Editing Monaca, Pennsylvania (section)

===Early settlements===
[[File:CountdeLeonHouseMonacaPA.jpg|thumb|[[Bernhard Müller]] house in Monaca]]
Monaca has a history dating to the 18th century. The land on which it stands was granted by the [[Pennsylvania|Commonwealth of Pennsylvania]] by patent, bearing the date September 5, 1787, to [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] [[Ephraim Blaine]] (1741–1804), who served in the [[Continental Army]] during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], was [[commissariat|commissary-general]] of the Northern Department from 1778 to 1782,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.onlinebiographies.info/me/rmm/blaine-jg.htm|title="Bio of James Gillespie Blaine As found in "Representative Men of Maine" (1893), A Collection of Biographical Sketches."}}</ref> and was [[James G. Blaine]]'s great-grandfather. In the patent, this tract was called "Appetite". On August 1, 1813, the land was bought by Francis Helvidi (or Helveti, Helvedi, Helvety), described as a [[Polish people|Polish]] [[Nobility|nobleman]] exiled from his native country who immigrated to America. Helvidi, who may have been the first white settler in Monaca, bought the large "Appetite" tract and raised [[sheep]] on it, but his venture was unsuccessful. [[Harmony Society]] leader [[George Rapp]], one of Helveti's [[creditor]]s, complained in 1815 "about the risk Helvety is taking with the sheep," and in 1821, the property was sold at [[Public auction|Sheriff's sale]] to Rapp.

In 1822, the beginnings of a town appeared when Stephen Phillips and John Graham purchased the property and established their "extensive boat yards" on the Ohio River there. It was first named for Phillips, and was long known as Phillipsburg.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o0CAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA609|title=History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania: And Its Centennial Celebration|first=Joseph Henderson|last=Bausman|date=March 19, 1904|publisher=Knickerbocker Press|via=Google Books}}</ref> Phillips and Graham built numerous [[steamboat]]s, including the ''William Penn'', which carried the [[Harmony Society|Harmonites]] from their second settlement in [[New Harmony, Indiana]], to [[Beaver County, Pennsylvania|Beaver County]] and their third and final home at [[Old Economy Village|Economy]]. In 1832, Phillips and Graham sold the entire tract of land to seceders from the Harmony Society at Economy, and moved their boatyards to what is now [[Freedom, Pennsylvania|Freedom]]. The seceders from the Harmony Society were led by [[Bernhard Müller]], known as Count de Leon. The group consisted of [[Germans|German]] immigrants who formed a [[Intentional community|communal]] religious society. In 1832, after leaving Economy with about 250 former Harmony Society members, Müller and his followers started a new community in Phillipsburg (now Monaca) with the money they obtained in the settlement with the Harmony Society. There they established the New Philadelphian Congregation, or [[New Philadelphia Society]], constructing a church, a hotel, and other buildings. They soon renamed this community "Löwenburg" (Lion City). Perhaps because of ongoing litigation and other financial problems, Müller's group sold its communal land in Pennsylvania in 1833. Some community members stayed in Monaca, while others followed Müller and his family down the Ohio River on a [[flatboat]]. A number of those who followed Müller and his family ended up at the [[Germantown Colony and Museum|Germantown Colony]] near [[Minden, Louisiana]]. But many stayed in Monaca, and not long after Müller and his followers left, a new religious speaker, [[William Keil]], showed up in the area in the early 1840s. Keil was able to attract some followers who were former Harmony Society/New Philadelphia Society members, and his group eventually moved away and settled the communal town of [[Bethel, Missouri]], in 1844, and [[Aurora, Oregon]], in 1856. But a number of former Harmony Society/New Philadelphia Society members stayed in Monaca. In 1840, the area was incorporated as the "Borough of Phillipsburg" from the [[Moon Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania|Moon Township]] site. The first burgess was Frederick Charles Speyerer, and the first council Edward Acker, Jacob Schaffer, Henry Jung, George Forstner, and Adam Schule.