Strange Bedfellows
Philadelphia has many odd connections to people and places throughout history. Some of these are obvious; for example, Philadelphia resident Ben Franklin influenced the compositions of Mozart and Beethoven when he created the glass armonica, an instrument designed to mimic the sound a wet finger makes when run across the rim of a glass. Others, however, are not as apparent. Two hundred years apart two men would be born in the same town in Romania -- one would go on to inspire one of the most beloved works of Gothic horror ever written, the other would emigrate to the United States and form America's first true doomsday cult.
Sighișoara was founded in the 12th century by Transylvanian Saxons who had been invited into the region by the King of Hungary. In the centuries that followed, it would be pillaged, suffer plagues, and see a number of leaders come and go. But it two greatest claims to fame would come in the form of men who would be born under its borders, two figures who would change English literature and Philadelphia history.
The Impaler
Somewhere between the years of 1429 and 1431 a son was born to Vlad II, Voivode of Wallachia. As was customary, the child was named after his father and thus Vlad III came to be. Upon his father's death at the hands of the Regent-Governor of Hungary John Hunyadi, Vlad III worked with the Ottoman Empire to invade Wallachia and assume the mantel of voivode of the region. Never one to remain idle, Vlad would stir up a conflict with the nearby Saxons of Transylvania before turning on the Ottomans. His tactics in dealing with these opponents would become so widely known and feared that they would change his name colloquially; Vlad III would impale and/or burn alive tens of thousands of Saxons and Ottoman Turks, and in turn this led to his rebirth as Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad the Impaler's bloodlust was such a distinct historical reference point that word of it traveled across generations. In his home of Romania, that tenaciousness in fighting off the Ottomans turned him into a folk hero, but outside of the region that cruelty would act as inspiration for an Irish writer named Bram Stoker. Using a loose sketch of Vlad III for the central villain of his novel, Stoker transformed the Impaler into a literal vampire and renamed him Dracula. Using that same name for the title of his novel, Stoker crafted a work of Gothic fiction which not only achieved great popularity but also influenced literature and pop culture such that he created the modern conception of the vampire.
The Prophet
Two hundred years after Vlad the Impaler came to be, another child was born to the city of Sighișoara, although this one wouldn't be as interested in blood so much as the end of the world. Johann Kelp was born in 1667. Kelp was bright and excelled at academics, specifically theology. He eventually earned his master's in the field at the University of Altdorf, but not before developing a fascination with Pietism, a reactionary movement within Lutheranism which sought reformation in much the same way Martin Luther sought to reform the Catholic Church, and changing his name to Johannes Kelpius. Kelpius converted to Pietism and began following German esotericist Johann Jacob Zimmerman. It was under Zimmerman that Kelpius became introduced to millenarian teachings, and upon Zimmerman's death, Kelpius took over Zimmerman's congregation and chose to lead the group to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the belief that world was coming to an end.
Kelpius' group, the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness, arrived in Philadelphia in 1694, first settling in Germantown, and then later on the Wissahickon Creek. They selected Philadelphia because of the reputation Pennsylvania had been gaining as a place of religious tolerance, and the group believed that it could hide in the wilderness surrounding the city and await the end of the world in a fashion similar to their namesake, a woman referenced in the Book of Revelations who flees a dragon with seven heads and ten horns by hiding in the woods for over three years. In fact, Kelpius personally believed 1694 would be the year it happened. In preparation, the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness built a tabernacle and waited patiently for God to return. Kelpius himself took up residence in an underground cave, which still stands to this day (and has since adopted his surname, becoming known to locals as the Cave of Kelpius).
As should be readily apparent, the world did not end in 1694. Despite this, Kelpius and his followers continued their work, even coming into the city on occasion to preach. Unfortunately, Kelpius was not long for this world, and he passed away at the age of 35 in 1708. The Society of the Woman in the Wilderness quietly disbanded in the years following his death.