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Along Hermit Lane in the Philadelphia suburb of Roxborough, there lived a colony of forty men called Pietists or Mystics. They were also called the "Hermits of the Ridge" and "The Monks of the Wissahickon." They were a devout and religious group of men, well educated and of good families.
The Pietists came from various parts of Germany in 1694 to escape the religious intolerance there and to prepare for and witness the coming of the millennium, which according to their organizer, John Jacob Zimmerman, a noted astronomer and mathematician, was to take place in the fall of that year. They also came to put into execution a long cherished plan of founding a true Theosophical Community in the Wilderness, to perfect themselves in holiness.
On the eve of their departure from London, their leader, John Jacob Zimmerman, died and John Kelpius became Majister. The Pietists arrived in Germantown on June 24, 1694 and settled on land along the ridge above the Wissahickon Creek. They studied Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology, Philosophy and Theosophy. Some experimented in Alchemy and Chemistry. Others busied themselves in Pharmaceutical experiments, endeavoring to discover the "Elixor of Life."
Kelpius built for himself a log cabin and a stone vault or cave in the side of the hill, where he might seclude himself for silent meditation and prayer. On discovering foxes burrowing in the rocks of the cellar of his cabin, Kelpius called the place "Rocksborrow." He died in 1708 at the age of 38. After his death, discipline among the men relaxed. Some of them broke their vows of celibacy and married. After about 1765, the remaining members of the Community scattered.
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