Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-10-29
Gales aud Sketthes.
The Harmony Community Of Economy

The Harmony Community OF ECONOMY,
PA.
Eighteen miles below Pittsburg. on 3
bluff overlooking the beautiful valley Of
the Ohio, lies the little German village
bearing the quaint name OF Economy,
whose Inhabitants are known for miles
around as 1.-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 con-
tinually, and when the heaa;s of the river
men are gladdened by ''coal-boat rise,"
flotillas 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 past
century, sandwiched by some strange
anachronism inte 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 Neder
landts so graphically described by Died.
rich Knickerbocker in his veracious his
tory. Here, empowered 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 erection curiously wrought into the
brick work or carved on the Intel precisely
as in New Amsterdam. Sundry weather
weather-cocks, too, are not wanting,
pointing so many different ways that every
man can have a wind to his 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 be-
meath 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 non-combatants
an old cannon, which, mounted in COM
manding position, as if to sweep the river,
and on summer evenings surrounded by
group of merry children. adds much to
the picturesqueness of the surroundings.
The community, which owns the village
and the adjoining farms, comprising some
what more than $500 acres, included at
one time nearly thousand persons, but
the number has now dwindled 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 fac
tories attest the former activity of the
community. Old citizens remember the
Economy broadcloths, f1annels, blan-
kets. and the famous Economy whis-
key, which was held in such high
high repute that it is still called for occa-
sionally, 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 we're abandoned as I'M
profitable, though fabrics of admirable tex
ture and design were made, and the men,
bers still wear garments of silk produced
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 began
community of labor, of goods and Of in
terests, 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 perse-
cutiOn, the society settled in America in
1905, 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 portrayed in
the writings of the Apostles. At first the
members married and kept up the indi
vidual family relation, but becoming con-
WINGED after time that celibacy would be
more in conformity with the teachings of
Christ and his early disciples. they volun-
tarlly adopted the latter mode of life from
which period their number has gradually
diminished until only the present
handful remains. Industry, self
denial. scrupulous honesty and divi-
sion of labor soon placed them in possess
sion of fund which, by prudent invest
ment, increased far beyond their immed-
ate needs, and which, notwithstanding
that they have produced but little tor some
years past, is still reckoned by millions
though the members of the society depre-
cstlc Us cAdSScIdtOHS Vic USUAL estimates
that are made of their wealth.
In the days of sperm and lard oil and
tallow DIPS, the community bought tract
of land in remote corner of Pennsylvania
with the design of obtaining the timber
with which it was covered. When the
discovery of petroleum threw all Pennsyl-
vania into fever of speculation, this
tract proved to be part of the most richly
productive oil territory. and source of
great wealth to the society. A few years
ago they invested large sum in railroad
shares, and amid the general wrecking of
railroads that has since ensued. their road
has continued TO thrive, yielding them not
only handsome return in dividends, but
enabling them to sell out their interest at
the proper time at a large advance upon
the original investment Within few
months the discovery and the utilization
of natural gas have laid the foundations
of new fortunes in Pennsylvania, and the
development of the gas-bearing territory
has steadily crept toward Economy,
until to-day, standing in the streets of the
quiet village. one hears the roar of the
latest monster gas well. only four miles
away. and rumors are circulating daily
that the Economics" are getting ready
to drill their lands for gas. Is it to be
wondered at that neighbors nod their heads
wisely and saw at will he inst the Econ