The first week in August there will be a celebration of 200 years of history in the small community of McAlisterville in Fayette Township, Pennsylvania. Author Tim Varner offers hope that the bicentennial will rekindle a spirit of community and give people an opportunity to relive a time of less haste and stress. According to the Fayette Sentinel, the celebration will include re-enactors and a blacksmith shop that will recall a simpler time Hugh McAlister purchased a 160-acre plot of land and in 1810 asked his son William to lay out a plot for the township. Soon shops, a blacksmith, and a tannery filled out the plot. In 1855, the town built the Lost Creek Valley Academy to train teachers. Professor George McFarland purchased it in 1858, but by 1862, Lincoln had issued a call for more troops in the Civil War, and McFarland responded along with a number of academy teachers. McFarland served at Chancellorsville and was injured at Gettysburg. The academy became a home for the orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors and continued until 1899. The site remains a historic place for the town. This celebration honors a community, and I congratulate the townsfolk for commemorating their history and building their future.
Editor's note · Context
The speaker discusses the upcoming bicentennial celebration of McAlisterville, Pennsylvania.
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