A week later than it should be, but we have a blog post! The weather recently in my corner of the commonwealth has had a negative impact on my health, particularly the coastal storm that threatened to dump a few inches of rain on us. (It didn't, but I still felt it coming.) So there was no way I was going to get a post up last Wednesday, and between one thing and another I just never got to it during the rest of the week either. But I'm better this week, so it's back to business as usual.
I'm sure that my contact Melly at the Sullivan County Historical Society has been waiting for a new post from her neighborhood. She was a wonderful tour guide when Kevin and I visited a few months ago for his birthday, and I think it's time I shared more of what we learned on that trip. Pennsylvania has its share of ghost towns and abandoned settlements, and Sullivan County in particular has a few, one of which has a PHMC marker. It has a pretty unique history. I don't currently have photos to share, as we weren't able to visit during our trip, but I hope to make a return journey to Sullivan County and see it then.
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| The marker is situated on PA Route 42 west of Laporte, a little way northwest of Celestial Lake |
According to Miller's calculations (however he came up with them), the date for the Second Coming was expected to be May 21, 1844. He later 'corrected' his math to make it October 22, 1844. When both of these dates passed with no indication of Jesus returning, it became known as the Great Disappointment, and the people who believed in it came to be called Adventists. They shifted their preparations to spiritual concerns instead of physical.
One of these Adventists was a Philadelphia native named Peter Armstrong. He decided that Miller's predictions weren't entirely wrong, but that rather than actually showing up on either of the 1844 dates, Christ had instead prepared and cleaned what he called "the heavenly sanctuary," and was just waiting for people to show up in that place with their spirits ready to witness the great event. Apparently he didn't really think this was going to happen for another thousand years, but his plan was to work on getting things ready in the meantime.
The records are very fuzzy about just how many residents Celestia had at any point, but surviving evidence would suggest that there were never more than a handful or so of small residences. Peter Armstrong lived there, of course, with his family; he had married a fellow Philadelphian, Hannah Taylor, and they had at least four sons. (His Find A Grave profile lists three sons, none of whom are the son mentioned on the historical marker. So at least four.) At the center of Celestia was the Armstrong home, which served multiple functions. On the first floor was a general store, run by Hannah, and the printing press, which provided the community newspaper, The Day Star of Zion and Banner of Life; on the second floor was a large auditorium where the people held religious services and town meetings. The Armstrong family, and perhaps others, occupied various living quarters throughout the rest of the building. The house had a barn behind it and a small pond. Another house was built explicitly for Jesus to use upon His return. Other buildings included a sawmill, boarding houses, a brickworks, and assorted farm buildings. Farming was the chief way that the people kept themselves fed and clothed, though they also sold items like wool and maple syrup to outside neighbors. As the historical society's website says, "By 1860, the community was established if not flourishing."
Then came 1861 and the war that ripped the country in half. This would have strange repercussions for Celestia, though not until one of the residents received a draft notice ordering him to report for duty in the Union Army. Peter had only allowed 'true believers' to live in Celestia. He required sincere faith in heart and spirit, full commitment to God and community, and the abandonment of property. The holy temple he planned to build was to provide a place of refuge for the faithful, where they could hide during the final battle between good and evil (a principle tenet of Millennialism); after the battle, they would be taken from the temple and carried up to heaven. It was his intention that the people of Celestia "may enter into life without seeing death and corruption," and war wasn't really part of that idea. So he was probably horrified by the arrival of that draft notice, and the prospect of more coming. He then did what I'm sure anyone would have done in his position - he sat down and wrote a letter to President Lincoln, explaining the nature of Celestia and asking that its residents be exempted from the Union draft. The amazing part is that Lincoln agreed. By establishing themselves as adherents in exile, fully committed to their religious beliefs, they were given complete exemption from all military drafts. Peter thought for sure that God was smiling on Celestia, and further petitioned the government of Pennsylvania to similarly considered them as being exiled from the commonwealth, and thus exempt from paying taxes. Specifically, he asked that the State House of Representatives officially confirm that the Celestial residents were "peaceable aliens and wilderness exiles from the rest of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania". He even recorded a deed in which four square miles of the land were the property of "Almighty God" and "His heirs in Jesus Messiah for their proper use and behoof forever".
Of course, there's a reason why we can't have nice things, and this kindness from President Lincoln was the beginning of the end of Celestia.
Word got out, as it tends to do, that this wacky little settlement had been granted amnesty from the draft. So more and more people began showing up, claiming to be Millennialists but in reality just wanted to escape being sent off to a battlefield. Even after the war ended, others came in search of a relatively easy life away from society, where the kindness of the Celestia residents made it easy to take advantage. An increasingly frustrated Peter watched as his holy experiment began to decay. He set up a secondary community at Glen Sharon, near modern Sonestown, where he hoped to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. It didn't work; both communities struggled to survive. Doubt settled into the minds of several of Peter's neighbors and they left altogether.
He soon found himself facing another problem. Although he had deeded four acres of land to "Almighty God," the county government still expected Peter to pay the taxes. He hadn't, and in 1876 they came after him for it, eventually forcing a sheriff's sale of some of the land to cover back payments. One of Peter's sons came to the rescue, purchasing the land from his father, but the damage was more or less done. The once-promising settlement continued to dwindle, and even Peter himself spent less time there than he previously had done. The vision he'd treasured of an earthly utopia would never come to pass. Peter died in Celestia on June 20, 1887, at the age of 69, his glorious tabernacle forever unbuilt. Hannah followed a few years later, and they were both returned to their native Philadelphia to be buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery. A few faithful residents continued to live in Celestia for years more, but by the dawn of the 20th century it had been abandoned. The property remained in the possession of the Armstrong family all the way until 1990, after which it was largely purchased by private entities, and Celestial Lake was formed by damming the spring which had once delivered fresh water to the little community.
Today, all that remains of Celestia is five acres of land maintained by the Sullivan County Historical Society. They've created a parking lot where visitors can leave their cars and walk along what was once Celestia's main street. A brochure is available on site (or can be acquired online here) to provide a walking tour, indicating which building foundations have endured and where various bits of the town once stood. In largest part, though, nature has again reclaimed the place in the wilderness which Peter Armstrong attempted to prepare the way of the Lord.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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