The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-10-31
The Harmony Community of
Economy, Pa.
Johnston's Journal.

Elgnteen miles DelOW flLISDuISH, Oll
a bluff overlooking the beautiful valley
of the Ohio, lies the little German vii
lage bearing the quaint name of Econ
omy, whose inhabitants are known for
miles around as "the Economics. !"
Below the bluff, on either side of the
river, runs busy railroad; steamboats,
plying between Pittsburgh and the lower
ports of the Ohio and Kanawha pass
and repass almost continually, and when
the hearts of the rivermen are gladden.
ed by "coal-boat rise," fotillas of
barges, laden with the mineral wealth
of western Pennsylvania, throng the
broad river highway.
Beside this bustling scene the little
village stands like the fragment of a
past century, sandwiched. by some
strange anachronism into the present,
and no great exercise of the imagination
would be required of casual visitor to
produce upon him the impression that
this is one of the very villages of the
Nieuw Nederlandts SO graphically de-
scribed by Diedrich Knickerbocker
in his veracious history. Here, en-
powered amid fruit trees, are the houses
with their gables to the street, and only
to be entered at the gate; some of them,
moreover, having the date of their erec-
tion curiously wrought into the brick
work or carved on the Intel, precisely
as in New Amsterdam. Sundry weather.
cocks, too, are not wanting, "pointing
SO many different ways that every man
can have wind to mind" Here and
there on the streets old men with broad
brimmed black hats move leisurely along,
clad otherwise all in blue broadcloth,
or, even if it happens to be holyday,
in blue silk; or it may be some aged
dame whose silver hair peeps out from
beneath a bright blue silken Normandy
cap. By one of the curious ironies of
fate, the receding tide of civil war in
1865 left in this peaceful village of nom
combatants an old cannon, which mount
ed in a commanding position, as if to
sweep the river, and on summer even
ings surrounded by group of merry
children, adds much to the picturesque
ness of the surroundings.
The community, which owns the vii
lage and the adjoining farms, compris-
ing somewhat more than $500 acres,
included at one time nearly thousand
persons, but the number has now dwin-
died to less than fifty, most of whom
are drawing near to or have passed the
allotted term of three score years and
ten. Silent mills and factories attest
the former activity of the community.
Old citizens remember the Economy
broadcloths, fannels, blankets and the
famous Economy whisky, which was
held in such high repute that it is still
called for occasionally, for the use of
invalids, though none is now to be had,
as the stills were torn down more than
twenty years ago. Here silk culture and
manufacture were first established on
business scale in the United States, but
were abandoned as improbable. though
fabrics of admirable texture and design
were made, and the members still wear
garments of silk produced on their own
soil and woven with their own hands.
Here the student of social science
may trace the practical working of the
idea that has glittered before the minds
of great and good men and visionary
dreamers, almost since the world be-
gan-community of labor, of goods and
of interests, sustained by brotherly love.
Nor can it be denied that, measured by
the material standard, the experiment
at Economy has been a successful one.
Driven from Germany by religious per-
secution, the society settled in America
in 1906, and, after various wanderings,
cleared away the forest and founded
their present village in 1925, their aim
being to return to the model of the
earliest Christian communities, as por-
trayed in the writings of the Apostles.
At first the members married and kept
up the individual family relation, but
tceTibacy would be more IN conformity
with the teachings of Christ and his
early disciples, they voluntarily adopted
the latter mode of life, from which
period their number has gradually di-
minished until only the present handful
remains. Industry, self-denial, scrupu-
lous honesty and division of labor soon
placed them in possession of a fund
which, by prudent investment, increas-
ed far beyond their immediate needs,
and which, Notwithstanding that they
have produced but little for some years
past, is still reckoned by millions
though the members of the society de-
precate as exaggerationS the usual estl-
mates that are made of their wealth.
In the days of sperm and lard oil and
tallow dips, the community bought a
tract of land in a remote corner OF
Pennsylvania, with the design of obtain
ing the timber with which it was cover
ed. When the discovery of petroleum
threw all Pennsylvania into a fever OF
speculation, this tract proved to be
part of the most richly productive oil
territory, and a source of great wealth
to the society. A few years ago they
invested large sum in railroad shares,
and amid the general wrecking OF rail-
roads that has since ensued, their road
has continued to thrive, yielding them
not only handsome return in dlvl-
dends, but enabling them to sell out
their interest at the proper time at
large advance upon the original invest
ment. Within few months the dis.
covery and the utilization of natural
gas have laid the foundations of new
fortunes in Pennsylvania, and the de
velopment of the gas-bearing territory
has steadily crept toward Economy
until to-day, standing in the streets o
the quiet village, one hears the roar o
the latest monster gas well, only fou
miles away, and rumors are circulating
daily that the Economics" are gettin
ready to drill their lands for gas. Is
to be wondered at that neighbors no.
their heads wisely and say, cit will b
Just the Economics luck to strike
greater we'll than anyone has yet found1 ?
Is it strange that the members of tn
community devoutly believe that Prov