USA > Indiana > Centennial history and handbook of Indiana : the story of the state from its beginning to the close of the civil war, and a general survey of progress to the present time > Part 15
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The unfriendly attitude of the native Ameri- cans toward these strange people is given as one of the reasons why, in the course of time, they desired to leave the Wabash region. At any rate after ten years spent here they did desire to leave, and to that end offered for sale all their estate with its improvements, including the village of Harmonie with its dwellings, factories and indus- trial machinery all ready for use.
Robert Owen, Philanthropist, Buys Rappite Estate .- By one of those happy coincidences which sometimes occur in the course of events,
there dwelt at Lanark, Scotland, an altogether unusual man with aspirations and dreams into which the opportunity offered by the Rappites fitted as if by a prearranged plan. This man, Robert Owen, was a large and successful manu- facturer whose desire to benefit humanity amounted to a passion. His efforts to ameliorate the hard conditions of the ignorant, over- worked and underpaid laboring class of Great Britain, and the greed and stupidity against which he contended make one of the touching chapters in the history of philanthropy. As a philanthropist of lofty ideals he had established for himself a reputation that extended over Eu- rope, but the hindrances to his plans were, none the less, insurmountable. When an agent of the Rappite society came to him with a proposition to purchase their great estate with all its improve- ments on the far-away Wabash it opened up a new vista that glowed with promise. There, in a new country where all things were yet to be formed, he could work out the grand idea of a social reform that should prove new truths to the world .. The opportunity was too fascinating to be resisted, and the outcome was that Owen, for something like $150,000, secured a tract of land considerably larger than an entire congressional township, on which labor in excess of that value, doubtless, had already been expended, to say nothing of a village of substantial buildings ca- pable of comfortably housing perhaps a thousand people and of the industrial equipments.
Owen's Scheme .- His first work after the purchase was to arouse interest in America by promulgating his plans, and to that end he came to this country and delivered several public ad- dresses, the first two being in the national capital before large audiences in which were many of the most distinguished people of the country. These addresses which, after their oral delivery, were published, advertised broadcast the scheme of a new social experiment about to be tried, in which all who were in sympathy were invited to share as members. The arguments of the founder were alluring and plausible, and when
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the time cane to actually form the community it was found that there was no lack of material.
Rappites Succeeded by the Owen Community. The Rappites left Harmonie in 1824. going to Pennsylvania, where they established for them- selves a new community home which they called Economy. Early in 1825 Owen and his followers took possession of the Wabash village, which was re-named New Harmony. Even before Owen himself arrived on the ground the place was filled with people of many kinds. Some were philanthropists, entitled to all respect ; some were cranks full of hobbies and eccentricities who never were born to work together with anybody to any end. When Owen arrived he set forth his views once more to this mixed assemblage ; the "Preliminary Society of New Harmony" was formed and a constitution establishing a social starting point was adopted.
Owen's Ideals .- The society was called "Pre- liminary" because it was regarded as but the first step toward a more ideal organization to which people were to be educated. The constitution adopted announced that the object of the society was to secure for its members "the greatest amount of happiness." and to "transmit it to their children to the latest posterity." All mem- bers of it were to be of the same rank, with no artificial inequalities, and all were to be "willing to render their best services for the good of the society, according to their age, experience and capacity." The official name of the society was to be "The New Harmony Community of Equal- ny," and its social program was long and elab- orate, covering, or aiming to cover, the many and variable relations that must exist in any society. One feature of the general plan, which was de- seribed in the Owen address above referred to, was a series of ideal villages, as the community grew, each of which was to consist of solid rows of dwellings or apartments something like a mod- ern tenement, but arranged around a hollow quare one thousand feet long. The village was to have, besides these living apartments, a pri- mary and high school, public dining hall and kitchen, common nursery for the children, and rooms for community purposes, such as lectures, dances, concerts, etc.
This "model village," as it was designated. along with other plans and ideas, never got be- vond the ideal stage, and it may be added here
that in the character of the people attracted by the experiment, and in their diversity of views when brought to the test of a definite social scheme, was the fatal obstacle to any kind of success.
The Scientific and Educational Circle ; Will- iam Maclure .- The most notable acquisition of the Owen colony was the addition of a group of men who took high rank among the scientists and educators of the day. Conspicuous among these as a leader was William Maclure. of Phila- delphia, a man of wealth and both scientist and educator. As the former he came to be known as "The Father of American Geology," by vir- tue of his pioneer labor in that field, and he was a principal founder and for many years presi- dent of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. As a promoter of education he intro- duced into America the Pestalozzian system and his ardor in educational matters was second only to his interest in science. Like Robert Owen he was by nature, and sincerely, a philanthropist, and their essential kinship drew the two men together. In some directions Maclure did not share Owen's social theories, but the famous ex- periment was one to interest him, especially as it opened up possibilities for the fulfilment of his cherished ideas ; and hence, when Owen solicited his co-operation he readily affiliated by putting in to the scheme, as a copartner, about the same amount as the other had applied to the original purchase.
Maclure's Dream .- The dream that took pos- session of Maclure was the establishment of a great school which should be the center of learn- ing in the west of the future and of a system of "free, equal and universal schools for feeding, clothing and instructing all the children of the State." Several years before he had brought to this country, from Switzerland, Joseph Neef, a disciple of Pestalozzi, who opened at Philadel- phia the first Pestalozzian school in the United States. Neef and this school he now plucked up bodily, as it were, to transfer them to the Wa- bashı.
Maclure's Co-Workers .- Along with Neef Machire's prestige and influence enlisted a group of brilliant and able men, some of them of na- tional reputation, who were to contribute their talents to the proposed school of higher educa- tion. Notable among these were Thomas Say,
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Charles A. Lesueur, Gerard Troost and John Chappelsmith.
Say, a pioneer in zoology as Maclure was in geology, was perhaps the greatest American zo- ölogist of his day; Lesueur was a naturalist of high repute and an artist ; Troost was a geologist, at a later date State geologist of Tennessee. Chap- pelsmith, of lesser fame, was an artist and en- graver. Say and Neef are both buried at New Harmony, and the former, during his life there, was the author of important works on natural
their scientific and intellectual accomplishments, added to the fame of New Harmony through a period of many years, and made it a center of interest to scientists, philosophers and travelers abroad. Conspicuous among them were the four sons of Robert Owen, Robert Dale, William, Da- vid Dale and Richard Dale, all of whom had been highly educated in the schools of Europe. Rob- ert Dale Owen, the best known of these brothers in the history of Indiana, was widely in touch with the affairs of the State and did notable service
Harmonie, 1816.
history. That men of this stamp should have left the great centers and buried themselves in the remote wilderness is an evidence of the lofty hopes inspired by the social experiment.
The Boatload of Knowledge .- A literatesque feature of this scientific exodus from the east was that a good-sized party of men and women, with their equipment, traveled from Pittsburg to New Harmony in a keelboat, and to this day the outfit is humorously spoken of as "The Boatload of Knowledge."
Other Characters; the Owen Family .- Aside from the Maclure group there was a list of men ind women, too long to be dealt with here, who by
as a statesman both at home and as a representa- tive at Washington. As a pioneer in the move- ment for the extended rights of women that class owe him a debt of gratitude, which they acknowl- edged a few years since by placing a bronze bust on the grounds of the State Capitol. . As a mem- ber of the constitutional convention of 1850 he was, perhaps, the ablest contributor to that instru- ment, and left his strong impress upon it. In the cause of science he, more than any other man, brought about the establishment of the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington.
William Owen is less known than his trio of distinguished brothers, but he figured. until his
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Heath my 1842, as an able, versatile and helpful citizen of New Harmony.
David Dale Owen, of the first rank a- a scien- tist, was in 1837 appointed United States geolo- gist, and during his services as such the govern- ment geological survey was established at New Harmony, which gave the place additional impor- lance. He was the first State geologist of Indi- ana, having previously occupied the same office for Kentucky and Arkansas. He died while ge- ologist of this State and was succeeded to the office by his brother Richard, who throughout a long life was identified with scientific and educa- tional development in this State. It may be added here that E. T. Cox, another product of New Harmony, was our State geologist for twelve years, and perhaps a half-dozen other mnen of this group were identified with geological surveys in other States. Among the able men in other lines may be mentioned Josiah Warren, inventor and social philosopher whose ideas for the solu- tion of certain social problems have not yet been exploded, nor has the interest in them ceased. Constantine Raffinesque, one of the celebrated early naturalists, was a frequent visitor to New Harmony, and among other visitors attracted thither by the famous resident coterie were John James Audubon, Sir Charles Lyell and Prince Maximilian, of Prussia, who with a corps of scientists, was touring the United States. Frances Wright, one of the most intellectual women of her day, and conspicuous as an advo- cate of the rights of women, was intimately iden- tified with the Owens colony.
Failures of New Harmony .- The monu- memal and general failure of the New Harmony experiment and the various causes of it make a fascinating study in social principles. When com- pared with the community success of the Rap- pites a perfect contrast is afforded. The latter were bound together by a common religious belief and subservient to a common leader. There was no questioning, no dissent and no intellectual un- rest. The Owen colony, on the contrary, was in no sense a unit, unless it be in the general dis- satisfaction with the established order of things. Because they did not agree with the established order and had no resting place they segregated in hopes of finding one, but only to find, instead. that they agreed no better among themselves.
General Dissension .- Before the end of the second year disintegration was well under way. Almost in the beginning there set in what might be called subsegregations-birds of a feather flocking together until instead of one society there were several distinct communities. As some wit happily intimated, "New Harmony" became a misnomer-it was, more properly, New Dis- cord. One of the serious discords arose between the two heads of the experiment, Owen and Maclure. The latter, who was to have had en- tire control of the school scheme, was one of the first to secede from the original colony, and Owen set up a system of his own, and so in lieu of the proposed great school there were several minor ones, with more or less hostility between them. One of these under the auspices of Mac- lure, was an industrial school, the second one to be established in the United States.
Maclure and Robert Owen Leave; Estimate of the Two Men .- Maclure spent, all told, only about two years at New Harmony, though his interest in the place continued till his death. Robert Owen did not stay there much longer, and by 1827 the social experiment was an ac- knowledged failure.
In their moral zeal and in their philosophies these two leaders were much alike. Both com- bined with worldly wisdom and great ability ideas so at variance with common observation as to seem puerile. Owen's fundamental mistake was in assuming that environment and instruction wholly made the man, and that human beings could be molded like putty to a theory. The in- dividualistic element did not seem to enter into his calculations. It was even a part of his plan that children should be separated from their par- ents and be virtually owned by the community. Maclure's educational theory, along with many ideas that are to-day regarded as the best, advo- cated an extreme utilitarianism. What we call cultural acquirements, including literature and art, had no place in his scheme. "A plain, simple narrative of facts got by evidence of the senses" was the only literature needful he held, and the thing to be most guarded against was the "exag- gerated delusions of the imagination." The play of children was to be directed to useful ends. and "nothing but positive knowledge ought to be taught to children." Utility was "the only scale
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Scenes in Turkey-Run, Parke County.
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by which the value of everything is to be meas- uct of the original New Harmony idea, it exerted ured." As these ideas were also shared by Owen no small influence in the affairs of the State. it seems very likely that they would have met serious obstacles to success even had the leaders proceeded in perfect harmony with each other.
The Successes of New Harmony .- George B. Lockwood, in his very thorough study of this whole subject, speaks in happy paradox of "the failure of George Rapp's success" and "the suc- cess of Robert Owen's failure," and among the successes of the Owen regime he particularly specifies the educational influences that emanated from there. The ideas of Pestalozzi, introduced by Maclure and Joseph Neef, made their impress in time on the educational history of the State. It was a nursing place for "first things," the first
Home of George Rapp, Harmonie, 1824.
infant school and kindergarten in the country, the first distinctively trade school, the first real public-school system and the first school to offer equal advantages to boys and girls, all being ac- credited to the New Harmony experiment.
Robert Owen's Successors .- Nor was this all by any means. When Robert Owen, discour- aged, retired from the field he left able men established permanently on the ground, and though the "social experiment." as such, ceased to be, their activities did not cease. It became later, as previously said, a scientific center of wide reputation and influence, and the town took on a character that is to the present day quite distinctive and superior, while through some of its citizens, particularly Robert Dale Owen, its most distinguished public man, and a direct prod-
Status of Women at New Harmony .- One development that should not be overlooked is that of the status of women. Owen stood for equality of the sexes at a day when such an idea had little lodgment in the public mind, and the arduous devotion to the emancipation of her sex by Frances Wright, one of the remarkable women of her times, did much to create an enlarged sphere for her sisters. These ideas found prac- tical issue when Robert Dale Owen, as legislator and member of the second constitutional con- vention stood as a champion for rights of women, securing for them a recognition for which they have not been ungrateful in later days.
The Maclure Libraries .- As before said, though William Maclure's scheme for a great school at New Harmony failed and he was only a temporary resident of . that place, his educa- tional interest did not cease, and his will created a fund for the establishment, under certain condi- tions, of libraries over the State for the benefit of "the working elasses who labor with their hands and earn their living in the sweat of their brows." It should be added that Maclure's desire to help this class amounted to a passion, and his ani- mosity to the class "who live by the ignorance of the millions," was inveterate. The library be- quest met with legal hindrances and it was not until 1855, fifteen years after the donor's death, that the fund was applied. By it $500 was to be given to any club or society of laborers in the United States who would establish a reading and lecture room with a library of at least one hun- dred volumes. The result of this benefaction was 144 libraries in Indiana, distributed through eighty-nine counties. J. P. Dunn, in his mono- graph, "The Libraries of Indiana," does not at- tribute a very wide influence to the libraries, for various reasons, but they were, to say the least, a notable contribution to the culture of the State and an interesting forerunner of the extensive Carnegie system of the present day .*
* The fullest and best account of the New Harmony experi- ment is the elaborate study by George B. Lockwood, "The New llarmony Movement."
CHAPTER IX
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT MOVEMENTS PRELIMINARY TO LAW OF 1836
PRELIMINARY HISTORY
Early Conditions .- The famous internal im- provement plan of 1836 by which Indiana inau- gurated a huge paternalistic scheme for supply- ing an elaborate system of roads and canals can not be presented intelligently unless we also con- sider the movement antecedent to that culmina- tion. The absurdity of the undertaking borrows palliation from the desperate necessities that ex- isted and is in a measure explained by them.
From the beginning, and in proportion as the settlements pushed northward from the Ohio river, the problem of getting in and out increased in seriousness, and by the time the central por- tion of the State was taken up as far north as the upper Wabash the problem became a most pressing one. The new capital was eighty-five miles from the nearest market outlet and many points were considerably farther, with one vast forest intervening. The natural outlets, the streams, were, with few exceptions, unreliable, and at best served only certain communities, and intercommunication generally was practically im- possible until a system of highways was made through the wilderness.
Early Roads .- Thus it was that in the twen- ties the question of internal improvements as a live issue was largely confined to roads, and the road legislation during that period is so frequent and so complicated in its overlappings as to be confusing. Every new locality, as it was opened up to settlement, had to be accommodated in vari- ous directions and the road making was not con- fined to local initiative, but an elaborate system of State highways was projected and added to and altered, one year after another .* The scheme generally, in its results, seems to have demonstrated the general inefficiency that usu- ally, or perhaps always, accompanies paternal-
istic attempts. Ray, in his first message, speak- ing of the roads authorized in 1821-2, with an appropriation of $100,000, says :
"It is well worthy of inquiry whether the large expenditures that have already been made have answered the expectations of the public ; whether large sums have not been paid to numerous com- missioners for services that could as well have been rendered by one-third of the number em- ployed and at little more than one-third of the expense ; whether a number of the roads opened under the provision of the law are not entirely useless to the public and even suffered to become altogether impassable by a second growth and neglect to keep them in repair."
In a report of 1826 we find thirty-eight State roads listed and $78,319.53 was apportioned to them from the three per cent. fund, which was one of the very important sources of road rev- enue .* Other sources of maintenance were, a road tax levied upon real estate and compulsory road labor on the part of male adults under fifty years of age.
Road Conditions .- The general result of this expenditure and labor was crude in the ex- treme. The so-called "improvement" was little more than the opening of wagonways through the wilderness and they were hardly more prac- ticable than the drift-choked streams. Of their atrocious character much has been said and yet the subject, seemingly, has never been done jus- tice. From the hills of the southern counties to the prairies beyond the Wabash the State was, for the most part, a level plain covered with a forest that shut out the sun from the rank mold, and this, like a sponge, held the accumulated waters. Vast areas were nothing but swamps, which the streams never fully drained .; Most
* It should be stated that the funds for these roads was not a direct tax upon the people, as under the internal improvement law of 1836. They were largely derived from the "3 per cent. fund," which was donated by the federal government out of the sale of public lands.
* See report of B. T. Blythe, agent of 3 per cent. fund, House Journal, 11th session, p. 21.
+ Mr. William Butler, a pioneer of southern Indiana, has told the present writer of a trip he made to Indianapolis in the thir- ties. He stopped over night with a settler in Johnson county, and, inquiring as to the country east of them, was told that there was no other residence in that direction for thirty miles. "And
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of the year a journey over the roads was simply a slow, laborious wallowing througho mid; the bogs were passable only by the use of "cordu roy. " and this corduroy of poles laid side by side for miles not infrequently had to be weighted down with dirt to prevent floating off when the swamp waters rose. In a book called "The New Purchase," which purports to depict life in cen- tral Indiana in the carly twenties, the wagon trip to Bloomington is described in the author's pe- culiar, half-intelligible style. He speaks of the country as "buttermilk land," "mashland," "rooty ind shaggy land," with mudholes and quicksands and corduroy, "woven single and double twill," and there are fords "with and without bottom." In the early spring. he says, the streams were brimful, "creeks turned to rivers, rivers to lakes, and lakes to bigger ones, and traveling by land becomes traveling by mud and water." As one proceeded he must tack to right and left, not to find the road, but to get out of it and find places where the mud was "thick enough to bear." The way was a "most ill-looking, dark-colored morass, enlivened by streams of purer mud ( the roads, crossing at right angles," and these streams were "thick-set with stumps cut just low enough for wagons to straddle." Innumerable stubs of saplings, sharpened like spears by being shorn off obliquely, waited to impale the unlucky traveler who might be pitched out upon them, and the probability of such accident was consid- erable as the lumbering wagon plunged over a succession of ruts and roots, describing an "ex- hilarating seesaw with the most astonishing alter- nation of plunge, creak and splash." Ever and anon the brimming streams had to be crossed, sometimes by unsafe fording and sometimes by rude ferries. In the latter case the ferrykeeper was apt to be off at work somewhere in his clear- ing, and the traveler had to "halloo the ferry" till he could make himself heard.
How serious the road question was as affect- mg public welfare is evidenced by our legisla- tion. From 1820 there was scarcely a session but road laws were enacted, adding to or modifying the system, and, in many instances repealing stat- utes that seem to have been experimental and ill-
Mint's , the0 g vel be" the inforreint olded, lus rea- Con Logg that the submerged lud was irreclaunable. It may Name kod, malectily, that the wimp in question pas long
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