St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-01
STRANGE COLONY.
AN OHIO SOCIETY WITH PECU-
LIAR CUSTOMS.
Vhev Share Their Property in
mon, and Only Want to BE
Let Alone.

Let Alone.
Canal Dover (O.) Correspondence New
York Times.
Five miles west of this little city,
in a garden spot of the beaut1ful
Tuscarawas valley, is one of the
most remarkable and extraordinary
settlements in America. Seventy
seven wears ago this month the first
log cabin of the Separatist Society
of Zoar was begun. The country
was in the wilds of the forest, and
the poverty-stricken German imml-
grants who comprised the associa-
ton and who arrived in the spring
of 1918 were in an almost desperate
state of restitution. The original
intention was not to form a COM
1nunistic society, but to found col
ony where certain pecpliar religious
ideas might have free course to
work themselves out and prove their
value or ViciOuSneSs without beng
disturbed by close contact with big
oted or inquisitive neighbors.
There were 225 persons in the lit
tie company which came out to
America from Wurtemburg, and
they were so poor that the English
Quakers, with their proverb1al, hb-
crafty to all who sought religious
liberty, helped them secure their
land, for which they paid So an
acre, purchasing about 5000 acres.
The more than three-quarters OF
a century has made a wonderful
change in the fertile valley where
the Separatists settled. A canal has
been built by the state through
their lands, and the Tuscarawas
valley has come to be one of the
most thickly settled and prosperous
agricultural sections of the state.
The Separatists have grown wealthy
with the development of the coun-
try. They now own a large number
of mills and other buildings upon
it, constituting quite little village.
Here this peculiar people weave
their own cloth, dye their wool,
tan the leather for their coarse
, boots and shoes, and make their own
flour; in a word, everything is done
that can be to make up the sum of
the coarse comforts which the mem
bers of the society enjoy. 1t is
a little world within itself, where
the church settles all disputes and
every lidIl Icio IlluSII elo lis
neighbOr and no more.
Until the town began to attract
visitors as a summer resort two or
three years ago, it had no form of
government except that of the So
ciety, yet order, sobriety and peace
prevailed But the influx of Strang-
ers, who knew not Baumeler, the
founder and patron saint of these
ictc
people to organize village corpor-
alton. The experience of this So
ciety bears out the theories of the
socialists in one respect 1t is
wealthy. But then the same class
of people in the same section of
country are, in proportion, almost
equally well-to-do.
The striking and remarkable fact
is that in all these seventy-seven
years this society has not increased
in membership. There were 225 in
1818 when they settled here; there
are now about the same number.
At times the society has been
larger, and about as often it has
been smaller, so that it is a fair
statement to say that, while all
the country about has been filling
up with people and the general pop
ulation has greatly increased, these
peculiar people have remained sta
tionary in numbers. Indeed, even
the present wealth of the society
has not proved sufficient inducement
to young men and women to join
it or bring in as many as are re-
quired to do the work Of the COM
munity, and it is now necessary for
them to hire men to assist in the
fields and mills.
The little town is laid out in a
struggling manner, at haphazard,
and the houses seem to have for
gotten the meaning of the word
paint" At first sight it appears to
be a country hamlet of the SIM
plest character, where general shift
1esSnesS reignS supreme. There is
a certain tidiness about the fields,
and the work is well done, but there
is an absence Of that spirit or prog
ress and improvement in the houses
which make any town attractive.
It is not long till the visitor discov-
ers that he has found the home Of
the commonplace.
Life runs evenly in the little vii
lage. A number of the old buildings
are still in use, and the only struc-
ture more elaborate than the 9th
ers is that which was occupied by
Josheph Baumeler in his lifetime. 1t
is now, in part, a storehouSe. The
people are of German extraction,
and have but little education. They
are completely Weaned from the
1uXuries of life, and wear home
spun for the most part and home
made shoes and boots. Each week
every member gets an allowance
from the general fund of food and
drink, and with that must be con-
tent. If there is a surplus it is
turned into the general treasury.
The three trustees Of tn society
and q standing committee of three