The town that God built

Lock Haven, Pa. — Along Route 42 in Sullivan County, about halfway between Eagles Mere and Laporte, there’s one of those blue historic markers. It stands near a set of ruins, what remains of an old community.

The spot has quite a fascinating history. It was once called Celestia.

The story of Celestia begins with a man named William Miller, who made a prediction. You remember a few years ago, when a man named Harold Camping predicted the world was going to end? He said he’d done the math, based on the Bible, and the world was going to end on a certain date. (You’ll note we’re all still here.)

This is not a new gig; William Miller beat him to it by a century and a half.

In the 1840s, Miller predicted that the world was going to end on a specific date. He gathered a tribe full of followers, who believed this, as well. When it didn’t happen, he claimed to have made a mistake in his calculations, and predicted a new date. When the second one also turned out to be wrong, his followers drifted off to resume their lives.

One of these followers was Peter Armstrong, and he settled in Sullivan County.

Miller tried essentially the same claim, but he was canny enough to not be pinned down to a specific date. He said that Jesus was going to return, and then the world would end, but Jesus would need a place to stay in the meantime.

So in the early 1860s, he bought land in Sullivan County and founded a community. He named it Celestia, and declared it to be a sanctuary for everyone waiting for Jesus to return. To that end, he had a temple built in town, which would double as a living space for Jesus when he arrived.

Armstrong amassed a community full of followers, Then the Civil War began, and one of the faithful was drafted into the army. This inspired Armstrong to write a letter to Abraham Lincoln, requesting that his people not be drafted on religious grounds. Lincoln granted permission, though reading between the lines, there’s a strong feeling that Lincoln’s actual approach was, ”Yeah, whatever, I have bigger problems right now.”

Having succeeded in this, Armstrong tried an even bolder move. He deeded his land to God, and quit paying taxes. On June 14, 1864, he registered the deed at the Sullivan County courthouse, conveying his property to “Creator and God of Heaven and Earth, and to His heirs in Jesus Messiah, for their proper use and behoof forever.”

And then he quit paying taxes.

Though someone might be able to avoid military service, there’s no messing with taxes.

Sullivan County took the land for back taxes and placed it up for sheriff’s sale. Armstrong’s son purchased it, but by that point, a lot of the followers had left. Celestia went downhill, and Peter Armstrong died there, almost alone, in 1887.

His son and grandson, Lewis and Calvin Armstrong, moved to Lock Haven and started the Lock Haven Paper Company. Calvin married the granddaughter of two Lock Haven mayors and built a home on Water Street, having parts from old houses in Celestia shipped in.

Because of all this, there are places in Pennsylvania that were once owned by God.

When I’m giving tours of the region, I often wrap up with this. It’s a little hard to top.