HARMONY - The Harmony Museum, which is a historic landmark and the county's oldest museum, will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Saturday.

The museum's creation by the Harmony Volunteer Fire Company was a significant regional event a half-century ago.

The golden anniversary celebration will include reminiscences about the museum's founding and the presentation of a plaque to firefighters for their efforts to preserve the area's heritage.

"I'm glad the Harmony Volunteer Fire Department and its leadership had the foresight to establish the museum. A lot of local heritage would have been lost," said Historic Harmony president John Ruch, who has been involved with the group and museum since 1983.

The Harmonist Historic and Memorial Association, an all-volunteer group renamed Historic Harmony in 1991, was organized in 1943 to accept title to the cemetery of the communal Harmony Society that settled Harmony in 1804.The organization was reorganized in 1966 as a historical society. It assumed responsibility for museum operation the following year and orchestrated the designation of Harmony's National Historic Landmark District in 1974.Historic Harmony in 1986 bought the museum building and adjacent Wagner House museum annex from the fire company. The group operates the museum year-round, and now owns nine historic properties in Harmony and Jackson Township."Western Pennsylvania has a rich heritage. In Harmony, we are fortunate to have a group like Historic Harmony that has worked so hard to preserve our past and to teach future generations about it," said Jeff Smith, Harmony council president.Two beloved residents were especially instrumental in the museum's founding, and the local history they co-authored was released at the institution's opening.The late Dr. Arthur I. Stewart, for whom the museum's Stewart Hall was named, practiced medicine in the community for more than 60 years and was a fire company member.The museum's Veith Library honors the late Rev. Loran Veith, pastor of Grace Church and fire company chaplain, and his late wife, Ruth.

During Saturday's anniversary celebration, Ruth Werner, Historic Harmony president from 1970 to 1972 and in 1982, will share recollections of Stewart. Esther Veith Ziegler, daughter of the Veiths and a museum volunteer as a teenager, will speak about her father.Ruch will present a commemorative plaque to representatives of the fire company, including its president, Gary Campbell. Smith will also speak.The museum has become more of an outreach and educational institution over the years. The elementary students from the Seneca Valley School District make an annual trip to the museum for hands-on demonstrations, said museum administrator Kathy Luek.The museum continues to get historic documents, most recently Harmonist documents dating to 1806, which came as an anonymous package sent from California that included the arrowhead collection of Stewart and a folding key and docket book from a justice of the peace who had served in Harmony from 1840 to the 1860s."Over time, things got more professional. Better care is taken with artifacts and library materials," Luek said.

The museum is currently in the process of computerizing all of its historic documents and artifacts to better inventory the collection.German Lutheran Separatists founded Harmony in 1804 and their communal Harmony Society early the following year, soon gaining international renown.When they left in 1814, the area's resettlement was led by Mennonites. Their congregation faded away early in the 20th century, but many of today's residents are their descendants.Additional aspects of local history interpreted by the Harmony Museum include pioneer life, an early 19th century boarding school for girls, outstanding percussion rifles made by miner-turned-gunsmith Charles Flowers, the oil and gas boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the medical practices of rural doctors.Historic Harmony has in the past several years teamed up with the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau to promote themuseum. Ruch said the museum is now beginning to see the results of that partnership.

Visits to the museum have been steadily increasing because of increased promotional efforts.The museum is working with the tourism bureau to provide packages to entice more tourism dollars to be spent within the county and within the borough. In the future, the museum may also look at group tours, Ruch said.