​Burkittsville’s skyline is dominated by the spires of its two oldest houses of worship, Resurrection Reformed Church (now South Mountain Heritage Society) and Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church. However, tucked between the historic houses of West Main Street stands another, more hidden, historic house of worship. This charming clapboard structure of Gothic Revival style was Saint John’s Episcopal Chapel. 

The school officially opened on October 15, 1866 and was granted a charter by the Maryland General Assembly the following spring. Soon thereafter, the seminary moved into a spacious new three-story brick building on West Main Street. The new seminary building was one of the largest structures in town and consisted of lecture rooms on the first floor, sleeping quarters for the school's boarding students on the second and third floors, and sleeping quarters for school faculty in the attic level. The basement contained a large kitchen and the rear ell wing housed offices and the school's library. A cupola atop the school afforded a panoramic view of the village, South Mountain, and the surrounding Middletown Valley. ​

The German Reformed Church in Burkittsville attained sufficient membership to support its own minister in 1846. In that year, the congregation withdrew from the pastoral care of Christ Reformed Church in Middletown and called their own minister, the Rev. George Lewis Staley. Boundaries were drawn up for the new Burkittsville Charge which was centered at the church in Burkittsville and encompassed the nearby communities of Petersville, Berlin (Brunswick), and Knoxville. Even before this significant year, the congregation's ministers had traveled to Knoxville and held occasional services as early as 1840.

Moses Andrew Stewart was the sixth pastor to serve Resurrection Reformed Church in Burkittsville. His pastorate lasted for eleven years, the third longest tenure of any minister to serve the congregation. Rev. Stewart led the congregation through two significant events in its history: the renovation of the church building in 1860 and the Battle of South Mountain after which the church was utilized as a field hospital. Only a few documentary fragments exist to illuminate Rev. Stewart and the momentous events he oversaw as pastor of the Reformed Church, but they tell an intriguing and important story of a significant figure in the history of the congregation and of Burkittsville.

According to U.S. Census Data, Moses Stewart was born around 1830 in Ohio. Virtually nothing is known about his childhood until 1849 when he was admitted to the German Reformed Seminary at Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. While Moses was attending Marshall College, this institution was at the center of a debate in the German Reformed Church and the birthplace of theological movement which later had a significant impact on the Burkittsville Reformed Church.

Tyrconnel Farm is situated along the base of South Mountain roughly halfway between Burkittsville and Knoxville along MD Route 17. For nearly two decades, this farm became the campus of Saint John's Select Boarding School for Young Ladies, also known as Saint John's Female Seminary. Rev. George Lewis Staley [1823-1908] was the principal and owner of the school throughout its operation, and he was well known in the community long before the first students were welcomed to Saint John's School in 1866.

​Born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), George was the son of the Rev. Stephen Staley and Ann Mary Leiby Staley. He studied with his father and private tutors before attending Marshall College and the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, graduating from the latter in 1845. Once ordained, Rev. Staley was assigned to the pastorate of the newly-formed Burkittsville Charge of the German Reformed Church. He remained in Burkittsville from 1846 until 1849 when he was called to serve a congregation in Philadelphia. In 1853, Rev. Staley resigned his charge and returned to the Burkittsville area and founded a school for boys. This school was first operated at a farm named "Linwood," but quickly outgrew this location and moved to Barleywood Farm at Petersville. The Barleywood Academy was short-lived, only operating for three years, but it set Rev. Staley on the course for the remainder of his career in education.