In the winter of 1846, the first Mormons crossed the Mississippi River and traveled west near the areas that later became Unionville, Moravia, and Iconium. In 1849, Moravians followed the same route by schooner, and Joseph Stauber, Ephraim Conrad, Theophilus Vierlings, and their families came from North Carolina seeking to establish a righteous community where they could follow their religious beliefs. With financial help from Lucinda Bagge and Anna Catherine Stauber, forty acres were purchased from the Mormons to be sold as lots and used to build a Moravian Church, and in June 1851 Joseph Stauber, Theophilus Vierlings, and Ephraim Conrad plotted the original site of Moravia using a string and compass. One of Moravia's earliest and best known military veterans was Capt. Ephraim Cummins, whose family moved to Appanoose County in 1849; he married Maria Theresa Stauber two years later, had eight children with her, was commissioned in 1863 as captain of Company F, 8th Iowa Cavalry, and after her death married her sister Anna in 1874 and had two more children. After the Civil War, he served as Moravia's postmaster and published The Weekly Messenger for four years before dying at his home in Moravia in 1891 and being buried in the Moravia cemetery. Moravian culture also left a lasting mark through the Moravian star, first constructed in 1820 by former Moravian Boy's School student Christian Madsen for the school's fiftieth anniversary and Christmas celebration, later adopted by the Moravian Church as an Advent symbol and represented in the city park by memorial steppingstones marking the foundations of culture, faith, education, and music. In 1905, Jack Allred, publisher and founder of the Moravia Union, organized the first Moravia Fall Festival with Charlie McFatridge and Fred Buckmaster, supported by local business owners, farmers, and residents; its attractions included exhibits, horse-powered rides, free shows by the Hines Bros. Carnival, and a parade led by Moravia's band and drum major Blaine Harn, and its success helped establish both the newspaper and the festival as enduring parts of community life.