Harmony...

Nope, not referring to anything musical at all.

It seems a long time ago, in Germany there was a guy named George Rapp. George had started an esoterical, Sophist religion called the Harmonists. Because of their difference with Westernized Christianity (one publication from the organization called the standard doctrine so much "Babel") they began to experience much persecution. Because of this, George Rapp and his son (with 700 Harmonists following a bit later) moved to America and purchased three thousand acres in Butler County, PA. It was here that they began the first of three Harmonists settlements, naming it "Harmony."

The Harmonists were communal in nature and practiced celibacy. (A major cause of them dying out as a religion (duh)). However, they are recognized as one of the pre-eminent and most successful of the Utopian Societies. This was largely due to the negotiating skills of George Rapp. At times the per-capita income of the Harmonists was 10 times that of the average American. They lived in Harmony from 1905-1915, and in that time their community included 130 houses, a church, a hotel, a school, a mill, a brewery and distillery, barns, storehouses, factory buildings, and a tannery. By 1814, the Society was farming some 3000 acres of land, with 3000 sheep and 600 cattle.

They were also known for some ingenious inventions and new industrial processes.

One of the curious things about the Harmonists is that when they buried their dead, they did not use a marker of any kind except for a rock placed over the gravesite.

Why am I telling you all of this, you may ask? Well, one of the best things about letterboxing is that you get to learn some great history and see some really neat sites. This happened this weekend. Zelie Zips has seeded Butler County with some great letterboxes. She and her family are pretty much the only active placers in that area and should be commended for the wonderful quality and history of her boxes.

She has a plant at the Harmonist cemetery, and though I had grabbed it by myself prior to this, I wanted to show it to the rest of Team KPI. Also, the first time I grabbed the box it was in the middle of the night and there was a foot of snow on the ground, so I did not get to explore.

What a truly cool place this is. The Harmony historical society has done a good job of putting up some informational signs:

The coolest thing about this place is the door. The entire cemetery is walled in and has 100 gravesites in it. There's only one headstone inside, which I will get to in a minute. The door to the interior is a stone tablet that weighs over a ton, and rotates on an iron rod that is pierced through the center of it and attached to the upper and lower parts of the doorframe. Approximately 200 years after it's construction, my six-year-old is able to open this over 2,000 pound door with a push. (I cannot figure out how to make a picnic table.)
The "one grave marker" I referenced earlier is for a Mr. Johannes Rapp. I will not give any description, I'll let the informational marker do that. I find it darkly humorous.

Well shit. For some reason the link to expand the pics isn't working. I have to figure that out. Anyway, here is what the sign says:

The Harmonists did not mark their graves. This stone memorializes Johannes Rapp, son of Harmony Society founder Johann Georg Rapp, who was injured fatally in an industrial accident; the location of his grave within the cemetery is unknown. Non-Harmonists donated the stone, which the society accepted reluctantly.

We were able to find 8 other boxes, all great. One was next to this really cool waterfall that The Pirate had fun playing around.
A great letterboxing trip and we got to meet and exchange with that wonderful boxer. Weekends like this make work that much harder to come back to...