Eidenau is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Jackson Township, Butler County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States.

Geography

Eidenau is located in the area where

Breakneck Creek Breakneck Creek is a tributary of Connoquenessing Creek that flows in a northwardly direction in Western Pennsylvania. It forms in the village of Bakerstown in Allegheny County then flows northwest through the borough of Valencia in Butler Cou ...

flows into the

Connoquenessing Creek Connoquenessing Creek is a tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. Course Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the L ...

Pennsylvania Route 68 Pennsylvania Route 68 (PA 68) is a east–west state highway located in western Pennsylvania in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at the Ohio state line west of Glasgow, Pennsylvania, Glasgow, where PA 68 continues into ...

is the main road in Eidenau. Often, Eidenau is mistakenly called Harmony Junction. Harmony Junction is the name of the large railroad junction that connects the

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania. The BPRR is owned by Genesee & Wyoming. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, conne ...

P&W Subdivision The P&W Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation, the Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR), and the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Rankin north through Pittsbu ...

with the Northern Subdivision.

History

The earliest known use of the name ''Eidenua'' is found in the journals of

Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...

. Gist and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

traveled through the area in December 1753 after leaving

Fort LeBoeuf Fort Le Bœuf (often referred to as Fort de la Rivière au Bœuf) was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek (in the drainage area of the River Ohio), in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort ...

bound for Williamsburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. After passing through Murdering Town they stumbled upon an area known as Sakonk. There they found a Native American that guided them down a wrong path, and attempted to kill them. His attempt failed, and the two men continued their journey south to the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

. Gist renamed Sakonk to Eidenau after his trek through the Ohio Country. However, another source claims that the

Harmony Society The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in . Due to religious persecution by the Lutheran Church and the government in Württemberg, the group moved to the United States,Robert Paul Sutto ...

named Eidenau after a community in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Harmonites settled in this region, and constructed a large mill in the Connoquenessing Valley after a small Delaware tribe moved away in 1792. This tribe may have been from the village of Sakonk. The mill operated for about two decades, but eventually went out of business. Most of the twenty log houses surrounding the mill were also abandoned by 1814. Some of the relics from the mill and village are preserved at Historic Harmony in

Harmony, Pennsylvania Harmony is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 890 at the 2010 census. It is located approximately north of Pittsburgh. Geography Harmony is located in southwestern Butler County, along the northeastern ...

.An Historical Gazetteer of Butler County, Pennsylvania, pp. 158. At the turn of the 20th century, a new cutoff was built by the

Pittsburgh and Western Railroad The Pittsburgh and Western Railroad was a nineteenth-century, narrow gauge railroad connecting Pittsburgh with coal supplies and the oil field around Titusville, Pennsylvania. Its right-of way formed the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Rai ...

to connect Eidenau with the community of Ribold which was just outside the city of

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

. This new route eliminated an older route that ran from Callery Junction to Ribold. The lines that run through the junction have changed hands several times. This is a list of the railroads that have used the junction from the P&W Railroad to the current B&P Railroad: *

Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway The Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway, commonly called the Harmony Line, was a broad gauge interurban streetcar line connecting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States to Butler and New Castle via Harmony and a split at Evans Ci ...

(not a part of the junction itself, but passed alongside the ROW at certain points, now abandoned) *

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(later under the management of the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated und ...

) *

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Allegheny Valley Railroad The Allegheny Valley Railroad is a class III railroad that operates in Western Pennsylvania, and is owned by Carload Express, Carload Express, Inc. AVR acts as a feeder line connecting its many and varied customers to Class I railroads such as ...

(current) The junction is a popular destination spot for

railfans A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter (Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems. Rail ...

References

*''An Historical Gazetteer of Butler County, Pennsylvania'', Mechling Bookbindery., 2006, . *''History of Butler County'', R.C. Brown & Co., Publishers., 1895, .

Notes

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Butler County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania