HARMONY - The travels and travails of George Rapp and his Harmonists and the inauguration of the 43rd president shared a common thread on Tuesday.

It was then that John Ruch, president of Historic Harmony, welcomed 67 students and 20 adults from New Harmony High School in New Harmony, Ind., to Doc Stewart Hall in the Harmony Museum.

The students, who stopped on their way to Thursday's presidential inauguration in Washington, DC., live in the town where the Harmonists settled after a decade in Butler County.

Members of the Harmony Society came to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1805 to establish a separatist religious sect.

In 1814, they relocated to Indiana. After a decade in New Harmony, which also contains a historical society with buildings and exhibits, the Harmonists moved to their final destination, now Old Economy Village in Ambridge.

The students stopped in Old Economy Village Tuesday morning to check out how the ultra-puritan band of migrant Germans lived the final part of their lives. The students arrived in Harmony at lunchtime to learn how the Harmonists lived in the town they built as young men and women.

As half the students and chaperones enjoyed a hearty lunch provided by the Harmony Museum, the other half broke into groups and toured exhibits at the museum and throughout the borough's historic district. A group of museum docents helped with the tour.

Prior to the lunch and tour, the local group and the Indiana contingent exchanged gifts to commemorate the visit. Ruch gave the students a welcome letter from Harmony council president Jeffrey Smith, a framed 1901 ink drawing of Harmony, a Harmony Museum poster and a medallion of the Virgin Sophia, the patron saint of Harmonists.

"We hope you take away some memories of the little town that led to the founding of your community," Smith said in the letter.

In return, the students and their trip coordinator, teacher Fred Frayser, presented Ruch with a framed print of the New Harmony Historic District and a sweatshirt with the New Harmony High School logo. The print is one of only 20 produced.

New Harmony High School junior James Craig had a unique perspective on Harmony because of his position as a tour guide in the New Harmony Museum. He said he was anxious to see what facilities and businesses the Harmonists had when beginning their odyssey in Butler County as compared to 10 years later in Indiana."I want to see how they evolved from the time they were first (in America)," said Craig.Frayser, who has coordinated all four inauguration trips since the tradition began at the school in 1992, said he hopes students are able to make a link to the past in the Harmony historic district, as well as recognize the two towns' common history and deepen their understanding of the Harmonists."The more different people think they are, the more we find we're similar," said Frayser.Ruch said he has visited New Harmony, Ind., and Old Economy Village in Beaver County, and relished Tuesday's visit from the young residents. He said the three Harmonist villages should foster a close relationshipbecause of their similar goals in protecting the Harmonists' place in history."All three sites are looking for ways to increase their involvement with each other," said Ruch.Ruch said Harmony and New Harmony are similar in that both are historic communities where modern people live and work.Differences include the large hotel and conference center in New Harmony as well as the town's relative isolation at its location 25 miles west of Evansville. He said some buildings in New Harmony have been relocated to the historic district, while Harmony's historic buildings are located on their original sites.After the tours, the students settled in on the buses for an all-night drive to D.C., where they would witness another part of history.