The next destination on my Virtual Hike was the Pequea Valley in Pennsylvania. The specific place I wanted to visit is no longer standing, but I went to a place close by.

The previous destination on my virtual hike was North Kill Creek, Pennsylvania.

The virtual hike from North Kill went through mainly rural areas in Pennsylvania as it headed south to Lancaster County.

There was a lot of farm land along the way, and you could also see horse and buggy signs s the route also went through several Amish settlements.

The route went over rolling hills with some nice vistas of farm country.

Near the destination was an Amish house with the laundry hung out to dry.

The virtual hike finally made it to the Pequea Presbyterian Church near Gap, Pennsylvania. I am not sure exactly where the Pequea Log Cabin School stood, but it would have been close to here as the preacher of the Pequea Presbyterian Church ran the school. You can see that the church building is not from the 1700’s which is when the school was in operation, however you can see the historic cemetery behind the building.

The preacher and leader of the school was Robert Smith. The school in Pequea was a third generation school from the Log College of William and Gilbert Tennent. Fagg’s Manor was a second generation school in Chester County under Robert Blair. Robert Smith married the daughter of Robert Blair and started the Pequea school .

There were many influential students from the Pequea school, but I will only mention two of them. One was John McMillan who later moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania and started a log cabin school which eventually expanded into Jefferson College. The second student was David Caldwell who later started the Guilford Academy near Greensboro, North Carolina where Barton W. Stone was a student and where he met James McGready after he had returned to North Carolina from his education in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

The Pequea Valley where the school was located was a melting pot of religious traditions as it was home to the Amish, Mennonites, Schwarzenau Brethren and other  German pietist groups. I believe that this school and the religious environment around it had a major influence on the Restoration Movement attributed to Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone.

The next destination on my Virtual Hike is where a historic battle took place during the Civil War.

I have been setting shorter distances between destinations for better motivation for my daily walking and so far it has been working. I have been walking more each day and have made good progress on my Virtual Hike. I am still a few stops behind on my posts.

I am now heading west and have some interesting stops planned that are family or history related.

Steven

Images in this post are from Google Maps and Street View