Welcome to the Baltzer Meyer Historical Society Homepage. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of Old Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania with an emphasis on Southwestern Pennsylvania families. Membership is open to all who share these interests. Since our inception in 1993 our number has grown rapidly with members reaching as far as Australia. Our offices are located approximately three miles west of downtown Greensburg in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

We own two buildings of great historic value: a one-room, red brick schoolhouse (Harrold's #8) built in 1881 and the Old Zion Lutheran church built in 1884. We are working to preserve these historic buildings and make them available for museum, classroom, and community use.

Baltzer Meyer Suffers Tornado Damage!

The tornado which ripped through Hempfield Township in Westmoreland county on March 23, 2011, caused considerable damage to the recently renovated Harrold Schoolhouse No. 8 and newly built adjacent toilet facilities.

The BMHS Board will meet in early April to discuss the cost of repair.

Reverend Paul Miller Ruff
1928-2009

Our founder, Rev. Paul M. Ruff, passed away on Friday, November 6, 2009, in Fayetteville, Georgia. He was 91.

As a boy, Paul attended Harrold's Schoolhouse No. 8, in Hempfield Township, and was instrumental in the restoration of this same schoolhouse by the Baltzer Meyer Historical Society which he founded in 1993.

Since his retirment from pastoral ministry in 1990, he pursued his avocation of transcribing church records from German script into English. These transcriptions have been published and are available through the BMHS.

Pastor Ruff will be greatly missed, not only by his family and BMHS members, but by everyone in the community who knew him.