Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-09-27

cradle part of which is under cultiva-
ton. They have, in round numbers,
three thousand sheep, fifteen hundred
head of cattle, two hundred horses
and twenty five hundred hogs. Be-
sides farming, they carry on two
woolen-mills, four saw-mills, two grist-
mills and tannery. They are almost
entirely selfsupporting in the arts.
working mp their own products and
living off the result. In medicine
they are homeopathists.
The "Rappists" or Harmony Soci-
ETY. at Economy. Pennsylvania, is
composed of about one hundred men,
bers. being all that remain of colony
of six hundred who came from Ger
many in 1903. They were called
Separatists or "Come cutters" in their
own country, and much prosecuted
on account of their non-conformity
with the established Church. They
landed in Baltimore, and some of
them who never found their way into
the community, or who subsequently
withdrew, settled in Maryland and
Pennsylvania, where they are still
known as religious sect. Those
who remained together purchased five
thousand acres Of land north of Pitts
burgh, in the valley of the Conoquen-
essing. In 1914 they moved to Posey
county, Indiana, in the Wabash VAL
ley, where they purchased thirty thou
sand acres of land, and in 1924 they
moved back again TO their present To-
cality in Pennsylvania. In 1891 a
dissension arose among them, and
division was effected by one Bernard
Mueller-or "Count Macmillan" as
he called himself-who went off with
one-third of the members and large
share of the property, aud founded a
new community at Phillips, ten miles
off, on eight hundred acres of land,
which, however, soon disbanded on
account of internal quarrels.
The popularity of this community
is that there is no intercourse between
the sexes of any kind. In 1907 they
gave up marriage. The husbands
parted from their wives. and have
henceforth lived with them as sisters.
They claim to have authority for this
in the words of the apostle: "This |
say, brethren, the time is short; it re-
maineth that both they that have
wives be as though they had none."
etc. They teach that Adam in his
perfect state was bi-sexual and had
no need of female, being in this re-
spect like God that subsequently,
when he fell, the female part ri0, etc. }
was separated from him and made
into another person, and that when
they become perfect through their
religion the bi-sexual nature of the
soul is restored. Christ, they claim,
was also of this dual nature, and there.
fore never married. They believe
that the world will soon come to an
end, and that it is their duty to help
it along by having no children, and
so putting ap end to the race as well
as the planet.
Their property is all held in COM
mon and managed by council of
seven, from whom the trustees are
chosen. From four to eight live in
each house, men and women together,
who regard each other as the same
sex, and are never watched. Each
household cooks for itself, although
there is a general bakery, from which
bread is taken around to the houses
as they have need. The members
are fond of music and flowers, but
they discard dancing. Though Ger
mans, they have ceased to use to-
bacco which loss, it is said the men
feel more heavily than the wives.
They make considerable wine and
beer, which they drink in moderation.
They are said to be worth from two
millions to three millions of dollars,
aud speculate in mines, oil-wells,'
saw mills, etc., doing very little hard
work, and hiring laborers from with
out to take their places in all drudg-
cry. They are engaged principally
in farming and the common trades,
and supply nearly everything for
themselves, they are nearly all aged,
none of them being under forty except
some adopted children. All are Ger
mans and use the German language.
The shakers are the oldest society
of communities in the United States.
The parent society at Mount Leban-
on. New York, was established in
1892, being the outgrowth of a relig-
ions revival in which there were
violent hysterical manifestations or
"shakes," from which they took their
name. In this revival one Ann Lee.
known among them as "Mother Ann"
was prominent. This woman of Eng
lish birth, emigrated to Niskayuna,
New Albany, where she pretended to
speak from inpiratjon aud work mira
Giles, so that the people soon came to
regard her as being another revela
ton of Christ and as having his
authority. Being prosecuted by the
outside world, her followers, after her
death, formed community in which
to live and enjoy their religion alone
and uudisturbed. Their principles
may be summed up as special revela.
ton, spiritualism, celibacy, oral con-
fession, community, non-resistance,
peace, the gift of healing, miracles,
physical health and separation from
the world. Like the Rappist, they
neither marry nor have any substitute
| for marriage, receiving all their chill
dren by adoption. They live in large
families or communes, consisting of
eighty or ninety members, in one big
house, men and women together.
Each brother is assigned to a sister,
who mends his clothes, looks after his
washing, tells him when he needs
new garment, reproves him when not
orderly, and has spiritual oversight
over him generally. Though living
in the same house, the sexes eat, labor
and work apart. They keep apart
and in separate ranks in their wor>
ship. They do not shake hands with
the opposite sex, and there is rarely
any scandal or gossip among them,
so far sa the outside world can learn.
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