HARMONY — A new Historic Harmony presentation will give a firsthand look at the histories of Harmony and Zelienople.

Mary Cameron will portray Fredericka “Zelie” Passavant, Zelienople’s namesake, and Jack McMichael appears as Christian Buhl, a prominent early 19th century Zelienople businessman, in a public program at the Harmony Museum on Tuesday.

The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the museum’s Stewart Hall at 218 Mercer St. Admission is free.

“It’s nice to know about American history and world history, but you have to know where you came from,” McMichael said about local history. “We have a rich history here.”

McMichael will present “A Visit with Christian Buhl” while Cameron will describe portions of Zelie Passavant’s life. They are members of the Zelienople Historical Society.

“The immigrant Passavants and Buhls left a legacy of charitable, medical, scientific and commercial enterprises in Western Pennsylvania and beyond, but their American stories began in Zelienople,” said museum administrator Kathy Luek in a release.

When German nobleman Dettmar Basse founded Zelienople in 1802, his oldest daughter, Zelie, was engaged to Phillipe Louis Passavant in Germany. Basse agreed to approve their marriage if they would join him in Pennsylvania, which they did after their 1807 wedding in Frankfort.

Phillipe built a store on Main Street, becoming Zelienople’s first merchant, and a brick house next door where he and Zelie raised their family. The homestead remained in the family until their granddaughter Emma Passavant died in 1956.

Cameron said she has read Passavant’s letters to her children to study for the role.

“She wrote a lot of letters to her children and they wrote back to her,” she said.

The Passavant House is now the Zelienople Historical Society’s headquarters and house museum.

“I think it’s essential,” Cameron said about learning local history. “It’s where we live and it’s part of our lives.”

More exhibits chronicling town history fill the nearby Buhl House, built by Christian Buhl, one of Zelienople’s first citizens.

Buhl, a hatter and furrier, was a justice of the peace and Butler County judge. He also was a board member for a girls’ school established in 1817 in adjacent Harmony.

In 1870, a direct connection between the Buhl and Passavant families was established when Zelie and Phillipe’s son Charles married Jane Buhl Randolph, a granddaughter of Christian Buhl.

McMichael said both Zelienople and Harmony historical societies try to collaborate for these projects.

“We’re so close together,” McMichael said. “This is where we live.”