New Harmony, Indiana

 New Harmony was founded in 1814 by a group of 800 Pietists from Württemburg, Germany. The Harmonie Society, led by George Rapp, arrived in the United States in 1804, seeking religious freedom and establishing a community in Butler County, Pennsylvania. After ten years in Pennsylvania, the Harmonists purchased nearly 30,000 acres on the banks of the Indiana Territory’s Wabash River.

The Harmonists’ literal interpretation of biblical text, combined with their interpretation of current world events, led them to believe that a Second Coming of Jesus Christ was imminent. As a society and as individuals, they pursued Christian perfection through every aspect of their daily conduct. To that end, they created a highly ordered and productive community at New Harmony.

Within a year of the land purchase, the town founded by the Harmonie Society was platted by a professional surveyor. Between 1814 and 1824, the Harmonists constructed over 180 log, frame and brick structures in their settlement. The community was entirely self-sufficient, and produced a wide variety of goods that were recognized worldwide for their fine quality. Harmonist wares were sold throughout the United States and overseas in the British Isles, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.

Through divine guidance, George Rapp sought a buyer for the entire town in order to facilitate their relocation back to Pennsylvania in 1824. He found a purchaser in Robert Owen, a wealthy industrialist of Welsh descent, who was operating a textile mill in New Lanark, Scotland.

In 1825, with his business partner, William Maclure, Robert Owen purchased the community of New Harmony, hoping to establish a model community where education and social equality would flourish. Maclure, a wealthy businessman and well-respected geologist, attracted many well-known scholars of the early 19 th century to New Harmony, including American naturalist Thomas Say; French naturalist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur; and Pestalozzian educators Joseph Neef, Phiquepal d’Arusmont, and Madame Marie Duclos Fretageot. Gerard Troost, a Dutch geologist, and Frances Wright, a Scots-born early feminist, were also drawn to New Harmony.

Robert Owen’s “Community of Equality,” as the experiment was known, dissolved by 1827, ravaged by personal conflicts and the inadequacies of the community in the areas of labor and agriculture. Despite the breakdown of his experiment, Owen’s utopian dream brought significant contributions to American scientific and educational theory, study, and practice. Owen’s efforts to effect change and enlightenment came to fruition through the work of his children in New Harmony and the young scientists and educators who came with William Maclure.