The Ephrata Commune

E. G. Alderfer has chosen a dramatic story to tell—the founding and subsequent history of Ephrata, a mystical religious community that flourished in eastern Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth century. The history of the commune is inseparable from that of its leader, Conrad Beissel, a German Pietist who came to America in 1720 seeking spiritual peace and solitude. When he settled in the virgin forest of Lancaster County, his talents and charisma attraced other German settlers who shared his visi