Azilum
Wyalusing Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The broad plain which can be seen from this point was the site, 1793-1803, of the French refugee colony. The Great House, built for Marie Antoinette and her son, was there and an entire village founded.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On the broad plain below this overlook, French émigrés fleeing the Revolution built an improbable frontier refuge between 1793 and 1803. Called Azilum (French for 'asylum'), the settlement included a large timber 'Great House' that local tradition linked to hopes of sheltering Queen Marie Antoinette and her son. The queen never came, and within a decade most colonists drifted away, but for a moment the Pennsylvania wilderness held a transplanted piece of aristocratic France.
Why it matters
Azilum is a vivid reminder that the upheavals of the French Revolution reached deep into the young American republic, which offered land and refuge to political exiles from across the Atlantic.
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Related people
- · Marie Antoinette
Related events
- · French Revolution
- · French Azilum colony
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Azilum
Wysox Township, PA · est. 1947
This marker points travelers toward Azilum, the French refugee colony founded a few miles south along the Susquehanna in the 1790s. Fleeing the guillotine and the revolts of the French Revolution and its Caribbean colonies, the exiles carved out a village on the frontier and raised 'La Grande Maison' — a house whose builders imagined it might one day shelter the French queen and the young heir to the throne. The royal guests never arrived, and the colony faded within a decade.
Friedenshuetten
Wyalusing Township, PA · est. 1948
In 1763 the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger founded Friedenshuetten at the Native town of Wyalusing along the Susquehanna. The mission became a model for later Moravian efforts among Indigenous peoples, blending Christian worship with communal village life until it was abandoned in 1772. That year, pastors Ettwein and Roth led roughly two hundred converts westward to a new mission, Friedensstadt, near the Ohio country — part of the long, often tragic displacement of Native communities.
Rev. William Bishop
Scranton, PA · est. 1948
Born in England in 1749, William Bishop became the first ordained minister to serve the future city of Scranton. Around 1795 he raised a combined log church and dwelling near this spot, where he preached to the scattered settlers of the region until moving on; he died in nearby Scott Township in 1816. His humble log meetinghouse was among the first institutions of faith in the Lackawanna Valley.
Edward A. Walsh (1881-1959)
Plains Township, PA · est. 2004
The hard-coal towns of the Wyoming Valley turned out more than their share of major-league ballplayers, and Plains-born "Big Ed" Walsh was among the greatest. Pitching for the Chicago White Sox, he averaged 24 wins a year across 1906–12 and, in his astonishing 1908 season, won 40 games with 11 shutouts—including both ends of a doubleheader. Master of the spitball, he retired with a career earned-run average of 1.82, still among the lowest ever, and entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.