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INDIANA VILLAGE NEW HARMONY
Gc 977.202 N352HO
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02516 4846
Gc 977.202 N352HO HOLLIDAY, JOHN H. 1846-1921 . AN INDIANA VILLAGE, NEW HARMONY
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INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS VOLUME V NUMBER 4
AN INDIANA VILLAGE
NEW HARMONY
BY
JOHN H. HOLLIDAY
INDIANAPOLIS EDWARD J. HECKER, PRINTER 1914
INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS VOLUME V NUMBER 4
AN INDIANA VILLAGE
NEW HARMONY
BY
JOHN H. HOLLIDAY
INDIANAPOLIS EDWARD J. HECKER, PRINTER 1914
BLACK GOLD
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46901-2270
NOTE
This article was written originally for the Indi- anapolis Sentinel after a visit I paid to New Harmony in July, 1869. Later it was revised, some additional facts being added and the whole brought down to 1881, when it was read as now presented to the Indianapolis Literary Club on April 4 of that year. The reader should bear this fact in mind. J. H. H.
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE NEW HARMONY
A few months since there passed away a prominent citi- zen of Indiana, who as one of a surveyor's party traveled all over the region known as the New Purchase when there were probably not a score of white families living within a radius of fifty miles of Indianapolis. Where there is now a flourishing city and a prosperous country, his eye had gazed upon an unbroken, trackless forest. It is hard to picture the marvelous change that had been wrought within the limits of his manhood. In no age has there been, and in no age can there ever again be such a
wonderful development. The pioneer now has scarcely put a roof over his head before a railroad is at his heels, bringing with it the comforts of civilization, and follow- ing in its wake comes a stream of population that in a short time has subdued the forest or covered the prairie with continuous farms. Rapid moving and aggregations of population there may be, but they come armed with all the facilities of modern life, and are within easy commun- ication not only of older settlements but of the whole world. Fifty years and more ago the pioneer coming to Indiana to carve out a home in the wilderness, turned his back upon the world and his life was one of hardship and privation. One of the early preachers, yet surviving, who came from central New York, has said that when he brought his wife away her friends bade her farewell forever, and now he can write to a daughter in Japan and receive an answer in less time than he then could to a point barely twenty-four hours distance from Indianapolis
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
by rail. When we consider what stupendous changes have taken place and remember that this wilderness of sixty years ago is now almost the center of population of the nation, it seems impossible that one man's life should have covered it all. Yet when Judge Test was carrying the surveyor's chain and establishing the metes and bounds of townships and sections that he probably never expected to see occupied, there was in Indiana a well- settled town which looked as if it might have been lifted up from the banks of the Rhine or the Neckar, like Alad- din's palace, and set down upon the lower Wabash. Quaint it would have seemed even to the eye of a traveled beholder, with its high houses of red brick and stone, with peaked roofs, odd architecture but massive construction ; its frame dwellings with no front doors; its streets set out with large rows of shade trees; its uniformity of de- sign and cleanliness ; and its surroundings of well-culti- vated fields and vineyards, encompassed with forest. But to the Indian who yet lingered in the vicinity, or the rov- ing white man, it must have presented a strange appear- ance as he stood upon a neighboring hill and watched the smoke pouring from the factories and saw the busy laborers moving about. Very different it must have seemed from the straggling village in the woods made by the Americans, where nothing rose higher than the mud chimney of the log cabin, and where the stumps thick in the corn patches and the fresh rail fences marked the new- ness of the settlement and the resources of the settlers. Probably it was then as it certainly had been a few years before, the largest town in the State, but that distinction it soon lost. The flow of immigration passed it by and to-day it is not so large as it then was, simply a village, in size like many others, but in appearance and charac- teristics quite different. Its existence then was an anom-
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aly, but it was due to the same causes that brought the Puritans to New England and the Huguenots to the Caro- linas.
In 1757 there was born to a small farmer of Iptingen in Württemberg a son, who was called George Rapp. He received a common school education, worked with his father on the farm and in the winter was a weaver. At twenty-six he married. His life was like that of his class, but the man was no ordinary peasant. He was fond of reading and of thought. Religious feeling was much ex- cited in the country during his early manhood, and Rapp, a devout believer, studied his Bible with the zeal charac- teristic of his race. He found in it a very different scheme of life from that in which he was placed. He was a literalist, and reached and surpassed the conclusions that literalists hold to-day. The lethargy of the estab- lished church was in sharp contrast with the activity of the Apostles. Christ might come at any moment, yet men were living as if there were no Christ. He longed for a return to the former things, for the close union of Christian fellowship intent only upon the eternal veri- ties. He talked to others and found believers. At thirty he began to preach in his own house. His congregation, when it attracted notice, was denounced as separatists and persecuted by the clergy with the usual result. Yet there was nothing dangerous in their creed. Submission to the authorities was a principal tenet; all they asked was the right of private judgment and freedom to wor- ship as they chose. Within six years three hundred fami- lies had become adherents of Rapp, and, after ten years of waiting, seeing no prospect of peace or toleration, they determined to go to America. In 1803 George Rapp. his son John and two others, having left the church in charge of Frederick Rapp, an adopted son, landed at Baltimore,
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
and, after prospecting in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, bought five thousand acres of wild land in Butler county, Pennsylvania, twenty-five miles north of Pitts- burgh. On July 4th, 1804, three hundred of the colonists landed at Baltimore, and six weeks later the same num- ber at Philadelphia. There was still a remnant which, however, deserted the main body and settled in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. The six hundred, made up of me- chanics and peasants, but all thrifty, some having con- siderable property, were settled temporarily in Maryland and Pennsylvania, while a number went with Rapp to prepare their property for occupation, and in February, 1805, organized themselves into the Harmony Society, based upon the apostolic church and having all things in common. The rest, when they came, agreed to the plan, and with one hundred and twenty-five families began the community variously known as the Rappites, Harmon- ists and Economists, probably the most successful ma- terially of all recorded schemes of voluntary association. This community was welded together by a profound faith, for which each member was ready to suffer perse- cution. They were headed by a man of strong, practical sense, indomitable perseverance, intense conviction and force. His assistant, Frederick Rapp, is described as "a man of uncommon ability and administrative talent." The members had the phlegmatic temperament and slow movement of the German peasant, with his constancy of purpose, animated by a supreme desire and controlled by a strong mind. There were no scoffers, no drones ; cheer- ful obedience was given ; each labored for the good of all. Harmony was built, factories were established to produce all that was needed, agriculture was carefully pursued, and stock breeding cultivated. The community was fru- gal and industrious, and flourished. The wilderness blos-
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
somed, comforts accumulated, children were born, and the members, happy in their present state, looked hopefully forward to the coming of the kingdom and a rest at the right hand of the Master. But a wave of religious feeling passed over the colonists, and George Rapp announced that to attain a purer life, to reach a higher sphere of which they had no conception, the carnal man must be crucified ; in other words, celibacy must be practiced. In view of the second advent and the approaching resurrec- tion, in which there was to be neither marrying nor giv- ing in marriage, and in order that they might be num- bered among the one hundred and forty-four thousand "who should stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, and who were to be such as were not defiled with women, but were virgins," he urged his people to this further prepa- ration and purification, and, always leading, put away his own wife and bade his son do likewise. He was obeyed by almost all his flock, and, under the enthusiasm of mis- taken faith, God's arrangement of mankind into families was set aside, the husband and wife separating and living henceforth as strangers. The adoption of celibacy, in the belief that those who practiced it would receive the most perfect happiness in the next world, completed Rapp's system of theology, which embraced the tenets of ortho- doxy, except that punishment was not eternal and that the second coming was at hand.
The Rappites, however, intent upon the things of the kingdom, were not averse to a comfortable life here and had a remarkably keen eye for the main chance. They found it difficult to get markets, and, getting into some disputes with their neighbors, decided to sell out, which they did at a sacrifice for $100,000, and bought thirty thousand acres of land in what was then Gibson but is now Posey county, Indiana. As before, a party of pio-
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neers went in advance, building houses and clearing ground. In 1814 the whole community came in broad- horns down the Ohio and up the Wabash to their second home, which they called New Harmony.
The village, situated on the higher land or second bot- tom, was laid out in squares forming four streets running north and south and six east and west. To these others have been added, but for many years the town preserved the same limits. How many Harmonists there were can- not be told. Accounts differ widely. At New Harmony it is said that more than one thousand went away, and there is no doubt that several hundred died there. When they left the town contained thirty-five brick, forty-five frame and about one hundred log houses, which must have required a population of about one thousand. Of the brick and frame buildings many are still standing, a few only having been burned or torn down, but they have been altered and improved in so many ways that the Harmonists, who had a queer notion that one door, and that a back one, was enough for any house, would not rec- ognize them now. The most imposing edifice was the town hall, a huge cruciform structure measuring one hun- dred and twenty-five feet within the walls. For many years after the community days it was used as a pork- house, but some time ago was torn down, with the ex- ception of a wing which the workingman's library occu- pies.
The "grainhouse," another large building, is still standing. It is built of stone to a height of twenty feet, and finished to an equal height with brick and surmount- ed with a high, rounding peaked roof. Its walls are very massive and the windows are barred with iron. It was built for a granary, the Harmonists said, and the walls were made thick to keep out the weevils, but the general
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
appearance, added to the fact that loopholes were pierced in it, lead one to believe that it was meant for a place of security should the community be attacked. When built there was no reason to dread the Indians, but the Germans had a wholesome fear of their backwoods neighbors who might have been induced to molest them. The granary was occupied for many years by Dr. David Dale Owen as a laboratory and museum, and afterward was used for a woolen factory and mill. Near by, on the corner, where Dr. David Owen's residence stands, was the home of George Rapp, afterward burned, and from this an underground passage to the grainhouse was found after the Harmonists had gone. Another of the build- ings is fitted up as a theater and ballroom, and for many years has been a commodious public hall, in which not a few plays have been produced by home talent. Another very large building with a mansard roof, built for a board- ing house, is used as a store, Odd Fellows' lodgeroom and printing office. Another one was the Viets house, long the hotel of the village, and a queer, quaint hostlery it was, with a jolly fat landlord such as we read about, but fire injured it many years ago and the jolly landlord is sleeping the last sleep in the neighboring graveyard. All of these buildings were put up with great care. The Harmonists did their work well.
Just west from the old town limits and not far from the river is an enclosure of several acres covered with a locust grove. This is the cemetery of the Harmonists. No stones or marks of any kind point out the graves, now undistinguishable. The ground is covered with grass, and, but for occasional ridges, one would think it never had been broken. Here awaiting the second coming of Christ, in anticipation of which they joyfully left home and country to cross the sea and settle in a strange land,
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
sleep several hundred of Rapp's followers. The mortality in the community was very great at first, and it is said the reason the graves were not marked was because Rapp thought it would have a bad effect both upon the people and strangers, to see how many had died. Here they lie, preserving in death the custom they observed in life, bur- ied uniformly in rows. There are no family ties, no ex- alted places, nothing but equality ; here at last is the true communism. They are not forgotten, however, by their friends at Economy, for the cemetery is well cared for at the expense of the community.
When the Rappites came to the Wabash the clearing of the country developed malarious diseases which made frightful havoc among them; it is believed that four or five hundred died during the ten years. When the worst was over the people became discouraged; possibly their faith was weakened, for the Messiah had not appeared ; possibly Mr. Rapp thought they needed the stimulus of a removal and new settlement. After trying for several years to get a purchaser, the town and about two-thirds of the land was sold in 1824 to Robert Owen, of Scotland, for $150,000. They returned to Pennsylvania, eighteen miles below Pittsburgh, building a town called Economy. Here they have prospered greatly, accumulating by en- terprise and industry, as well as by fortunate investments, a large property, rumor says millions. George Rapp died here in 1847, ninety years old, but confident to the last that his mortal eyes would see the Master coming in pow- er and glory. Few additions have been made and the community is small in numbers, less than two hundred. Their affairs have always been well managed, and there is a good deal of interest felt as to what will become of their property. It is believed that it will go to the State, but, curiously enough, there are a number of people in
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AN INDIANA VILLAGE
Württemberg who, holding various degrees of relation- ship to members, hope to get a part and have brought suits to that end. Materially the Rappites' experiment has been a great success. They have lived well and accumulated a large average of wealth. But did it pay? Was the sac- rifice of the individual profitable? The answer will be almost as varied as there are individuals. In his auto- biography Robert Dale Owen says :
"When my father first reached the place. he found among the Germans-its sole inhabitants-indications of plenty and material comfort, but with scarcely a touch of fancy or ornament ; the only exceptions being a few flow- ers in the gardens and what was called the Labyrinth, a pleasure ground laid out near the village with some taste, and intended-so my father was told-as an emblematic representation of the life these colonists had chosen. It contained small groves and gardens, with numerous cir- cuitous walks enclosed by high beech hedges and bor- dered with flowering shrubbery, but arranged with such intricacy that without some Dædalus to furnish a clew, one might wander for hours and fail to reach a building erected in the center. This was a temple of rude mater- ial, but covered with vines of the grape and convolvulus, and its interior neatly fitted up and prettily furnished. Thus George Rapp had sought to shadow forth to his followers the difficulties of attaining a state of peace and social harmony. The perplexing approach, the rough ex- terior of the shrine and the elegance displayed within, were to serve as types of toil and suffering, succeeded by happy repose.
"The toil and suffering had left their mark, however, upon the grave, stolid and often sad German faces. They looked well fed, warmly clothed (my father told me) and seemed free from anxiety. The animal had been suffi-
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ciently cared for ; and that is a good deal in a world where millions can hardly keep the wolf from the door, drudge as they will, and where hundreds of millions, manage as they may, live in daily uncertainty whether in the next week or month absolute penury may not fall to their lot. A shelter from life-wearing cares is something, but a temple typifies higher things, more than what we shall eat and what we shall drink and wherewithal we shall be clothed. Rapp's disciples had bought these too dearly- at an expense of heart and soul. They purchased them by unquestioning submision to an autocrat who had been commissioned-perhaps as he really believed, certainly as he alleged-by God himself. He bade them do this and that and they did it; required them to say, as the dis- ciples in Jerusalem said, that none of the things they pos- sessed were their own, and they said it; commanded them to forego wedded life and its incidents, and to this also they assented. Their experiment afforded conclusive proof that if a community of persons are willing to pay as high a price for abundant food, clothing, shelter and absolute freedom from pecuniary cares, they can readily obtain all this, working leisurely under a system of com- mon labor, provided the dictator to whom they submit is a good business manager."
Whether the Harmonists assumed any duties of citizen- ship I have not been able to discover, but it seems proba- ble that they did, or at least in this State, as Frederick Rapp was a member of the convention that framed the first constitution. serving on several important commit- tees. Subsequently he was a member of the Legislature and was one of the commissioners appointed to select a site for the State Capitol, a duty which he performed in 1820.
Robert Owen, by whom the second experiment in so-
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cialism at New Harmony was made, was born in New- town, Montgomeryshire, Wales, May 14, 1771. His par- ents were poor and he received little education, but being naturally a thoughtful, studious though not precocious boy, he read whatever he could lay hands upon and early formed opinions of his own, especially upon religious sub- jects. He himself says his doubts of the truth of religion began when he was ten. About that time he went to Lon- don to earn a living and thence to Manchester, where he drifted into cotton spinning at first, and before he was twenty as a superintendent, when he made great improve- ments in the business, and subsequently as an owner. He brought to his business intelligence, industry and good habits, and he succeeded. He seems to have been a model youth and man, pure minded. intent upon improvement, diligent in study and reflection. In Manchester in 1794 he lodged for some time in the same house with Robert Fulton and aided him with considerable money to prose- cute various mechanical projects, but not that of the steamboat, then unthought of by the inventor. Here too he made acquaintance with and became a munificent sup- porter of Lancaster and Bell in their earlier efforts in edu- cation, and their views, according with theories already formed, took strong hold upon his mind. In all this he showed the trait of character which was to dominate his whole life, love to his fellow men, and which, after ex- hausting large accumulations, did not wane in advanced age and comparative obscurity. To the last he was hope- ful and helpful and utterly unselfish. His theory of life briefly stated was that man is the creature of circum- stances, or as we put it now, the victim of his environ- ment. He is made by his surroundings, character being formed partly by nature at his birth and then by the ex- ternal influences to which he is subjected. Such a thing
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as moral responsibility did not exist, according to Mr. Owen. It is impossible within the limits of this sketch to give a comprehensive notice of this remarkable man or even a just estimate of his character and work. Suffice it to say that at New Lanark, a few miles from Glasgow, where he had become part owner of a large cotton mill in 1800, he put his theories of education and training into practice, and with marvellous success. The population was made much superior to that of other factory villages. order and virtue prevailed, all were schooled, especially the children, and happy homes of contentment built up. The fame of this village spread and it had visitors from all civilized countries, including royalty itself. Mr. Owen believed, and so did many others, that he had solved a great social problem and that from New Lanark was to radiate an influence that would transform modern so- ciety. Mr. Owen was convinced that his system could be applied as successfully to the world as to a factory vil- lage. He proposed to form communities, living in one immense building or village of union, built in a parallel- ogram, with common purses, food, enjoyment, resources and pursuits. The family arrangement was not inter- fered with, the adults he thought would be held together by a bond of self-interest, while the young were to be trained from infancy and built up in faith, so that coming to maturity the individuals having had the best surround- ings would be free from human passions. Mr. Owen worked incessantly to promulgate his plans, at the same time championing education as the panacea for evil, and becoming the pioneer reformer of factory abuses. He was the advocate of everything that could help men, ex- cept religion. His views on this great subject he did not announce until 1817, when, after much preparation, he boldly declared them in an address in London. He evi-
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dently expected momentous consequences, possibly mar- tyrdom, but his conscience bade him speak and he spoke. The declaration seemed to create barely a ripple of sur- prise, but was none the less effective in injuring him. Such views in a country like England would at this day drive many away from one holding them, but it was far worse then. Owen was looked upon by most of the Eng- lish people as the Delaware judge looked upon Bob In- gersoll-a blasphemer and an enemy of the country who should be crushed. He became obnoxious to a large class, his name was coupled with Paine's and Voltaire's, the good he had done was forgotten or belittled, and the good he would do was ignored and decried because he was an unbeliever. Nor has this impression passed away, and to many Englishmen the name of the factory reformer, the father of co-operative societies, the rugged, honest, un- selfish man, the philanthropist in the best meaning of the word, only conveys the idea of an apostle of atheism and an enemy of all good. Not all his friends dropped away, however, and with some assistance a community experi- ment was tried in Scotland. This failed, because of bad management, for Mr. Owen, while a man of large general views, failed in the details of his experiments except at New Lanark. About this time he concluded that social- ism could better be attempted in a new country where society was in more of a formative stage than in the old world, and, hearing of the desire of the Rappites to sell out, he came to this country, lectured in the principal cities, visited New Harmony, bought the property and announced that a community would be established there. There was no difficulty in finding adherents. Several hundred gathered there in the spring of 1825 when Mr. Owen made an opening address, suggesting the forma- tion of a preliminary society as a sort of experimental
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