Harmony Revisited

by Larry D. Rohrer

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On May 5, 1996, a group of 35 members and friends of the Midway Mennonite Church joined with another 65 friends of Historic Harmony Inc. to worship where no congregation has existed for 94 years. The setting for this remarkable gathering was the oldest Mennonite meetinghouse west of the Alleghenies. It is a stone and brick building being restored by local volunteers, many of whom are descendants of the original Mennonite settlers in the historic community of Harmony in Butler County, Pennsylvania.The community, founded by the communal Harmony Society in 1804, was sold along with 9,000 acres of land in 1815 to Abraham Ziegler and "five brethren" from Lehigh County. Soon after,other families moved to the area, families with names like Musselman, Tinstman, Shantz, Wise, Rice, Herr, Moyer, Boyer, and Stouffer. A Mennonite meetinghouse was erected outside the village in 1825 and used for approximately 75 years. Thereafter, Mennonite descendants maintained the structure until 1977 when it was turned over to Historic Harmony.

Today the meetinghouse still stands, much in its original state, as a shrine to the memories of a congregation which for several reasons could not cope with the changes of the late 1800's and eventually became extinct at the turn of the century. An extinct congregation, however, is not a forgotten congregation in this instance. Due to the efforts of Historic Harmony, there is new interest in the former Mennonite presence, including an ongoing interest among descendants who are two, three or more generations removed from their Mennonite forebears. Thus on a Sunday afternoon in early May, 100 people gathered in the old meetinghouse to remember, reflect and worship much in the same manner as the original people who inhabited the building.

Midway Pastor Larry Rohrer provided a devotional message, historian Wilmer Swope offered some insight on how ministers of the congregation had likely been chosen, and retired Midway Pastor Ernest Martin, a descendant of Abraham Ziegler, led the congregational singing including some in the German language. The local community graciously provided a fellowship dinner following the service.Will the Harmony Mennonite Meetinghouse stand for years to come as a memorial of what once was and what could have been? Or has it been divinely preserved as a reminder of lessons still to be learned and a hope not to be forgotten? Perhaps within its old walls the echo will someday be heard inviting the Mennonites to return, for in the stone of the building is engraved a phrase reading, "This property and land shall belong to the Mennonite Society as long as the rain falls and grass is green."

Larry Rorher is pastor of Midway Mennonite Church in Columbiana, Ohio.

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Mennonite Historical Bulletin, July, 1996