Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-03
A QUEER HARVEST HOME.
The Economic Community of Penn
sylvania- Singular Gus
toms and Beliefs.
A Strange People in the Midst of a
Busy POpulati0n-Their First
and Latest Festival.
Chicago journal.

LIlc uldIll6E DOGIl-IdT AWAY over Tie S6d
and the long lapse of years to the time and
place when and where Gabriel and Evan
geline enacted their love romance among
the farmers of Normandy That was what
| witnessed to-day in this unique village
among the mystical ceibate communists
who built, own and occupy 1t.
Eighty-four years have rolled away
since, the last sheaf of summer golden
grain having been garnered up In their
barns, the HarmOnists, or Economics as
they are most popularity called, celebrated
their first harvest home. That was In 1905
in Butler county, Pa, fifteen miles from
the now great city of Pittsburgh. Six
months previously these good people had
stood on the banks of the Consequences
ing, stream as crooked as It's name,
strangers In strange land to which they
had fed to escape religious persecution IN
their German Faderland, and to carry out
unmolested the singular doctrines and
practices of their peculiar faith.
Seven hundred sturdy, rosy Germans
men, women and children-gathered
around George Rapp, a blue-eyed enthu-
siast, AS years of age, whom they rever-
enced as their leader and the founder of
their faith, and gave formal assent to his
plan of organizing.
TIFF HARMONY SOCIETY.
They cheerfully agree to throw all their
possessions into a common stock, those who
had wealth agreeing as readily as those
who had nothing to thenceforward share
all things together. They regarded COM
munty if goods, practiced by the primitive
Christians, as a normal fundamental prln-
ciple in the organization of the Christian
Church. and deemed its observance a duty
oil I,ca1,,Io, oG
Christ. The fact that they daily and hourly
expected, as they still continue to do, the
second coming of Jesus and the end of the
world, made them more Indifferent to the
possession of individual property than they
might otherwise have been.
Gathered from the vineyards and work
shops of Wurtemburg, in farotf Bavaria
poor, even with their combined possessions
but rich in faith, they went earnestly to till
ing the soil and patiently awaited that
glorious second advent. In the last days
of the following August they celebrated
precisely as ! have just seen them do it,
their first harvest home.
Many changes have taken place since
then and the good Harmonists have under
gone many vicissitudes in the long years
that have passed. Twice have they
changed their place of residence. First to
Indiana, then back to Pennsylvania again.
where they built, in 1926, the quaint Will
age from which | write.
But the greatest trial which they were
ever called upon to endure was the adop-
ton Of the rigid
PRACTICE OF CELIBACY
in 1907 two years after their first harvest
home. Those who had wives were thence
forward, required to be as though they had
none, and thus the tenderest of earthly
ties was virtually sundered among them.
Father Rapp taught his supplemented
people that through special illumination
from God he now saw that the marriage
relation, even In its present form, was in
compatibleSvith that perfect sanctifca-
ton required of the elect in view of the
approaching second advent of Christ, and
the rigid practice of celibacy at once be-
came sine qua non of membership In the
Harmony Society. Husbands and wives
were Immediately separated, and the
male and female members thereafter lived
together like so many monks and nuns.
When the sun rose on the day set for
their harvest home this year, the grass
had been growing above the grave of their
venerated founder for forty-two years,
and of the original signers of the cove
nant which established the Harmony So
ciety not one has been left these many
years to tell the tale. The twenty-five
aged, almost bed-ridden men and women,
who now comprise the entire member
ship, are descendants. relatives and
friends of the original members, who
joined the society some years after It's
formation, for the HarmonistS have al
ways been, as they still continue to be,
willing and anxious to receive as new
members any persons of good moral char
acter who will subscribe to their rules of
faith and practice and throw all their
possessions into the common store
But it must not be supposed that these
few feeble ones were the only participants
in the festivities of this years harvest
home The 400 work people whom the
Economics employ to carry on their great
farms. and their oil, natural gas and lum-
Der interests, and who dwell here in Econo-
my with their wives and children came
trooping out of their houses at the first
notes of the military band, maintained
here among them, which, according to the
lnvariable custom on all festal occasions,
greeted the first beams of the rising sun
with strains of sweetest music from a bal
cony built above the high steeple of the
Harmonist Church Those same work
people crowded the sacred edifce at both the
morning and afternoon services of Thanks
giving for bOuntiful harvest. They
formed the principal factor in the makeup
of the procession which marched after each
service from the church to the large ban
quet hall in which the Economics feast
Solemnly together ON all their holidays.
The menu at these banquets Is hardly
calculated to please an American palate
1t seems very strange that though these
good people set a much better table in
their own homes than the average Penn
sylvania farmer, their banquets are sing
ularly devoid of richness. delicacy and
variety in the viands with which they are
supplied They have an unvarying round
QUEER OLD GERMAN DISHES
which are served up at every feast year after
year. Rice soup, made from a German
formula which these good people brought
from Wurtemberg in 1906 sauerBraut,
''schnits. or stewed dried apples. which
they regard as the choicest of delicacies
and as being much preferable to any can
ned or preserved fruit, roast beef, lamb,
mutton and veal; cheese and small ginger
cakes. make up the bill of fare, which Is
washed down by copious draughts of rare
old wine. for the manufacture of which
these good people are justly famous.
No one can form any idea OF this quaint
village and It's singular people by simply
reading of them The place has IN indie
scribable air of mysticism and romance
which possess an indefnabe charm for the
stranger That such singular commune