Countess Leon
| Elisa Heuser Leon, or the Countess Leon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1799 Frankfurt, Germany |
| Died | 1881 (ca. aged 82) Hot Springs, Garland County Arkansas, USA |
| Residence |
(1) Monaca, Beaver County |
| Occupation | Established Germantown Colony |
| Spouse(s) | Bernhard Müller, or Count Leon |
| Children | Johanna Schardt, Joseph Maximilian, and Anna Stahl |
(1) Monaca, Beaver County
Pennsylvania
(2) , Louisiana
(3) Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana
Countess Leon, or Elisa Heuser Leon (1799–1881), was a founder and leader of the communal Germantown Colony established in 1835 north of Minden in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
A native of Frankfurt, Germany, Countess Leon was the daughter of Johann and Anna Maria Heuser. She claimed to have married Bernhard Müller, a Christian mystic also of Germany, who was known as Count Leon, or Count de Leon. The couple had three children, Johanna Schardt, Joseph Maximilian, and Anna Stahl.
In 1831, the Countess and her husband came to the United States with a like-minded group of believers. The Leons first joined a Rappite colony in Monaca in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, but because of a schism, they left that group and instead headed down the Ohio River southeast to Louisiana. They soon established their proclaimed "New Jerusalem" at Grand Ecore north of . When the Count and several other relatives died of cholera, the Countess moved some eighty miles north from that location near the Red River to present-day Webster Parish near Minden in northwestern Louisiana.
...
Wikipedia