![]() ![]() More than 180 structures were completed within ten years of the community’s founding, including dozens of dwellings, dormitories, stores, workshops, and mills, as well as a church, brewery, distillery, tannery, textile factory, and multiple other manufactories. By the time the last transport arrived in New Harmony, the community totaled 730 people. A first generation of log dwelling houses was replaced with two-story brick and frame dwellings, and a tavern, granary, mills, and churches were also constructed. The community was laid out, and swamps drained. The vacant Indiana wilderness was quickly transformed with Rapp’s religious motives at the core. By 1817, the community of New Harmony encompassed 30,000 acres. The seed for this community was planted in southwestern Indiana on the banks of the Wabash River, with 7,000 acres purchased for the second “Harmonie” or “New Harmonie” in May 1814. Lasting just under a decade, the Harmonie Society was abandoned in 1814, in favor of a location with a more moderate climate and friendlier neighbors, which would be more conducive to the development of an expansive community. The Harmonie Society was established in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1804, with nearly 500 members. Under watch of the German government and facing increased persecution, Rapp left for America in July 1803, arriving in Philadelphia three months later. By the end of the eighteenth century, Rapp had upwards of 20,000 followers. A religious expatriate, Rapp, part of volatile religious developments of the period, became the leader of a sectarian, Pietist group in the 1790s that identified faith outside of the established church. ![]() He also introduced a system of "time money" and "time stores" where the currency was the amount of the time the worker spent working.New Harmony holds a unique place in America as having been at the center of two distinct nineteenth-century utopian experiments: the religious Harmonie Society, a millennialist sect established by German-born George Rapp, and the secular utopian experiment of Welshman Robert Owen. They will be equal in education, rights, privileges and personal liberty.” (The Book of the New Moral World) “Women will be no longer made the slaves of, or dependent upon men. There were many rules to live by, however, the working and living conditions both increased to a new level. He set up rules for education, labor, living styles, and gave equal rights to women. Owen believed that a community can be organized if people followed an organized system. People who decided to live in New Harmony had to live by certain rules. Owen's son warned him to stop more settlers coming in, so Owen came back and set up a system to organize New Harmony. no experience in farming or other type of work). However, too many settlers came in, who could not contribute enough (e.g. He traveled a lot encouraging people widely to join New Harmony, leaving his son in charge while he was gone. America was open to his new ideas and reforms, and he believed that this was the chance to create a utopian community. In 1825, Owen bought up New Harmony, Indiana, for a community experiment. Robert owen was always thinking of doing more and more, and since there were troubles in New Lanark due to his partners, he sought other places to flourish.
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