USA > Indiana > Posey County > New Harmony > An Indiana village, New Harmony > Part 2
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preparation for the community. In this the members were to live in families, receive credit for the work they did and draw all supplies from a common fund, which apparently was to be supplied by Mr. Owen. The gov- ernment was to be done by a committee chosen by uni- versal suffrage, and it was hoped that in two or three years, when the inharmonious characters had been weed- ed out, the asperities softened and the good qualities de- veloped, the grand plan of brotherhood could be estab- lished. The constitution was saturated with philanthro- phy, and it is not a little amusing to find it excluded the blacks altogether, but afterward says: "Persons of color may be received as helpers to the society if found neces- sary, or if it be found useful, to enable them to become associates in communities in Africa or in some other country, or in part of this." Even in this elysium race- prejudice had full force. The society grew very rapidly, soon numbering over one thousand persons, and compel- ling notice that no more could be received until greater accommodations were provided. Schools taught by ac- complished teachers were put into operation, labors of various kinds were pursued, and for a time there was a great deal of interest and enthusiasm, so much so that the next January it was thought the time had come for the organization of the real community. It may seem strange that so many people could have been gathered up in so short a time, but it must be remembered that great inducements were offered-comfortable homes, cul- tured society, good schools, small cost of living. There were a number of believers sincerely desirous of trying Mr. Owen's theory, there were some crackbrain enthusi- asts ready for anything unusual and novel, but there were more who were actuated by purely selfish motives and who saw in his scheme a chance to better themselves
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cheaply. To others it was doubtless a sort of picnic or grand frolic. And there were some sharpers keenly look- ing for spoils, who gave Mr. Owen a great deal of trou- ble before he was done with them. As the novelty wore off, disaffection broke out. At the end of the first year, however, Mr. Owen expressed great satisfaction, and after another year in which there had been a great deal of discord, he was equally sanguine of success, although in a few weeks the crisis came and his sons declared the community dead. Mr. Owen was not at New Harmony much of the time the community existed. He trusted others to carry out the details, but his presence would not have maintained it longer. There was no strong bond to hold the members together, no intense faith as with the Rappites, no confidence in any leader. The only tie was selfishness and that not of a high or enlightened type. Nearly fifty years after Robert Dale Owen, look- ing back after a long and busy life, said: "I do not be- lieve that any industrial experiment can succeed which proposes equal remuneration to all men, the diligent and the dilatory, the skilled artisan and the common laborer, the genius and the drudge. I speak of the present age; what may happen in the distant future it is impossible to foresee and improvident to predict. What may be safely predicted is that a plan which remunerates all alike will, in the present conditions of society, eliminate from a co- operative association the skilled, efficient and industrious members, leaving an ineffective and sluggish residue, in whose hands the experiment will fail, both socially and pecuniarily."
Soon after the formation of the community Mr. Owen had sold half the land to William Maclure, the rest he had never conveyed to the society, and on its abandon- ment he offered land to those who wished to form small
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agricultural communities. Several were established, leas- ing land at low rates, but the sharpers took advantage and secured a large amount of property from him. Subse- quently he deeded all his interest in the property to his sons. who paid him an annuity of $1,500 a year. The New Harmony experiment cost him about $200,000, and the $40,000 he had left was spent in the same way, a trading society or bazaar started in London taking a large part. Another socialistic experiment in England was as great a failure as that of New Harmony. He died in November, 1857, at his birthplace, to which an uncontrollable desire had taken him. Singularly enough, this man who all his days had refused to believe in the supernatural, became an ardent and most credulous spiritualist in his old age. But he was long forgotten outside of a small circle. William Lucas Sargeant, author of "Robert Owen and His Social Philosophy," says: "Owen lived so long that the remembrance of the good he accomplished was in- terred even before his bones. His proceedings during the last thirty or forty years had been so entirely apart from the ordinary current of affairs, that the man himself was forgotten. In 1857, at the great educational conference in London, when a feeble, white-haired man took an ir- regular place on the platform and tried to get a hearing for notions apparently quite beside or perhaps above the questions at issue, many persons hearing the name of the intruder. presumed that he must be the son of the notorious Robert Owen of their childhood."
"Men may come and men may go," but the influence of their actions goes on forever, and if Mr. Owen did not suc- ceed, he left a rich legacy to the State and country. With the abandonment of the community, New Harmony sim- ply assumed its place as an Indiana village. Many who had been attracted by the social movement went away,
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but many remained, some of them the choicest spirits of the association. Among these were Mr. Owen's sons, Robert and William, who were soon joined by David and Richard. William came with his father on his first and Robert on his second visit to this country, and the latter was so charmed with America that before he had been on the soil twenty-four hours he had determined to live and die here and had taken the first step toward natural- ization. He came by water from Pittsburgh in a keelboat which, from its valuable freight of talent and learning, was known to the community as "the boatload of knowl- edge." Among the passengers were William Maclure, Thomas Say, C. A. LeSeuer, a French naturalist, who partly made the voyage around the world with LaPe- rouse ; Dr. Gerard Troost, afterward State geologist of Tennessee; Miss Lucy Sistaire, who became the wife of Thomas Say ; Madam Fretageot, a French lady of great ability as a teacher, who took charge of the female schools, and whose descendants are now prominent citi- zens of New Harmony ; Mr. William Phiquepol De Arus- mont, a teacher who subsequently married Frances Wright; Stedman Whitwell, a noted London architect ; Captain McDonald, a wealthy Scotchman who had been in the British army and who afterward inherited a title' of nobility; Joseph Neef, the father of Mrs. Richard Owen, a coadjutor of Pestalozzi, who took charge of the boys' school and had conducted a school upon the Pestalozzian system at Schuylkill Falls, in which Admiral Farragut was a pupil ; Oliver Evans, son of a noted ma- chinist at Pittsburgh, and a number of others. These peo- ple and others of the more cultivated class were influ- enced to join the community by two reasons : a part, and the smaller, believed in socialistic theories and wished to try the experiment, but the larger part were fascinated
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with the educational features proposed. The latter class was headed by William Maclure, and it was due to his personal influence that Say, LeSeuer, Neef, Madam Fre- tageot and probably others came. William Maclure was a native of Ayr, Scotland, who engaged in business in London and New York at an early age, rapidly acquir- ing a fortune. Geology and natural history became the objects of his special study and he traveled all over Eu- rope and most of this country in their pursuit. In 1809 he published a geological map of the United States which gave him the title of the father of American geology. He was regarded as almost the first of American scien- tists and was the chief founder of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, where he made his home, and for twenty-three years was its president, aiding it finan- cially with large sums, and at his death leaving it his books and specimens. He early became an enthusiast in education, and in 1819 went to Spain to establish a great agricultural manual labor school for the lower classes, but just as his buildings were completed the Bourbon government was reestablished and he was driven out and his property, including ten thousand acres of land, con- fiscated. Returning to this country, he endeavored to carry out his scheme and finally attempted it at New Harmony, though not a believer in socialism. He gath- ered together these prominent teachers and scientists, and as has been said, purchased half the property from Mr. Owen. The failure of the community naturally in- jured his project of creating a great scientific center, but it might have come to something had not his health failed, compelling him to remove to Mexico. His prop- erty in New Harmony was retained for a number of years and Mr. Say made his home there, but when he died Mr. Maclure lost much of his interest in the place. The
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Workingmen's Institute, if not his suggestion, was great- ly aided by him with money and books, a large part of its library being his gift. Mr. Maclure died in Mexico in 1840, while on his way to this country. He was seven- ty-seven and had never married. A portion of his prop- erty was willed for the establishment of township li- braries in this State and to some extent was used for that purpose. His friend, Mr. Say, a naturalist and the great- est entomologist of his day, was a native of Philadelphia, and one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sci- ences. He was the chief zoologist in Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819, and accompanied other similar parties. He made New Harmony his home after going there, and there prepared his works on entomology and conchology, which are still regarded as standard. The illustrations of these in whole or part were executed in Paris but printed at New Harmony, as were two oc- tavo volumes by Mr. Maclure, probably the finest work issued west of the Alleghanies up to that time. Mr. Say died in New Harmony in 1834, at the age of forty-seven. His grave was made in Mr. Maclure's garden, formerly Rapp's, and afterward owned by Dr. David Dale Owen and his sons. A monument erected by Mr. Maclure still marks the spot.
But time would fail to tell of many interesting resi- dents of New Harmony. of the notorious but earnest and well-meaning Fanny Wright, of Neef and Whitwell and Evans and Price; of the eccentric Greenwood, father of Miles Greenwood, the Cincinnati manufacturer; of our own geologist Cox, whose parents were members of the community and upon whom the mantle of David Owen fell. But it is to the Owens that New Harmony owes most of its interest, and they have always been the most conspicuous residents of the place. Through them the
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influence of Robert Owen, modified by culture and experi- ence, has been made a force in the life of our State. So earnest an advocate of education as Robert Owen could not neglect to give his children the best opportunities and culture that money could buy, and his four sons, after receiving thorough home training, were sent to the cele- brated school of Emanuel Von Fallenberg at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, of which Robert Dale Owen has given a charming sketch in his autobiography. Robert Dale and William, as has been said, came with their father to New Harmony and took part in the community, teaching and editing the weekly paper. The latter continued to live there until his death a few years later. David Dale, the third son, came to New Harmony with his brother Rich- ard Dale in January, 1828. The former soon returned to Europe to study geology and natural science, but re- turned to this country to take up his residence in 1833. Two years later he was selected by the Legislature to make a geological survey of Indiana; subsequently he made an examination of the mineral lands of Iowa, and in 1848 was appointed United States Geologist, conduct- ing the survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Ken- tucky. In 1857 he was appointed State Geologist of Arkansas and in his work there was assisted by his pupil, Professor Cox. His death was hastened by the exposure in the miasmatic regions of that State, and he died in New Harmony in 1860, aged fifty-seven years, and enjoy- ing the reputation of being in the front rank of his pro- fession. His collection, which was a remarkably com- plete one, was purchased by the State some years ago at a cost of $2000 and is now at Bloomington. For a time he occupied the old "granary" as a museum and labora- tory, but just before his death had completed a handsome building for that special use, which has since been con-
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verted into a dwelling house and is occupied by one of his sons.
Richard Owen, the youngest and only surviving son, was also a geologist, being at one time State Geologist of Indiana. He lived for some years in Tennessee. Dur- ing the Civil War he was the colonel of an Indiana regi- ment, and then became professor at Bloomington, a place he relinquished two years ago, returning to New Har- mony, where he is now enjoying a calm and pleasant old age, after a well spent life.
The most celebrated of the sons was Robert Dale Owen, the eldest. Like his father, the animating princi- ple of his life was humanity. Bred to his father's pecul- iar views, he remained for a time in subjection to their influence, but age and experience emancipated him to a great extent, and after trying another communistic ex- periment near Memphis with Fanny Wright, he seems to have abandoned all belief in socialism. He launched into literature early, publishing at New Harmony in 1825 or '26 a work called "New Views of Society." Subse- quently he wrote a play called "Pocahontas," which was acted by the Thespian Society about 1840. His associa- tion with Fanny Wright and his lectures and discussions had given him considerable prominence when he went into politics as a VanBuren elector in 1840, and his speeches in that canvass are still remembered as having been remarkable for their strength of argument and the absence of personalities and appeals to prejudices. In 1843 he was elected to Congress and again in 1845, but was beaten in 1847. During his service he was made a regent of the Smithsonion Institute, then just begun, and was particularly active in its foundation. The building it occupies is said to be due to his theories of architecture. In 1849 he was a candidate for United States Senator but
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was beaten by Governor Whitcomb. In 1850 he became a member of the constitutional convention and was be- yond all comparison the most laborious, fertile and effi- cient man of the one hundred and fifty. The law reforms and the provisions for women's rights and free schools were especially his work, and leave upon our statute book the ineffaceable marks of his father's inculcations, modi- fied or strengthened by his own talent and observation. He was appointed by President Pierce charge d'affaires to Naples and lived there until 1858. It was during this period that he became like his father, a convert to spirit- ualism, and with his characteristic industry devoted his labors to the investigation of supernatural existences or apparitions. From the first avowal of spiritualistic no- tions or tendencies until his death, he led the numerous hosts of the new faith with undisputed authority. Into the work of propagating, defending and expurgating spiritism, he put the remainder of his life. He attended spiritual conventions all over the country, shaped the doctrines, explained the phenomena and defended the honesty of the new faith, and really converted it from a loose assemblage of notions into a system and a religion. His works, "Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World" and the "Debatable Land," were widely read and discussed, the appearance of the first causing a liter- ary sensation. He wrote and lectured a great deal upon public topics all his later years, producing a novel, "Be- yond the Breakers," which was printed in Lippincott's Magazine in 1869, and autobiographical sketches in the Atlantic in 1873. During the war he was a most ardent unionist, abandoning the democracy wholly, and rendered valuable service in various ways, from defending the Union cause with tongue and pen to purchasing arms in Europe. He was a very homely man, of medium height,
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a little stooped; his face of the Scotch type, strongly marked and irregular in feature, but singularly genial and kind in expression. His manner was extremely court- eous, unaffected and conciliating. An interview in 1869 gave me the impression that the community experiment was a distasteful subject with him, for he was extremely reticent and politely evaded or tried to evade all ques- tions on that topic, though talking freely about every- thing else. But his autobiographical sketches show no reticence, their frankness of statement and fullness of de- tail about personal matters and feelings reminding one of Rousseau's "Confessions," though lacking the appar- ent vanity of the Frenchman. Before his death, which took place June 24, 1877, his mind was deranged by over- work, deranged but not obscured, for during several months' residence in the hospital for the insane his men- tal powers were incessantly active and brilliant, though twisted into grotesque shapes. Happily he recovered mental soundness but did not long survive, dying at the ripe age of seventy-three. What was said of him at the time in The Indianapolis News seems to me to hold good still :
"In scholarship, general attainments, varied achieve- ments; as author, statesman, politician, and leader of a new religious faith, he was unquestionably the most prominent man Indiana ever owned. Others may fill now, or may have filled a larger space in public curiosity or interest for a time; but no other Hoosier was ever so widely known or so likely to do the State credit by be- ing known, and no other has ever before held so promi- nent a place so long with a history so unspotted with selfishness, duplicity or injustice."
The Owens are well represented in New Harmony in the third and fourth generations, but the tastes of the
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grandsons of Robert Owen seem to run to business rath- er than to natural or social science.
The character of a place is with rare exceptions stamped ineffaceably by its founders. New Harmony is not an exception. It is more than sixty years since the community died, but its democracy is still potent. There is no aristocracy, no higher and lower class. The people move on the same plane, the individual is judged more by his merits than in most places. There is much gen- eral intelligence, much love of books and amusements. The learned men who lived here often gave lectures and fostered a love for literature and science. Dr. Owen's collection was an educator. The Workingmen's Insti- tute, founded over forty years ago, has a library of near- ly four thousand volumes, which is well patronized. Cer- tainly no other village in Indiana possesses such a col- lection of books. Adjoining the library is the room of the Society for Mutual Instruction, devoted to scientific and literary exercises. It was organized by Professor Richard Owen after his return from Bloomington, and he gave it as a nucleus a considerable cabinet of minerals, fossils, etc. Music has been cultivated ever since the days of the community, which paid particular attention to it, having as a teacher Josiah Warren, who afterward tried to alter the method of writing music. The New Harmony band is one of the institutions. There is less of the provincial about the people than one would ex- pect. The free thinking tendency in religious matters is almost as strongly developed as old Robert Owen could have wished. Probably no community in the State of equal numbers has so few church members. There are but two church organizations, one Episcopalian and a Methodist. Services are kept up statedly in the latter, but it is very feeble, the support given it not being enough
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to bring a man whose talent would arouse the interest of the people. The Episcopal Church has not had a rector for twenty years. Services are held occasionally, the Bishop goes there once a year, but the number upon the church rolls, fourteen, has not changed in several years. The majority of the members belong to the Owen family, which is a fact worth noting as showing how the pendu- lum has swung back. Professor Richard Owen is a Pres- byterian, having been an elder in that church at Bloom- ington. The population is about one thousand. The vil- lage is slowgoing and conservative in comparison with most of our towns. Comparatively isolated as it has al- ways been by not being on any direct line of travel, it has retained many old-fashioned notions and customs. and there is a freedom and restfulness about its existence that is fascinating when contrasted with the hurry and bustle of city. life. For years it was miles away from the railroad and the telegraph, but at last these arms of modern life have grasped it, and, while their coming has wrought some change and in time may create greater ones, they cannot efface the marks of the past, for it is still in many things as anomalous as in the Community days and deserving par excellence the title of "The Indi- ana Village."
825711
D
Indiana Historical Society Publications
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
No. 1. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1830-1886.
No. 2. NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Letter of Nathan Dane concerning the Ordinance of 1787. Governor Patrick Henry's Secret Letter of Instruction to George Rogers Clark.
No. 3. THE USES OF HISTORY. By President Andrew Wylie, D. D.
No. 4. THE NATIONAL DECLINE OF THE MIAMI INDIANS. By John B. Dillon.
No. 5. EARLY HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND CENTRAL INDIANA. By Nathaniel Bolton.
No. 6. JOSEPH G. MARSIIALL. By Prof. John L. Campbell.
No.
7. JUDGE JOHN LAW. By Charles Denby.
No. 8. ARCHAEOLOGY OF INDIANA. By Prof. E. T. Cox.
APPENDIX.
No. 9. THE EARL EMENT OF THE MIAMI COUNTRY. By Dr. Ezra Ferris.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II
No. 1. THE LAWS AND COURTS OF NORTHWEST AND INDIANA TERRI- TORIES. By Daniel Wait Howe.
No. 2. THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF JOHN B. DILLON. By Gen. John Coburn and Judge Horace P. Biddle.
No. 3. THE ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA. By Judge Thomas M. Cooley.
No. 4. LOUGHERY'S DEFEAT AND PIGEON ROOST MASSACRE. By Charles Martindale.
No. 5. A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE TERRITORY AND STATE OF INDIANA FROM 1800 to 1890. By Daniel Wait Howe.
No. 6. THE RANK OF CHARLES OSBORN AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEER. By George W. Julian.
No. 7. THE MAN IN HISTORY. By John Clark Ridpath.
No. 8. QUIATANON. By Oscar J. Craig.
No. 9. REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO INDIANAPOLIS IN 1836. By . C. P. Ferguson.
No. 10. LIFE OF ZIBA FOOTE. By Samuel Morrison. "OLD SETTLERS." By Robert P. Duncan.
No. 11. FRENCH SETTLEMENTS ON THE WABASH. By Jacob Piatt Dunn.
No. 12. SLAVERY PETITIONS AND PAPERS. By Jacob Platt Dunn.
CONTENTS OF VOL. III
No. A HISTORY OF EARLY INDIANAPOLIS MASONRY AND OF CENTER LODGE. By Will E. English.
No. 2. SIEUR DE VINCENNES, THE FOUNDER OF INDIANA'S OLDEST TOWN.
By Edmond Mallet.
No. 3. THE EXECUTIVE JOURNAL OF INDIANA TERRITORY. Edited and annotated by William Wesley Woollen, Daniel Wait Howe, and Jacob Piatt Dunn.
No. 4. THE MISSION TO THE QUABACHE. By Jacob Piatt Dunn, pp. 78.
No. 5. FIFTY YEARS IN PHARMACY. By George W. Sloan, pp. 27.
No. 6. CALEB MILLS. By Chas. W. Moores, pp. 280.
CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. 19-1484
No. 1. DIARY OF WM. OWEN. Edited by Jocl W. Hiatt. No. 2. THE WORD "HOOSIER." By Jacob Piatt Dunn.
JOHN FINLEY. By Mrs. Sarah A. Wrigley.
No. 3. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION OF INDIANA TER- RITORY. By Homer J. Webster, A. M., Ph. M.
No. 4. MAKING A CAPITAL IN THE WILDERNESS. By Daniel Wait Howc.
No. 5. NAMES OF PERSONS ENUMERATED IN MARION COUNTY, INDIANA, AT THE FIFTH CENSUS. 1830.
No. 6. SOME ELEMENTS OF INDIANA'S POPULATION ; OR ROADS WEST, AND THEIR EARLY TRAVELERS. By W. E. Henry.
No. 7. LOCKERBIE'S ASSESSMENT LIST OF INDIANAPOLIS, 1835. Edited by Eliza G. Browning.
No. 8. THE SCOTCH-IRISH PRESBYTERIANS IN MONROE COUNTY, IN-
DIANA. By James Albert Woodburn.
No. 9. INDIANAPOLIS AND THE CIVIL WAR. By John H. Holliday. CONTENTS OF VOL. V.
No. 1. LINCOLN'S BODY GUARD, WITH SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Robert McBride.
No. 2. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS IN EARLY INDIANA. By Logan
Esarey.
No. 3. THE SULTANA DISASTER. By Joseph Taylor Elliott.
Uniform volumes, 8vo cloth, uncut, with continuous paging and complete index. The earlier numbers have been reset in the same style as the later oncs and the volumes are now uniform throughout.
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
Publishers for the Society
INDIANAPOLIS
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