Editing New Harmony, Indiana (section)

===Harmonist settlement (1814–1824)===

The town of Harmony was founded by Harmony Burton in 1814 under the leadership of [[Germans|German]] immigrant [[George Rapp]] (born Johann Georg Rapp). It was the second of three towns built by the [[Pietism|pietist]], [[Commune (intentional community)|communal]] religious group, known as Harmonists, Harmonites, or Rappites. The Harmonists settled in the [[Indiana Territory]] after leaving [[Harmony, Pennsylvania]], where westward expansion, the area's rising population, jealous neighbors, and the increasing cost of land threatened the Society's desire for isolation.<ref>Karl J. R Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society, 1785&ndash;1847'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965) p. 130&ndash;31, 133.</ref>

In April 1814 Anna Mayrisch, John L. Baker, and Ludwick Shirver (Ludwig Schreiber) traveled west in search of a new location for their congregation, one that would have fertile soil and access to a navigable waterway.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 133.</ref> By May 10 the men had found suitable land along the Wabash River in the Indiana Territory and made an initial purchase of approximately {{convert|7,000|acre|km2}}. Rapp wrote on May{{nbsp}}10, "The place is 25 miles from the Ohio mouth of the Wabash, and 12 miles from where the Ohio makes its curve first before the mouth. The town will be located about 1/4 mile from the river above on the channel on a plane as level as the floor of a room, perhaps a good quarter mile from the hill which lies suitable for a vineyard."<ref name=Arndt18>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:8.</ref> Although Rapp expressed concern that the town's location lacked a waterworks, the area provided an opportunity for expansion and access to markets through the nearby rivers, causing him to remark, "In short, the place has all the advantages which one could wish, if a steam engine meanwhile supplies what is lacking."<ref name=Arndt18/>

The first Harmonists left [[Pennsylvania]] in June 1814 and traveled by flatboat to their new land in the Indiana Territory. In May 1815 the last of the Harmonists who had remained behind until the sale of their town in Pennsylvania was completed departed for their new town along the Wabash River.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 162.</ref> Frederick Reichert Rapp, George Rapp's adopted son, drew up the town plan for their new village at [[New Harmony, Indiana#Harmonist settlement (1814–1824)|Harmony, Indiana]], which surveyors laid out on August{{nbsp}}8, 1814.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society 1785–1847'', p. 146.</ref> By 1816, the same year that Indiana became a state, the Harmonists had acquired {{convert|20,000|acre|km2}} of land, built 160 homes and other buildings, and cleared {{convert|2,000|acre|km2}} for their new town.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 182.</ref> The settlement also began to attract new arrivals, including emigrants from [[Germany]] such as members of Rapp's congregation from [[Württemberg]], many of whom expected the Harmonists to pay for their passage to America.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 182&ndash;98.</ref> However, the new arrivals "were more of a liability than an asset".<ref name=Arndt209>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 209.</ref> On March 20, 1819, Rapp commented, "It is astonishing how much trouble the people who have arrived here have made, for they have no morals and do not know what it means to live a moral and well-mannered life, not to speak of true Christianity, of denying the world or yourself."<ref>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:674.</ref>

Visitors to Harmony commented on the commercial and industrial work being done in this religious settlement along the Wabash River. "It seemed as though I found myself in the midst of Germany," noted one visitor.<ref name=Arndt744>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:744.</ref> In 1819 the town had a steam-operated wool carding and spinning factory, a horse-drawn and human-powered threshing machine, a brewery, distillery, vineyards, and a winery. The property included an orderly town, "laid out in a square", with a church, school, store, dwellings for residents, and streets to create "the most beautiful city of western America, because everything is built in the most perfect symmetry".<ref name=Arndt744/> Other visitors were not as impressed: "hard labor & coarse fare appears to be the lot of all except the family of Rapp, he lives in a large & handsome brick house while the rest inhabit small log cabins. How so numerous a population are kept quietly & tamely in absolute servitude it is hard to conceive—the women I believe do more labor in the field than the men, as large numbers of the latter are engaged in different branches of manufactures."<ref>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:784.</ref> Although they were not paid for their work, the 1820 manufacturer's census reported that 75 men, 12 women, and 30 children were employed,  in the Society's tanneries, saw and grain mills, and woolen and cotton mills. Manufactured goods included cotton, flannel, and wool cloth, yarn, knit goods, tin ware, rope, beer, peach brandy, whiskey, wine, wagons, carts, plows, flour, beef, pork, butter, leather, and leather goods.<ref>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 2:131&ndash;32.</ref>

The Harmonist community continued to thrive during the 1820s, but correspondence from March 6, 1824, between Rapp and his adopted son, Frederick, indicates that the Harmonists planned to sell their Indiana property and were already looking for a new location.<ref>Arndt, ''George Rapp's Harmony Society'', p. 287.</ref> In May, a decade after their arrival in Indiana, the Harmonists purchased land along the Ohio River eighteen miles from [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], and were making arrangements to advertise the sale of their property in Indiana.<ref>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:837, 871&ndash;74.</ref> The move, although it was made primarily for religious reasons, would provide the Harmonists with easier access to eastern markets and a place where they could live more peacefully with others who shared their German language and culture.<ref name=Arndt209/> On May 24, 1824, a group of Harmonists boarded a steamboat and departed Indiana, bound for [[Pennsylvania]], where they founded the community of [[Old Economy Village|Economy]], the present-day town of [[Ambridge, Pennsylvania|Ambridge]]. In May 1825 the last Harmonists left Indiana after the sale of their {{convert|20,000|acre|km2}} of property, which included the land and buildings, to [[Robert Owen]] for $150,000.<ref>Arndt, ''A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society'', 1:837, 871.</ref><ref name=Boom37>Boomhower, p. 37.</ref><ref>See Donald F. Carmony and Josephine M. Elliott. "New Harmony, Indiana: Robert Owen's Seedbed for Utopia," ''Indiana Magazine of History'' 76, no. 3 (September 1980):165. Carmony and Elliott indicate that Owen paid $125,000 for New Harmony, and cite other sources that state varying amounts.</ref> Owen hoped to establish a new community on the Indiana frontier, one that would serve as a model community for communal living and social reform.
<gallery mode="packed" heights="170">
File:New Harmony Indiana West Street Cabins.JPG|West Street Log Cabins
File:New Harmony Indiana Eigner Cabin.JPG|Eigner Cabin
File:New Harmony Indiana Potter Cabin.JPG|Potter Cabin
</gallery>