St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-07
WERE WEALTHY TOWNS.
Rabbits and Foxes Make Their
Homes in Their Streets Now.

| Homes in Their Streets Now.
Chicago Times.
The state of Pennsylvania is rich In
| deserted villages. In deep valley
which cuts into the wooded mount
| aims of Sullivan county stands all that
| remains Of the once thriving town Of
| Celestial. Peter Armstrong, rich and
eccentric Philadelphian, beanie con-
vert to the peculiar tenets of the Sec
ond Adventists, and resolved to use
| his wealth in creating refuge for the
members of his sect. In 1859, with this
object in view, he purchased $4,000
acres of land in Sullivan county. He
was soon joined by some 200 followers,
and the work of clearing away the for
est and building town began.
All property was held in common,
and if any of the residents of Celestia
possessed money it went into a gener-
al holding, such deficit as existed at
the end of the year being made up
from Armstrong; private fortune.
Armstrong was the undisputed king of
Celcstia. He apportioned the labor Of
his followers, decided their differences,
| divided their crops, led in their relig-
ious exercises, stood godfather for
their children, and closed the eyes of
| the dead. But the prosperity of Ce-
lestia, despite it's founders shrewd-
ness and executive ability, was short
lived.
The younger members, as they grew
up, objected to holding property in
common. Many of them married and
| settled outside of the community,
while a majority of the older ones
wearied of the hard life of the pioneer
and drifted back to their old homes
! and old vacations. The death Of Arm
strong completed the ruin of the town,
and few years later the site of CeleS-
tia was sold to satisfy unpaid taxes.
Today only a few little mounds, the
former sites Of houses, trace the spot
where the village stood in the old
days. Briars and fire weed crowd out
between the powders. and a few
! crumbling fences of white sandstone
| are all there is to mark the grave of
Peter Armstrong; queer ambition.
Scattered about Western Pennsyl-
vania are half a hundred deserted oil
| towns, mute yet eloquent "reminiscences
of the fierce thirst for wealth. The
most interesting of all is Pithole, which,
less than thirty years ago, boosted q
population of 10000, but of which
scarcely vestige now remains. In De-
cember 1864, the site of the future of
Pithole was two farms, yielding a SEN
| der living to their owners. On one Of
these farms a gusher well was struck
in the following month and hundreds
at once f1ocked to the new field. With
in six weeks the population of Pithole
numbered 5000; by the following July
Ia in
the town had population of above
10000.
Two theaters were open nightly, a
| dozen hotels were crowded with guests,
| half a dozen churches had been built
and two railroads completed, while
others were being surveyed. Houses,
barrooms, dance halls office buildings,
| banks, drug stores, law offices and
other structures covered what a year
| before had been pasture land. At
this time Pithole was the seat of trade
| employing millions of dollars every
month, and teemed with. busy, indus
trious and enterprising population. To-
| day it presents scene of the most alb
| ject desolation. IL. ..-l..s- .s.,..s,
Grass, stone and underbruSh cover
the site of former business blocks, trees
| twenty feet high are growing in the
| cellar of what was once the leading
hotel of the town, and the former
| streets and avenues are now TILED
fields. On a hill overlooking the de-
serted town stands fine church build
ing. It's bell still hangs in the steeple,
it's pews are still cushioned, and on the
pulpit desk rests the clergyman's Bible.
One of the builders of this church was
| a Scotchman who grew rich at Pithole,
and left it before it's decline to go to
his old home across the sea. When he
died a few years ago he bequeathed a
large sum to the church, of which he
had been member but the society had
long beeen disbanded, and the money
could not be disposed of as proposed.
Pitholes decline began within a year
of its wonderful birth. The oil sup
ply gave out in 1866, and soon after a
terrible fire devastated the town. Then
it's inhabitants fiocked away to other
| fields, and soon Pithole was only a
| memory. Sodom's destruction was not
more complete than that of the Whilom
metropolis of the oil country.
Hindustan, once the capital of the
territory of Indiana, now lives only
in memory, while the free-state strug-
| gle in Kansas produced several towns
| memorable for their association with
| famous men and historic events, which
| long since fell into decay, and have
| now utterly voniShed from the earth.
But the most interesting of all the de-
serted villages of the middle West is
| Nauvoo Ill. When in 1889 the Mormons
were forced to leave Missouri,
whence they had migrated from Ohio,
they took refuge on the east bank of
the Mississippi, in Illinois. Here they
built the city of Nauvoo, which, within
| a twelvemonth, boosted a thriving, in
dustrious population of $1,000, including
converts to the Mormon faith from Eu-
| rope and Canada and all parts of the
United States. The city, although des-
tined to be short-lived, was nobly
| planned, and became the wonder and
marvel of the time.
1t contained, beside many fine build
ings erected by private enterprise, an
imposing temple of white limestone
which cost more than $1,000, 600, while
the famous House of Joseph, which was
a private dwelling and hotel COM
bined, had a frontage on two streets
of 12O feet each, and had already cost
a fortune when work upon it was sus-
pended Under the charter secured
from the state government the Nor
| mons were granted their own courts
and militia. and at NauVoo their proph-
ct ruf6, WHllS II ldSleO, was dDSOlulS
and supreme. In the original creed of
the Mormons there was no sanction of
polygamy, but soon after the settle
ment at Nauvoo Joseph Smith, whose
| private life was VIGOROUSLY immoral,
| began to take to himself plural wives.
His example was quickly followed
| by many of his adherents, and finally
| in 1913 there came to the prophet
| revelation formally authorizing a plu-
rality of wives. Though at first care
| fully guarded, the fact that polygamy
was countenanced and practiced by the
members of the new sect soon leaked
out, greatly aggravated the hostility
with which NauVoo, by reason of the
exclusiveness and fanaticism of it's
citizens, had come to be regarded by
it's gentle neighbors. This hostility
eliminated in June, 1S43, in the kill
| ing by a mob of Joseph and Hyram
Smith, who had been arrested on a
| civil charge by the state authorities
| and confined at the neighboring town
| of Carthage. Brigham Young, suc-
| oaadipcr ~ bo loo 1orcbin Of tho ohnrcI,