Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-12-31

Ine Hafno' iSis " q 'f"ir Wealth.
In Beaver county. Pa, and near the
Ohio river is located wealthy COM
munity known rs the Hnrmonists. The
founder of the society, George Bay,
was born near Wintrnburg in 1870.
He believed he had =. divine call to re-
store the Christian religion To its oripi-
nal purity, and he organized COLONY
with goods and chAtteis in common.
Some trouble with the Government
caused the removal of the colony to
the United States in 1903, and II settle
ment was made in Butler county, Pa
In 1915 the community removed in a
body to New Harmony, in Indiana, and
purchased $1,000 acres of land on the
Wabash river. At this place the COM
munity prospered in worldly goods
and their mode of living and peculiar
views attracted good deal of atten-
ton, and the New Harmony people
were the subject of numerous newspa-
per articles.
In 1924, for some cause, the commu-
nifty sold its possessions at New Har-
mony and returned to Pennsylvania
They then located in Beaver county.
on the Ohio river, where they purchased
$500 acres of land and built the town
of Economy. A correspondent of the
New York Star says of the peculiar
people, that mot believing in marriage,
they all live together as brothers and
sisters and practice the strictest moral
ity In 1922 the question of marriage
was the leading one in the community,
and about 200 members withdrew be-
cause they favored marriages, and es-
tablished the town of Philipsburg. But
the new colony did not prosper, and
after few years of struggling they
sold out and disbandcd. dividing the
proceeds of their sale equally among
all the members. In the meantime
the Harmonisls were gradually becom-
ing more and more wealthy, until at
present they own jointly and in COM
mon lands, stocks, bonds and herds.
the value OF which is estimated at So
900, 600. Besides owning all of Econo-
my and large part of Beaver, thev
own an entire county in Dakota. in the
valley of the Red river of the North"
1t is said that this community built
and equipped out of its surplus money
the Plttsburg and Lake Erie Road from
Pittsburg to Youngstown, which was
afterward sold to the Vanderbiits. 1t
is matter of history that at the time
the war broke out. in 1861, they con-
verted all their bonds and available
property into money and buried it, u.s.
ing the treasure atterward in paving
for the building of the railroad. The
payments thus made put in circulation
an immense amount of silver, many of
the pieces dating back to 1900
The community has been for years
gradually diminishing in numbers un-
til now it consists of only thirteen men
and forty women. They are all ad-
vanced in years, and, as their laws are
strict against marriage, the people of
Pennsylvania are beginning to calcu-
late how long it will be before the S75.-
600, 900 will be the property of the
State. BY the community laws, as
long as three of them hold together the
property is to remain intact, but when
one OF the last three dies the other two
leave, and, as there are no heirs, the
property goes to the State.
After those who advocated matrimo-
ny left the society, the younger men,
bers of the community, of different
sexes, manifested some disposition to
be social together; and the President of
the community twenty years ago ina
gined that there was too much famili-
arity between the young men and maid
ems, and so promulgated an order
that all females appearing on the
streets after dark must carry lanterns,
but still the merry-making continued,
although no lanterns appeared. This
caused an investigation, which devel-
oped the fact that the worthy old gen.
tleman had neglected to direct that the
lanterns should be lighted. The Har-
monists are all old people now, so the
President has never amended his order,
nor directed that the lanterns should
be lighted. .-RocheSter Democrat.