagner House is another venue for shoppers seeking special items for holiday giving.

Each vendor contribute articles for a silent auction that ends at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Food, beverages and baked goods are available. Entertainment is by instrumental groups, including dulcimer players.

A $2 admission donation is requested for adults. Museum tours (1-4 p.m.) are available for a small additional fee. All proceeds benefit Historic Harmony, the nonprofit volunteer group that operates the nine-property Harmony Museum. More information is available from the museum at 724-452-7341 or, toll-free, 888-821-4822.

Harmony, with the quaint architectural character of an old German village, is at I-79 exits 87-88, just 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, 30 miles north of Pittsburgh’s Point, 30 miles south of I-80. Its recorded history began with an Indian village visited by Virginia Maj. George Washington during a 1753 mission to the French near Lake Erie that sparked the French & Indian War. Pacifist German Lutheran Separatists settled the area in 1804, organizing as the communal Harmony Society that gained international renown. After they left in 1814, resettlement of the town and surrounding countryside was led by Mennonites whose congregation faded away at the start of the 20th century.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or hmuseum@fyi.net
11/1/04

 

NEW HARMONY MUSEUM EXHIBIT TELLS HARMONY LINE HISTORY

HARMONY, Pa. -- "Pardon me, boys, is that the Harmony Line?"

Had the Glenn Miller Orchestra starred in "Sun Valley Serenade" in 1931 instead of 1941, might it have occurred to songwriter Harry Warren to make a Pittsburgh-based interurban railway famous instead of choosing Cincinnati’s old "Chattanooga Choo Choo"? Well, probably not. The electricity-powered Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railway, the Harmony Line for short, just doesn’t grab the ear the way "Chattanooga" and steam-ey "choo choo" does.

But the 1908-1931 Harmony Line does enjoy popularity more than seven decades after it closed down, largely in recognition of the lost convenience of zipping comfortably between city and country insulated blissfully from today’s perils of congested highways and road rage.

A new Harmony Museum exhibit presents the history of the interurban line, as well as that of the freight railroad still serving the area. Operated today by CSX Transportation, it previously was part of the Baltimore & Ohio and originally was the Pittsburgh & Western. Artifacts include a section of rail, spikes and spike plates, a whistle similar to those on Harmony Line cars, a Harmony Line catenary electrical insulator, photographs and other items.

The semi-permanent display was assembled by intern Vincent Stefanos, who will receive a history degree from Slippery Rock University next month.

Harmony is one of western Pennsylvania’s few National Historic Landmarks. Its history began with a Delaware village visited in 1753 by George Washington during his mission to France’s Fort LeBoeuf that sparked the French & Indian War. Nearby, a "French Indian" fired the war’s first shot at Washington. The town was founded in 1804 by the communal Harmony Society of pacifist German Lutheran Separatists. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites, also pacifists, whose many descendants still live here.

Harmony is at Interstate 79 exits 87-88, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of Pennsylvania Turnpike exit 28, and 30 miles south of Interstate 80. The museum, on the town diamond, is open 1-4 p.m. daily except Mondays and holidays. Reservations are suggested for weekends and required for groups.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or toll-free 888-821-4822
11/11/04

 

"FOREST RAN RED" TO BE SHOWN AT HARMONY MUSEUM

HARMONY -- The public is invited to a free showing at the Harmony Museum on Sept. 14 of the award-winning French & Indian War documentary, "When the Forest Ran Red: Washington, Braddock and a Doomed Army."

The 68-minute documentary presents the story of the summer 1755 defeat in southwestern Pennsylvania of a British force led by Gen. Edward Braddock that was advancing on the Forks of the Ohio and France’s Fort Duquesne there.

Historic Harmony will present the film at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 14, in the Harmony Museum’s Stewart Hall. Light refreshments will be served. The Museum is at the center of the National Historic Landmark District in Harmony, which is celebrating its bicentennial.

"When the Forest Ran Red" describes events that led to Braddock’s mission, which collapsed in an ambush by French soldiers and their Native American allies. Braddock was mortally wounded. The young George Washington, whose mission through the region -- including what would become Butler County -- during 1753 and 1754 helped spark the war, was one the few British officers not killed or wounded in Braddock’s disaster. Hundreds of re-enactors appear in the documentary. Several historians, including "Crucible of War" author Fred Anderson, provide commentary, and works by well known area artists Robert Griffing and John Buxton help illustrate the story.

Harmony’s recorded history began with a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) village visited by Washington during his 1753 mission to the French at Ft. LeBoeuf. Nearby, a "French Indian" fired what may have been the French & Indian War’s first shot at Washington. Harmony was founded in 1804 by the communal Harmony Society of religious German Lutheran Separatists who built the town, farmed thousands of neighboring acres and operates several mills in the area. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites whose congregation faded away by the early 1900s, although many of their descendants remain. Harmony became a separate borough in 1840.

With many buildings restored or refurbished, Harmony retains the architectural character of a rural German village. One of only 22 National Landmarks in western Pennsylvania, it received the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs’ 2004 Historic Preservation Award for its comprehensive commitment to preserving heritage resources while emphasizing economic and community revitalization.

CONTACT: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or 888-821-4822
8/31/04

CRAFTS, MUD STOMP, CONCERTS: HARMONY’S DANKFEST & BICENTENNIAL HARMONY, Pa. -- A celebratory parade to kick things off. Pioneer crafts, even a "mud stomp" for kids. This National Historic Landmark’s incredible history. Concerts, country and blues to 19th century sectarian and patriotic. Special displays, reunions, and A wacky Anything That Rolls race. Finally, a bang-up Grande Finale.

All of this and more are offered in Harmony from Saturday, Aug. 28, through Saturday, Sept. 4, as the town that began with the sprawling communal Harmony Society of nearly 900 German immigrants observes its bicentennial. The celebration starts with the Harmony Museum’s 34th annual Dankfest, continues with daily programs and concerts, and concludes with a orchestral performance and a Zambelli Internationale fireworks show. A new book about Harmony and bicentennial mementos will also be available.

The parade at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, gets things started, going west on German Street, north on Main, east onto Mercer Street at the diamond, ending at the barn built in 1805 by the German pioneers. Re-enactors portraying soldiers and Native Americans at an Old Stone House French & Indian War encampment will linger after the parade. Two Dankfest encampments will lend added atmosphere, with LegionVille Historical Society’s site including a diorama of the Army’s first (1792-93) training camp, 20 miles west in Beaver County, and Union Army reenactors representing the Civil War era.

Dankfest opens as the parade concludes, presenting pioneer crafts, historical exhibits and tours. Children can help mix log house daubing mud with their feet. Antiques and collectibles will be sold at the barn. Tours of the Harmony Museum, landmark district and the Harmony Society’s 1809 church building are offered, and visitors enjoy browsing a farmers’ market and local shops. Quilts, from local collectors or locally made, will fill the 1825 Mennonite meetinghouse on Wise Road during Dankfest and throughout Bicentennial Week.

Also on Saturday, antique cars will be displayed at the barn and classic sports cars and motorcycles in the diamond. A 5 p.m. fiddle contest is followed at 7 p.m. by a Harmony Business Association concert by Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough. Sunday, Aug. 29, will be Mennonite Day at Dankfest, for which descendants of local 19th century Mennonites are invited to the museum’s Stewart Hall.

The borough’s Bicentennial Week continues through Sept. 4, with free concerts on the lawn at the museum’s Mercer Road barn each evening except Thursday. Programs in the museum’s Stewart Hall, all at 7 p.m., are a presentation on Monday, Aug. 30, about the German home town of Harmony and Harmony Society founder George Rapp; the debut on Tuesday, Aug. 31, of "Harmony, The Movie," and a choral performance and a presentation on Thursday, Sept. 2, about the Harmony Line interurban railway.

As the celebration wraps up on Saturday, Sept. 4, two reunions are set for Stewart Hall. Dr. Arthur I. Stewart delivered some 1,400 babies while serving the community for more than six decades, and they are invited to bring photos and recollections of "Doc." Also, people who as children of Pittsburgh families attended Harmony’s Emma Farm Camp between the 1930s and 1970s will enjoy a special exhibit and share recollections. A block west on Mercer Street, gravity-powered vehicles will compete in an Anything That Rolls Race, postponed from mid-July.

That evening, Old Economy Orchestra, from the Harmony Society's final home in Beaver County, an historic site administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, will perform at the Mercer Road barn. Capping the bicentennial celebration will be a Zambelli Internationale Fireworks show.

Harmony’s history began with a Delaware village visited by George Washington during his 1753 mission to the French Ft. LeBoeuf, sparking the French & Indian War. Near here, a "French Indian" fired what some consider the war’s first shot at Washington. Harmony was founded in 1804 by George Rapp’s communal Harmony Society of German Lutheran Separatists. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites whose congregation faded away in the early 1900s. Stephen Foster lived here briefly as a child, Charles Flowers made fine percussion rifles, and the area participated in an oil and gas boom a century ago.

Dankfest parking and admission is free, with modest fees for tours and the quilt show. Hours both days are noon to 5 p.m. Most Bicentennial Week events are at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., and the quilt show will be open daily except Monday 1-4 p.m. Harmony is at Interstate 79 exits 87-88, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and 30 miles south of Interstate 80. Follow Historic District and Dankfest signs.

CONTACTS:
Historic Harmony: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or toll-free 888-821-4822
Harmony Borough: Jeff Smith, Council President, 724-452-6780

 

 

BICENTENNIAL, DANKFEST, CONCERTS, MORE:
HARMONY’S A HAPPENING PLACE AUG. 28-SEPT. 4
Click here to see the schedule of events.

HARMONY, Pa. -- The Harmony Museum’s 34th annual Dankfest pioneer craft festival on the last weekend of August is extra-special this year. On Saturday, Aug. 28, a parade precedes the festival’s opening and formally begins the National Historic Landmark borough’s week-long bicentennial celebration that includes free evening presentations, concerts and a fireworks show.

Participants in Saturday’s 11 a.m. parade will include the Seneca Valley High School marching band; antique autos and sports cars; historical military groups; public officials; local organizations; and fire fighting vehicles. The parade will proceed from Spring and German streets to Main Street, through the diamond and then along Mercer Street to the museum’s 1805 barn.

Dankfest presents authentic pioneer crafts, historical exhibits and tours. Most artisans will demonstrate their skills near log houses on Mercer Street, while others will be at the museum’s Stewart Hall. They show a public that has always known the ease of modern life the technologies that sustained pioneers. Antiques and collectibles will be sold at the barn. The museum’s 1825 Mennonite meetinghouse on Wise Road will be filled with quilts, a display that continues through Bicentennial Week. Museum and National Historic Landmark District tours are offered, and visitors enjoy browsing the Dankfest farmers’ market and Harmony’s shops.

A LegionVille Historical Society encampment will show a diorama of the first U.S. military training camp where Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne readied the Legion of the United States (later the Army) in 1792-93. Union Army reenactors will present a Civil War camp. Soldiers and Native Americans, participating in a weekend French & Indian War encampment at the historic Old Stone House north of Moraine State Park, will stroll Dankfest for a time on Saturday after marching in the parade.

On Saturday, antique cars will be displayed at the barn and classic sports cars in the diamond. Sunday, Aug. 29, will be Mennonite Day, with descendants of local 19th century Mennonites invited to bring along genealogical information and old photos of family and area sites and to sign a guest book at Stewart Hall.

Dankfest is also known for good food and refreshments with a German touch, including sausages, chicken, roast beef, potato pancakes and homemade root beer.

On Saturday at the museum’s barn, a late-afternoon fiddle contest is followed at 7 p.m. by the Harmony Business Association’s final free summer concert, a performance by Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough.

Dankfest concludes late Sunday, but Bicentennial Week continues Monday, Aug. 30, through Saturday, Sept. 4, with free concerts at 8 p.m. daily on the lawn at the museum’s Mercer Road barn. Programs at 7 p.m. in the museum’s Stewart Hall, are Monday’s presentation about the German home town of Harmony and Harmony Society founder George Rapp, Tuesday’s debut of "Harmony, The Movie," and Thursday’s presentation on the early 20th century Harmony Line interurban railway.

Reunions are part of the celebration’s final day. Dr. Arthur Stewart, a physician who served Harmony for more than six decades and was a founder of Historic Harmony, the historical society that operates the Harmony Museum, delivered some 1,400 babies. They are invited to Stewart Hall with photos and recollections of "Doc" Stewart. A block away at the Borough Building, people who as Pittsburgh children attended the Emma Farm Camp here between the 1930s and early 1970s are invited to view a camp photo exhibit and share recollections.

That evening brings the grand finale of Harmony’s Bicentennial Week, an Old Economy Orchestra concert at the barn followed by a Zambelli Internationale Fireworks show.

A new book about Harmony and bicentennial mementos will be available during the celebration.

Harmony’s recorded history began with a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) village visited by George Washington during a 1753 mission to the French at Ft. LeBoeuf, sparking the French & Indian War. Nearby, a "French Indian" fired at Washington what may have been the war’s first shot. Harmony was founded in 1804 by the communal Harmony Society of religious German Separatists. After they left in 1814, the area was resettled by Mennonites whose congregation faded away by the early 1900s, although many of their descendants remain. Stephen Foster lived here briefly as a child, Charles Flowers made fine percussion rifles, and the area participated in the region’s oil and gas boom of a century ago.

With many buildings restored or refurbished, Harmony retains the architectural character of a rural German village. One of only 22 National Historic Landmarks in all of western Pennsylvania, this year it received the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs’ Historic Preservation Award for its comprehensive commitment to preserving heritage resources while emphasizing economic and community revitalization.

Dankfest parking and admission is free, with modest fees for tours and the quilt show. Hours both days are noon to to 5 p.m. Harmony is at Interstate 79 exits 87-88, about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, 10 miles north of Pennsylvania Turnpike exit 28, and 30 miles south of Interstate 80. Follow Historic District and Dankfest signs.

CONTACTS:
Historic Harmony: Kathy Luek, Administrator, 724-452-7341 or toll-free 888-821-4822
Harmony Borough: Jeff Smith, Council President, 724-452-6780
7/26/04

HARMONY BICENTENNIAL WEEK
Schedule of Events

Saturday, Aug. 28
11 a.m., Parade, Spring St. to Museum’s Mercer Road Barn
Noon-5 p.m., Dankfest, Harmony Museum pioneer crafts festival
5 p.m., fiddle contest, Mercer Road barn, presented by Butler Eagle
7 p.m.: Harmony Business Association concert, Kim Thomas & Diamonds in the Rough, Museum Barn, presented by Butler Eagle & Harmony Museum

Sunday, Aug. 29
Noon-5 p.m., Dankfest

Monday, Aug. 30
7 p.m., "Iptingen, Germany," illustrated presentation on hometown of Georg Rapp, founder of Harmony and communal Harmony Society, by John Ruch, Stewart Hall
8 p.m.: Eugene & the Nightcrawlers, Museum Barn, presented by Dambach Lumber

Tuesday, Aug. 31
1-4 p.m., Quilt Show, Mennonite meetinghouse, Wise Road
7 p.m., "Harmony, The Movie," debut showing of Harmony video, Stewart Hall, presented by Armstrong
8 p.m., Sweet Adelines, Museum Barn, presented by VEKA

Wednesday, Sept. 1
1-4 p.m., Quilt Show, Mennonite meetinghouse, Wise Road
8 p.m., Ace Brown and his Hell Divers, Museum Barn
 

Thursday, Sept. 2
1-4 p.m., Quilt Show, Mennonite meetinghouse, Wise Road
7 p.m., "The Harmony Line," illustrated presentation about 1908-1931 Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railroad interurban, by John Makar, Stewart Hall
8 p.m., Seneca Valley High School Barbershop Quartet and Beautyshop Quartet, Museum Barn
 

Friday, Sept. 3
1-4 p.m., Quilt Show, Mennonite meetinghouse, Wise Road
8 p.m., John Burgh Band, Museum Barn, presented by JADCO

Saturday, Sept. 4
1-4 p.m., Quilt Show, Mennonite meetinghouse, Wise Road
Noon-4 p.m., Doc Stewart Babies Reunion, Stewart Hall
Noon -4 p.m., Emma Farm Camp Reunion, Borough Building, Mercer Street
8 p.m., Grand Finale: Old Economy Orchestra Concert, Zambelli Internationale Fireworks show, Museum Barn presented by Armstrong

 

 

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