Azilum
Wysox Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Site of the famed French refugee colony is a few miles south. Here exiles laid out a town and built La Grande Maison for the Queen and her son, the heir to the throne of France.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The colony shows how the fear and violence of the French Revolution rippled all the way to the Pennsylvania backcountry, where America's promise of asylum drew Europe's political refugees.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museum13.7 mi away
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Related people
- · Marie Antoinette
Related events
- · French Revolution
- · French Azilum colony
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Azilum
Wyalusing Township, PA · est. 1947
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.
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.
William B. Wilson
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William B. Wilson rose from the coal seams of Pennsylvania's northern tier to the highest councils of American government. Born in Scotland in 1862 and set to work young in the Arnot mines, he became a leading voice for organized labor in an era of brutal mine conditions and bitter strikes. In 1913 President Wilson named him the very first U.S. Secretary of Labor, a post he held through the upheavals of World War I and its aftermath until 1921. The house across the road anchored the life of a man who never forgot the pit where he started.
Blooming Grove Dunkard Meeting House - PLAQUE
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