Harmony Mennonite Church celebrates 200th anniversary
JACKSON TWP — Amid wooden pews, dulcimer music, and blistering-hot weather, a group of history buffs spent their Sunday partying like it was 1825.
A piece of Pennsylvania’s religious history celebrated its 200th anniversary Sunday, June 22, as the Harmony Museum held an open house to celebrate the bicentennial of the Harmony Mennonite Meetinghouse, located across from the Steamfitters Local 449 Building in Jackson Township.
The Meetinghouse was constructed in the 1820s, when a group of Mennonites — led by Abraham Ziegler, who purchased the borough’s land from the Harmonist Society for $100,000 in 1815 — moved into the borough and required a place to worship.
“The Harmonists only stayed 10 years, and when they wanted to leave, they sold the whole town to Abraham Ziegler,” said Harmony Museum volunteer Cathy Rape. “He’s the one that actually subdivided the town for whoever wanted their own property.”
Jack McMichael, a docent from the Zelienople Historical Society, volunteered to portray Ziegler and relay his life story, although he maintained that he wasn’t exactly a “reenactor.”
“I’m just going through his life as a person pretending to be Abraham. I’m a docent, which is a fancy word for a tour guide,” McMichael said.
In character, McMichael gave a presentation to the audience on the history of the building, and the borough as a whole, after the Harmonists left in the 1810s for Indiana. He started the presentation by jokingly “apologizing” for showing up with facial hair, something frowned upon by most Mennonites.
“I must apologize for my appearance today ...but due to my advanced age and my shaking hands, I can no longer navigate a razor below my nose without causing bodily harm,” McMichael said, in character as Ziegler.
Although the structure is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, to most observers, the old church looked as good as new thanks to a series of recent renovation projects carried out by the Harmony Museum.
“Recently, we’ve had a guy do some new crown molding around here and some trim restoration,” Rape said. “And a blacksmith has actually made new hardware for the front door, and it’s all painted.”
Nevertheless, many of the church’s original artifacts are intact and period-original. These include a massive chest once used for storing church items, as well as the gravestones of Abraham Ziegler and other Ziegler family members in the cemetery plot behind the building.
Providing music for the open house was “Bits and Pieces,” a five-piece band from Latrobe that specializes in period music.
“We do historical places, we’ve done nursing homes and churches,” said band member Karen Lihan. “We’ve played at West Overton Village, and we’ve played Fulton House in Derry.”
In addition to holding the 200th anniversary open house Sunday, the old church is available to be rented from the Harmony Museum — which owns the property — for weddings and other events.
