DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Correspondent One of the few visable remants of the community of Celestia, a stone foundation from a building, can still be seen at the site near Laporte in Sullivan County.

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
One of the few visible remants of the community of Celestia, a stone foundation from a building, can still be seen at the site near Laporte in Sullivan County.

LAPORTE — High on a mountain top in Sullivan County little remains of what once was a small religious community where residents waited for the second coming of Christ.

In 1850 Peter E. Armstrong purchased 181 acres for $450 in the rolling hills a mile and a half west of what is today the borough of Laporte. Armstrong, who hailed from Philadelphia, was inspired by the words of Isaiah 40:3, “In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

Taking these words literally, Armstrong set out from Philadelphia to find a place in the wilderness to establish a community where God would return to take his followers up to heaven, according to Melanie Norton of the Sullivan County Historical Society. He got as far as Sullivan County and thought, “It didn’t get any better, he just felt inspired to call this Celestia,” noted Norton.

“His faith must have so consumed him, to have moved from the city of Philadelphia out here to the wilderness, and in the midst of the woods, to eke out a living, essentially from what God gives you,” said Norton.

His pilgrimage north to Sullivan County was most likely brought about by the movement known as the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th Century, which brought about changes in the religious landscape of the U.S. Beginning after the American Revolution, this revival was prompted by the establishment of separation of church and state in the Constitution.

Armstrong was originally a “Millerite,” a religious group founded by the Rev. William Miller, that tried to predict the end of the Earth and Christ’s return. They would predict a date, it would come and go, and then the Millerites would try to explain why nothing happened.

“Our math was wrong or our source was wrong,” — there was always a reason why nothing happened, said Norton.

The faith of the people that followed Miller began to ebb — including Armstrong’s. He still thought that God was coming to take those followers up to heaven, but he disregarded a date. His thought was that people should all be ready for that day and live your life accordingly, noted Norton.

By 1853 a town plan was formed and over 300 lots measuring 20 by 100 feet were sold to his followers, according to the Sullivan Democrat newspaper. By 1860 the self-sustaining community was established and had grown with the purchase of additional acreage, according to the Sullivan County Historical Society. That same year Armstrong moved to Celestia with his wife Hannah and their children.

The small farming community, which now included a sawmill, machine shop and store, sustained itself through the use and sale of things such as wool, maple products, contributions and the sale of lots, according to the historical society. The community came to have a large flock of sheep and the wool harvest was the community’s main source of income, according to the paper, “From Wilderness to Wilderness” by D. Wayne Bender. Also maple trees were tapped for syrup and maple cakes were sold throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the Patriot-News.

Armstrong began to publish a monthly newspaper in 1864, called “The Day Star of Zion,” which the masthead contained a drawing of the temple he hoped to one day build in Celestia. The newspaper was marketed to people from Philadelphia to California, according to the Patriot-News. The stone temple was started but never completed.

When Armstrong would have a premonition of Christ’s second coming, he and the residents would don white robes and head to the highest peak in Celestia to wait, according to the American Weekly. Even as they waited in vain, Armstrong’s faith did not waiver.

In 1864 during the Civil War, after a Celestia resident received a draft notice for the Union Army, Armstrong wrote to President Abraham Lincoln asking that the men in his community be excused from serving.

“He made very strong arguments in his letter to President Lincoln as to why the men in his congregation should not be forced into doing something against God’s will,” said Norton. Armstrong also had a judge from Sullivan County and other county officials write letters as well asking for the residents exclusion, according to Bender. The letters must have been persuasive as Celestia’s male residents were granted exemption from the draft on the grounds of what today we would call a conscientious objection.

In June of 1864, Armstrong and his wife Hannah visited the Sullivan County prothonotary to deed 4 square miles to “Almighty God, who inhabited Eternity, and to His heirs in Jesus Messiah.” Presumably the land would not be taxed, Armstrong had hoped.

“I would have loved to have been a mouse on the wall when he went to the prothonatary’s office to legally turn this over to God, to have to audacity to turn in God for not paying taxes,” noted Norton.

Word got out about the draft exemption and people began to join Celestia mainly to get out of serving in the war, not fueled by their belief in Armstrong’s vision. An influx of people may have been a detriment to a community that prided itself on being self-sustaining, according to Norton. People also may have came to escape taxation and take advantage of the benefits of communal living.

Armstrong started a second religious community six miles away in 1872, in Glen Sharon, near Sonestown, to try and weed out the people with less than pious motives. “You had to pass through the first one” before being admitted to Celestia, said Norton.

“In the end God didn’t pay the taxes — I don’t know how the sheriff ever thought he was going to serve Him” in the end when it went to tax claim, said Norton.

Initially when they were trying to the collect the Sullivan County taxes owed by Peter they even took his sheep, which was part of his livelihood, which would have made it more difficult to pay any monies he owed, noted Norton.

In 1876, 350 acres were auctioned off by the Sullivan County treasurer. The property sold for $33.72, according to pajack.com. The acres were purchased by Alvah Armstrong, son of Peter.

Peter Armstrong died at Celestia on June 20, 1887 at the age of 69. Celestia had declined and only a few faithful residents remained, according to the historical society.

The Armstrong family held the property until 1990, when it was sold, but 4 1/2 acres of Celestia were donated to the Sullivan County Historical Society. The spot where the town stood along Route 42, which is marked with a historical marker, can be visited and has posts in the ground with numbers that coordinate with a brochure available at the Sullivan County Historical Society in Laporte and on their website describing how the town was laid out. The GPS coordinates to visit Celestia are N 41.42297 – W 076.52448.

All that remains today of the buildings is part of a stone foundation, the town has returned to the wilderness it once was when Peter set out to find God’s country all those years ago.