George Rapp’s Coat and Cap

Silk was all the rage in America during the 1820s and 1830s. Initially imported from Europe, silk fabric was used in men’s suits, women’s dresses and miscellaneous household articles. The Harmony Society, always at the forefront of industry at the time, added silk manufacturing to its long list of enterprises shortly after the religious communal group settled in 1825 at their last home in...
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Old Economy Village: The Centennial of the First Site on the Pennsylvania Trails of History

One hundred years ago, on February 3, 1916, the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas, in an escheat case, awarded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 6 acres of land that had been part of the town of Economy. World War I was raging in Europe, and with the United States’ entrance in the war the following year, the state had little time or money to deal with a newly acquired historic site. In 1919 the...
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A Century of Wine: Viniculture of the Harmony Society

The Harmony Society was a religious communal group that immigrated to the United States in 1805 from Württemberg, Germany. Members established their first home just north of Pittsburgh in the small community of Harmony, Butler County, near Zelienople. After ten years the Harmonists moved to the Indiana Territory and established their second community which they also called Harmony, now known as...
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