Excerpt from Pencillings About Ephrata: By a Visitor
Baptist. Persecution soon drove them from their homes, and Alexander Muck, a leader amongst them, devoted his property to the common use of the society, and emigrated to Pennsyl vania in 1729 - where the belief obtained many converts, and a church was formed at Mill Creek, in Lancaster county. Conrad Beissel, one of the members of this church, was very earnest in his researches after truth, and soon became impressed with a conviction that the seventh day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath. He issued a tract contending for these views, in the year 1725, and owing to the excitement caused by it at Mill Creek, he retired secretly to a cell on the banks of the Cocalico, where he remained for some time undiscovered by his brethren, during this time his opinions had prevailed with many of the society at Mill Creek, and when his retreat was found, they gathered about it and built cottages; so that the hermit’s cell was the nucleus, around which the future town of Ephrata gathered.
In the year 1732, the solitary cottage life was changed into a conventicle one, and a monastic society was established, and buildings were erected in the following year.
The dress adopted was, for the brethren, in addition to the usual costume, a long white gown or cowl, of texture suited to the season; the sisters a slight change in the shape of the cowl.
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