The 1700s were a time of populist revolution for both America (1754-1788) and France (1789-1799). America's lasted longer and experienced tremendous hardship and bloodshed. French royalty, military and citizens banded together to help America defeat the British and establish itself as a nation. Thus, during the French Revolution, America willingly opened its doors to the many French forced to flee their country and territories.

        Though shorter in duration, the French Revolution was even bloodier and more maniacal than that of America. Deaths by guillotine, giving rise to the phrase "heads will roll," occurred daily throughout France. The criterion was fundamentally by "guilt by association" with the French monarchy no matter how slight.

        It is in this light that aristocrats and others sought to flee. Among their top destinations was America. A kindred revolutionary spirit embraced both countries. French Azilum was unique as it was one of very few communities established exclusively for the French in America. It came about at the inquiry and request of the Vicomte de Louis de Noailles and fellow countryman Omer de Talon. Noailles, a French military officer who had fought alongside George Washington and was also related to the Marquis de Lafayette, another aide to Washington, was motivated by the execution of his wife, two of his children and his parents. Talon, once in service to King Louis XVI, was motivated purely by survival.

        De Noailles and Talon escaped from France and took their idea for a community for refugees to Philadelphia's Stephen Girard, Robert Morris and John Nicholson, Pennsylvania's comptroller general, all of whom had helped to finance and otherwise abet the American Revolution. Seeing potential to make money from an influx of well-to-do French, and well-versed in the trials of revolution, the trio set out to identify land suitable for the purpose.

        At a point about ten miles below Towanda, Pennsylvania, between Wysox and Wyalusing, the Susquehanna River arches into a great horseshoe bend, half encircling a terrace of land that slopes backward into the western hills. This fertile crescent of land was Azilum or Asylum. The Indians knew this place as Missicum - the "Meadows". Sixteen hundred acres were acquired, three hundred of which were laid out as a town plot with a two-acre market square, a gridiron pattern of broad streets and 413 lots of about one-half acre each. By the following spring some thirty rough log houses were built.

        To the exiles who crossed the Atlantic and traveled up river to this remote spot in late fall of the year 1793 it was a haven far removed from the dangers of revolution, imprisonment, slave insurrections and yellow fever. To them it was Azilum, a place of refuge.

        They had left France to escape imprisonment or death at the hands of the French Revolution. Others had fled the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti) to escape the carnage of mulatto and slave uprisings inspired by the declaration of equality of the radical French Assembly. Though she was executed on Oct. 16, 1793 as the first refugees arrived at Azilum, some hoped that even Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, and her two children were to settle here. News traveled slowly in those days.

        In time, several small shops, a schoolhouse, a chapel and a theatre appeared around the market square, along with a gristmill, blacksmith shop and a distillery. Dairying and sheep raising began. Orchards and gardens were planted, and the manufacture of potash and pearl ash was established.

        Although the domestic structures were crude, many had chimneys, wallpaper, window glass, shutters and porches to satisfy the desire for beauty and comfort. Some of the little luxuries and extravagances brought with them from their native lands kept alive the memory of better days.

        The most imposing building in the colony was "La Grande Maison", a two-story log structure eighty-four feet long and sixty feet wide. It had numerous small-paned windows and eight large fireplaces. It has been said, although not proven, that it was to be the dwelling of the Queen. La Grande Maison was the scene of many social gatherings and among its guests were Talleyrand and Louis Phillipe, who was later to become King.

        The fantasy of a quasi-aristocratic French court transplanted to a rustic sylvan environment, however, was to be of very short duration. Economic depression set in and money was hard to obtain. Morris and Nicholson went into bankruptcy, and the income which the colony received from French sources stopped.

        Beginning in the late 1790s many of the émigrés drifted away to the southern American cities of Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. Some émigrés returned to Santo Domingo. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte, French dictator after the revolution, made it possible for exiles to return to France and many did. A few families, including the LaPortes, Homets, LeFevres, Brevosts and D'Autremonts remained in Pennsylvania and in later years their descendants helped to settle Wysox, Wyalusing, Athens, Towanda and other communities. Azilum itself soon passed into history.

        Of the more than 50 structures erected by the refugees, not one remains, though archaeologists have located numerous subterranean foundations. The 400-odd half-acre house and garden plots, so carefully planned and then abandoned, were absorbed into larger tracts of farmland and tilled for generations by later occupants.