Ephrata Cloister Cemetery

Cemeteries are considered to be hallowed and sacred ground. They are often owned or run by a church or religious group. The Ephrata Cloister is no different. The Ephrata cloister was once a religious compound under the guidance of Conrad Beissel. Now it is a museum and historical site because the religious group has long since died out. Among original buildings and recreations there is a small cemetery. In the cemetery there are graves of important leaders from the religious community and followers of Conrad Beissel. There are also graves of revolutionary war soldiers. These graves are important to a myth that was told during the tour from the 1970s to the 1990s. Thankfully this myth has been corrected in the tour that was revamped in the 2000s.

In the early version of the tour the story was told that there were hundreds of soldiers from Washington’s army who were brought to the hospital at the Cloister. The tour guide made it seem like these men were taken out of the heat of battle to the hospital. The legend then concludes with over 250 of the men dying while at the Cloister hospital.  

Fast forward to the current tour. Through a large amount of research it became clear that the story told on the older version of the tour was highly exaggerated. It is true that the Cloister did have a hospital during the Revolutionary War. It is also true that some soldiers were taken to this hospital. But they were taken there because the field hospitals were too full to hold soldiers who were sick. There were probably around 200 men in total taken to this hospital but only 60 died at the Cloister. These men did not die from battle wounds but from infection, most likely typhus.

The grave markers of these soldiers can still be seen at the Ephrata Cloister. These headstones are more than just a memorial to the dead; they are a connection to an interesting urban legend which has been passed down and correct throughout the tours of the Cloister.