In its early history, Ephrata was a pleasure resort and an agricultural community.

The county seat was located in Ephrata.

Other important roads that crossed the Palmyra area include the road which led from the Bindnagle settlement to Campbelltown ( now PA 117 ), and the Downingtown, Ephrata and Harrisburg Pike, which was known as the Horseshoe Pike ( now US 322 ).

Ephrata was officially incorporated on June 21, 1909 and was given the county seat for the newly created Grant County.

When the time came to present arguments to the state legislature regarding which town should be the county seat, someone apparently intentionally intoxicated the representative of a rival community, and Ephrata was chosen.

It is generally believed that the city was named Ephrata by a man who worked for the Great Northern Railway.

Horse trading was an important element of the local economy, and Ephrata served as the staging area for the horse round-ups.

The last " Grand Horse Round-up " was held in Ephrata in 1906.

In 1939, one of the state's longest runways was built at Ephrata and served the U. S. Army Air Corps until 1945, when the field was turned into a commercial airport.

Ephrata was in the national spotlight in a segment on 60 Minutes II after the 2003 murder of Craig Sorger by Evan Savoie and Jake Eakin.

Wickwire was raised in a small town called Ephrata in Washington State, by a mother who was an alcoholic and an emotionally restrictive father.

The Ephrata Cloister ( Community of the Solitary ) was founded in what is now Lancaster County on the Cocalico River in 1720.

The Ephrata Cloister's hymnbook was large, consisting of more than 1, 000 hymns, many of which were accompanied by instruments including the violin.

The Ephrata Cloister or Ephrata Community was a religious community, established in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Around this charismatic leader a semi-monastic community ( the Camp of the Solitary ) with a convent ( the Sister House ) and a monastery ( the Brother House ) was established called Ephrata.

The Ephrata hymnal ( words only ) was printed in 1747.

In 1990, the Denver and Ephrata Telephone Company purchased the theater to restore the building and once again provide movies and live productions to the area, with many original fixtures incorporated into the renovated venue.

* Fraktur, the artistic and elaborate 18th century and 19th century hand-illuminated folk art inspired by German blackface type, originated at Johann Conrad Beissel's cloister of German 7th-day Baptists in Ephrata.

In 1742 he advocated respect for the Saturday Sabbath keeping among the German speaking Christians in Philadelphia citing the use of that day by the Ephrata Cloister, thus promoting the first practice of the two-day weekend in America.

Johannes Kelpius of the Jacob Boehme Lodge in Germany led the German Pietists to America and these Rosicrucian immigrants and their descendants established a commune in 1732 at Ephrata, Pennsylvania known as the Ephrata Society under the leadership of Johann Conrad Beissel and Peter Miller ( who at the behest of Congress translated the Declaration of Independence into seven languages ); the buildings still exist today as part of a historical park known as Ephrata Cloisters.

The Ephrata Cloister had the second German printing press in the American colonies and also published the largest book in Colonial America.

Before the publication began at the request of a group of Mennonites from Montgomery County, it had to be translated from the original Holland Dutch into German, which was completed by Peter Miller of the Ephrata Community.

File: 2003. 09. 20 47 Ephrata Cloister Pennsylvania. jpg | Tombs with inscription in German

* German Seventh-Day Baptists-congregations tracing their origins to Ephrata

In 1745, Jacob Gottschalk arranged with the Ephrata Cloister to have them translate the " Martyrs ' Mirror " from Dutch into German and to print it.

Evelyn Ay Sempier was born the daughter of German immigrants in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

Böhme's views greatly influenced many anti-authoritarian and Christian mystical movements, such as the Religious Society of Friends, the Philadelphians, the Gichtelians, the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness ( led by Johannes Kelpius ), the Ephrata Cloister, the Harmony Society, Martinism, and Christian theosophy.

These groups included the Shakers, the Harmony Society and the Ephrata Cloister.

A number of religious utopian societies from Europe came to the United States from the 18th century throughout the 19th century, including the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness ( led by Johannes Kelpius ), the Ephrata Cloister, and the Harmony Society, among others.

Other religious societies established their own unique musical cultures early in American history, such as the music of the Amish, the Harmony Society, and of the Ephrata Cloister in Pennsylvania.

In later years, although no longer officially a functioning group, many of the Philadelphian Society's views and writings, particularly those by Jane Leade, remained influential among certain groups of Behmenists, Pietists, Radical Pietists, Christian mystics, and Esoteric Christians, such as the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness ( led by Johannes Kelpius ), the Ephrata Cloister, and the Harmony Society, among others.

In 1941, a Ephrata tract of land with remaining buildings was conveyed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for use as a state historical site.

* Ephrata Cloister official site

The young family moved to Earl Township, Lancaster County, and they lived near Ephrata, Pennsylvania, where the young Jacob took up farming and was in the business of manufacturing tiles and bricks.

In addition to the Ephrata Cloister, the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical United Brethren ( EUB ) trace their beginnings to a 1767 meeting at the Isaac Long barn, near the hamlet of Oregon, in West Lampeter Township.

The brothers and sisters of Ephrata are famous for their writing and publishing of hymns, and the composition of tunes in four voices.

* Ephrata Cloister, a religious community in Ephrata, Pennsylvania

In 1732, Beissel-led establishment of a semi-monastic community with a convent and a monastery at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

At its height, the Ephrata community grew to inhabited by about 80 celibate men and women.

* Ephrata Cloister-information on the community at Church of the Brethren Network

In 1732 Beissel established a semi-monastic community called the Camp of the Solitary, with a convent ( the Sister House ) and a monastery ( the Brother House ) at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The entire Ephrata community reportedly abstained from meat eating, which Beissel considered spiritually undesirable.

After the foundation of the Ephrata Community in 1732, Wohlfahrt took the name " Brother Agonius " and assisted Beissel in running the community.

Benneville also commonly visited the Ephrata Cloister, a utopian community with Universalist beliefs.