 Drawn by the prospect of religious freedom and economic opportunity, the widower Baron bought 10,000 acres along Connoquenessing Creek in Butler County, Pennsylvania, began building a stone, brick, and wood framed castle, and founded (with Christian Buhl) a new town complete with sawmill, brickyard, and an iron furnace.He also traveled and sent glowing letters back to Germany, persuading his daughter and her new husband (a French Huguenot who fled after repeal of the Edict of Nantes) to emigrate in 1807 from Frankfurt.Phillipe Passavant built a store and became the new town's first merchant.