The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-03-23

banks OF the Oh1O, Just beyond the
rattle ankroar of Pittsburg. Its streets
are grassgrown, and over it there
hangs an indescribable air of quiet, of
peace and of contentment. Now and
then old men clad in sober blue broad
cloth, stiff, broad brimmed hats, and
elderly women, whose gray hair is
partially hidden beneath the silSen
caps like picturesque peasants of Nor
mandy, greet the visitor pleasantly.
Houses of brick, painted white, with
weather beaten gables fronting the
street, and the date of their erection
wrought into the briclSworlS or carved
on the Intel, surrounded by gardens
carefully cultivated in the summer and
kept scrupulously clean in the winter
skirt the ten minutes walk from the
station which leads to the large church
of brick, surmounted by tower, from
which clock, it's bells mellowed by
time, strikes every quarter hour.
Not till he was past 80 and married
did George Rapp sturdy Wurtemb berg
vineplanter, born in 1857, and who, de-
spite the depressing surroundings of
earlier years, was in many respects q
remarkable man, become dissatisfied
with what he regarded as the insin-
cerity and hollowness of the estab-
lished church. He grew into an ar
dent student of the history of primitive
Christianity, and teacher of much
the same doctrines which the great
Russian novelist, Tolstoi, is expound-
ing at the present time, save that with
Rapp the speedy second coming of
Christ became passionate conviction.
His followers gradually increased I'M
til they numbered 300 families-sim-
pie, credulous souls-who readily ac-
cepted the mysticism of their teacher
and looked upon him as half divine.
They were given the name of "Pietists,"
and become the objects of derisive hos
tility on the part of the regular clergy.
So calling and vexatious did the perse-
cutions become that at last 600 of them
sailed to America, purchased at Butler,
Pa, 5000 acres of land and built a
town. Here, February, 1906, with Rapp
as their leader, was formally organized
the Harmony Society. It's founders, be-
lieving the community of goods prac-
ticed by the first Christians was not
one of the temporary phases of a new re-
ligious movement, but rather funda-
mental principle intended to endure
eternally, made it the basis of the Or
ganization. All, following Rapp's ex-
ample, threw their possessions into a
common stock, and agreed in future to
share all things in common. The little
colony remained in Butler eight
years, when, in 1915, it removed to
Posey County, Ind. where it purchased
$4,000 acres of land.
But before this fresh migration a
radical change took place in the gov
ernment of the society. In 1907, as the
result of a geat religious awakening,
and the growing conviction that the
marriage state did not tend to perfect
purity of life and heart, celibacy was
made one of the articles of faith, and
an Indispensable requisite to admission
to the society. AS in the matter Of
community of goods, so in the new de-
parture Rapp and his son set an ex-
ample for the others by cheerfully
putting away their wives Both in
Butler and Indiana the Harmonists,
who, despite their singular creed,
were frugal Industrious and shrewd
(Rapp himself being a man of wonder
full foresight and marked executive
ability, prospered greatly, but the
malarial climate of Indiana proved
fatal to so many of them that in 1925
they returned to Pennsylvania, and
purchasing 5000 acres of land, built the
town of Economy. Here their long