
French Azilum is in the mid-ground in this view of the Susquehanna River from the Marie Antoinette Overlook in Bradford County.
French Azilum began as an escape effort followed shortly by a business venture. When Comte Louis de Noailles, a French Naval officer, and Omer de Talon, a French nobleman, fled France for fear of execution, they came up with the idea for a settlement by and for refugees. They enlisted a group of influential Philadelphians, including Robert Morris, and John Nicholson, who also thought that it would be profitable to buy land in Northern Pennsylvania and start a colony for fleeing French nobles. They named their newfound venture the Asylum Corporation, since the French settlers were seeking asylum in the United States. However, once settlers got to the site they decided to change the official name of the settlement to “Azilum,” since it had fewer connotations with the mentally insane than “Asylum.” After the idea was proposed and money obtained, the building in present-day Bradford County began quickly.

This scenic overlook commemorates the attempt to save French nobility from the guillotine during the French Revolution.
During their time there, more than 100 noble settlers set up businesses and produced such goods such as pots, furs, and baskets. They also set up trading posts, schools, and churches, including the first Catholic Church in the present day Diocese of Scranton. While these nobles lived in the wilderness, basic and independent, some of the luxury goods that they were accustomed to as nobility were brought to Azilum on barges up the Susquehanna River.
All was going well in Azilum, despite social tension between the aristocratic French and Anglo-American working families, when word came that the king had been executed. This news only added to the restlessness, but they were too afraid to return to their home country due to violence. Finally, when Napoleon Bonaparte gained control of the country, he sent out notifications of amnesty to all the émigré nobles. Missing all the perks of being noble, many of the occupants of Azilum left in 1803 to return to comfort in France. With a large share of its inhabitants gone, the local economy of Azilum collapsed, causing all the families that stayed behind to disperse. The remaining families either struck it up and moved south, or settled in emerging towns across Northeastern Pennsylvania. By 1804, Azilum was deserted. As time passed the site, and its history, passed into obscurity.

This plaque recalls the visit of Louis Phillippe, the Citizen King of France to the colony, among many others.
Influence was not a one-way street however, for in the 1790s Americans had their own opinions changed by these French aristocrats. While the majority of the public still had respect for royalty, it gave Americans reaffirmed pride that they were free from the tyranny that monarchy represented. The settlement is also of local importance for Bradford and the surrounding counties. Many of the families that did not return to France settled in existing towns in Northeastern Pennsylvania or founded new ones. The Homets, LaPortes and Lefevres were three of the largest families who did not return to France. Two of them, the Homets and LaPortes, have towns in Northeastern Pennsylvania named after them: Homet’s Ferry and Laporte, respectively.
No other American settlement had a society like the Azilum. Mainly upper-class, these Frenchmen were transplanted to the backwoods of Pennsylvania, causing these aristocrats to have a new respect for the castes below them. The majority of the occupants were French nobility, not used to the rigors of everyday life. They eventually adapted, doing work and living in conditions they never believed possible back in France. Still, the French settlers clung onto parts of their nobility, and its tradition, like fancy dresses, elaborate dinners, and whatever luxurious goods they could get their hands on.

John LaPorte, a Pennsylvania legislator helped bring people back to French Azilum.
The uniqueness of French Azilum has long made it an attractive subject for historical fiction. In 1948, I Thee Wed by Gilbert Gabriel and Asylum for the Queen by Mildred Jordan both used historical details of the Azilum as a backdrop for their thrilling adventure/romance tales. In I Thee Wed, a dashing young Scots-American pioneer falls in love with the mysterious singer, Mademoiselle Marin, who was featured in two real Azilum diaries. Due to her resemblance to Marie Antoinette, the fictional Marin is to act as the Queen’s double if she manages to escape France, until Marin is captured by Judge Antoine Omer Talon, a historical person that Gabriel casts as the villain.
The hero of Jordan’s Asylum for the Queen is Pierre de Michelait, a romantic young man and former page to the Queen who becomes involved in attempts to rescue the royal family. Like Gabriel, Jordan also casts Mademoiselle Marin, this time as secret agent for the French Convention who is tracking the Dauphin’s (unhistorical) escape to America. Both authors utilize the colonial Pennsylvania landscape from the icy mountain peaks to the virgin woodlands that have since been lost.
Azilum found itself in popular fiction again in 1989 with Jeanne Mackin’s The Frenchwoman, in which Julienne, a former gutter rat who rose to seamstress of Marie Antoinette, is lead to the settlement. The town also inspired Mark Seinfelt’s Henry Boulanger of Mushannon Town, a semifinalist in Amazon.com’s 2008 Breakthrough Novel contest. Seinfelt’s narrator, Henry, is a French-born Revolutionary War solider who, after the war, is asked to help build Mushannon, a town for French refugees and a fictional version of Azilum. The story focuses on his transcontinental journey from the corrupt 18th Century Europe to the unspoiled American frontier.

French Azilum Lookout and the Marie Antoinette Inn in this scenic postcard from the 1950s.
“Archeology isn’t rocket science, it’s digging, so we give them [the volunteers] a quick tutorial on how to actually excavate,” Maureen Costura said in a WNEP 16 interview with Renie Workman. The volunteers used trowels, pans and buckets to scoop up the dirt and check for any little artifacts. The artifacts were usually pieces of ceramic, glass, old nails, or the odd tooth, most likely from a pig. At the end of the day the two Cornell students bagged all the items and label them according to their importance, classification, and the unit that found it. By the end of summer 2009, over five units had been unearthed containing numerous artifacts. With a clear idea of where the buildings were and how they looked, historians and visitors will have a better view of what life in Azilum was like.

This restored carriage house hints at what French Azilum once wished to become.
The Statue of Liberty was a grand gift from the French Government in 1886 to commemorate the friendship forged between the two nations during America’s Revolutionary War. Inscribed on the base of the statue is “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Written by Emma Lazarus, this quotation is a perfect representation of America’s acceptance of French refugees. America took in France’s tired and homeless and put them in French Azilum of present-day Bradford County, where they lived in the wilderness until it was safe to return to their nobility in France. Hundreds of years later Azilum is again receiving visitors, this time to uncover the history that this site holds.
The Center wishes to thank the French Azilum Historic Site and Cardcow.com, as well as individuals Stefan Poost and David M. Hilsdorf for their assistance in illustrating this story.
Sources:
- Biles, John A. Historical Sketches Pertaining or Linked with Asylum. Geneva, New York: The W.F. Humphrey Press, 1931. N. pag. PDF file.
- Blanc, Louis. The History of Ten Years, 1830-1840: or, France Under Louis Philippe. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1848. Google Book Search. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
- “Books.” Mark Seinfelt. Web. 22 Sept. 2010. <http://www.markseinfelt.com/books.php>.
- “Bradford County Pennsylvania.” Bradford County Pennsylvania. Bradford County, Nov. 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2009. <http://bradford-pa.com/>.
- Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution: A History Volume I. N. pag. Google Books, n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.
- Digging for History at French Azilum. WNEP 16, July 15, 2009. WNEP 16. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
- French Azilum: Historic Site. French Azilum Inc., Oct. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. <http://www.frenchazilum.com/index.html>.
- Gibson, Alexander D. “The Story of Azilum.” The French Review 17.2 (1943): 92-98.
- Kashuba, Cheryl A. The Times- Tribune. The Scranton Times-Tribune, 19 July 2009. 10 Nov. 2009.
- Mackin, Jeanne. “My Works - Jeanne Mackin.” Jeanne Mackin. 22 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jeannemackin.com/works.htm>.
- Mann, Robb, and Diana DiPaolo Loren. “Keeping Up Appearances: Dress, Architecture, Furniture, and Status at French Azilum.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 5.4 (2001): n. pag. PDF file.
- Mattise, Alexa. E-Mail interview. 28 Oct. 2009.
- Murray, Elise. “French Refugees of 1793 in Pennsylvania.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 87 (1944): n. pag. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
- Murray, Elsie. “French Experiments in Pioneering in Northern Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 68.2 (1944): 175-188. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
- Murray, Elsie. The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 5.4 (1948): 616-18.
- Murray, Louise Welles. The Story of Some French Refugees and Their Azilum 1793- 1800. Athens, PA: Tioga Historical Society, 1903. N. pag. PDF file.
- Picou, Margo Fox. Personal communication with Alan Jalowitz. 17 Oct. 2010.
- Sosnowski, Thomas C. “A ‘Noble’ Attraction: French Revolutionary Exiles in the Trans-Appalachian West.” OAH Newsletter (Fall 2004): 31-40. PDF file.
- Spaeth, Catherine T.C. “America in the French Imagination: The French Settlers of Asylum, Pennsylvania, and Their Perceptions of 1790s America.” Canadian Review of American Studies 38 (Nov. 2008): 246-270.
- Tassin, Susan. Pennsylvania Ghost Towns: Uncovering the Hidden Past. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2007.
- Worman, Edward A. “The 1790’s French Azilum in Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Magazine Apr. 1989: 25-30.
Novels about this subject
- Gabriel, Gilbert W. I Thee Wed. New York: Macmillan, 1948.
- Jordan, Mildred. Asylum for the Queen. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948.
- Mackin, Jeanne. The Frenchwoman. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
- Seinfelt, Mark. Henry Boulanger of Mushannon Town: A Novel of the American Revolution. [BookSurge], 2008.