The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-29
OZARK UTOPIA FAILED
COLONY ESTABLISHED IN TANEY
COUNTY, MISSOURI, AND IT'S
HISTORY
ILLUSIONS SOON DIss1PATED

Finally Destroy the UNDERTAKINGS
Down in fancy county. Missouri, not
far from the Christian county line, Is the
site or what was once a cooperative
colony. The sandy fiat, called in the
old days a post oak fiat" lies in the
divide between Swan creek and Little
Beaver and Is about six miles north of
the town of Forsyth. The colony was
never success but it has an interesting
history in connection with the Bald Knob
raids of some fifteen years ago. The very
nature of the soil. bleak, rugged and I'M
productive, prevented the realization of
the dreams Of the dupes OF the founder.
This founder was an Englishman named
Henry E. Sharpe, who had become filed
with the Looking Backward" notion and
yearned to put theories into practice. He
had been over the greater part Of the
world, had served in the East Indian
army as IN officer and had added Oriental
philosophy to the dream of cooperative
industries. He came to America short
time before this venture and went
speedily to work, He is spoken Of as a
very plausible fellow who won many a
of tongue. He met, wooed and won a
rich widow Of New York named Mrs
Sallade. She furnished the money to buy
the site and for a time vigorously adj
vocated her husbands schemes.
Sharpe bought the land, recorded his
deed and then went on a missionary tour
of the East. He formed the fancy County
Integral and Cooperative society, induced
a number Of families to come West and
set up in the dreary Ozarks. He got out
attractive literature representing the
society as already in a fourishing con-
dition before a single recruit had arrived
on the ground. Half a dozen small houses
were put up for temporary homes, but
the big lyceum was still dream. 1t has
never been constructed. These Individual
shacks were pointed out by him as the
original homes OF the colonists as object
lessons showing how the communlst1c
ideas had grown.
ILLUSIONS SOON DIssIPATED.
But the Illusion Of the dreamers could
not long endure the severe test of eX-
perience, and the enchantment of CO.
operative life soon began to fade away
and leave the colonists face to face with
prosaic conditions. There was more work
very few material comforts. Each morn
ing the men learned from the bulletin
board the duty that had been assigned
them by the director The assignment
of tasks was made arbitrarily. There was
no common council held to discuss the
various capabilities of the workers. The
manager determined whether Smith
should pillow in field No. or No. and
named the man that must hoe in the
oprn
not alike arduous and trip to the post
Office for the colony mail was more desir-
able than an assignment to dig cellar,
and thus discomfort and envy naturally
arose over the distribution Of service.
Indivfdualisrn was annihi1ated by the
necessary despotism Of an arbitrary man
agement.
When the colonists began to murmur
and talk Of leaving they found that their
investment could not be taken out Of the
community. The founder Of the colony
had looked after that important matter
In framing the constitution of the society.
All individual property brought to the
community became a part OF the COM
mon wealth and those who should grow
tired Of the cooperative plan must go
out empty handed.
MUTINY GROWS RAPIDLY.
The spirit of INSTRUMENTATION grew more
pronounced from day to day. as none OF
the promised benefits Of cooperation
were realized. It was lonely life for
the families who had left the hustle and
excitement of a great city and the young
folks found the little colony duller than
even the tenement houses of New York.
At evening no band Of musicians enter
tanned the villagers. The site for the col
ony lyceum remained a vacant lot grown
up in summer time with dog fennel and
cookie burrs. There were no holidays,
no pleasant pastimes, no dream life on
converts to the theory of cooperation
became sullen and mutinous.
MRS. SHARPE PULLS OUT.
But the most serious misfortune to the
cooperative scheme came when Mrs.
Sharpe ceased to be her husbands d1scl-
ple and patroness and refused to lend fur
Their financial aid to his socialistic work.
Sharpe then quit the field Of propaganda
and took upon himself the direct man
agement Of the colony But the move
ment had already reached hopeless
state of decline No more recruits could
be secured. The failure Of the scheme
was known abroad and each day the col
ony became a heavier loss to its proprle-
tor. Sharpe had not money TO meet the
necessities of the community, and indl-
the people.
One of the members of tho colony open
ed O little store on the old plan OF sell
Ing merchandise tor profit, and he soon
got into trouble with two fancy county
desperadoes who wanted to buy pair
of boots on credit In the quarrel that
followed the merchant was shot and
stray bullet struck his wife, who nap
pened to be in the store when the firing
this outrage were Frank and Tubal Tay-
Tor. afterward lynched Ivy the fancy
County Bald Knobbers at Forsyth. The
hanging Of the Taylor brothers, which oc-
Cured within a week after the shooting
of the merchant and his wife, inaugural
ed the Bald Knobber rule in fancy coun-
ty, and Capt. Nat Kinney the chief of
the organization, soon became dictator or
affairs about Forsyth
Sharpe, the colony proprietor, would
not brook the rule of the regulators, and
he was warned to hold his tongue about
the Bald Knobber5 or leave the country.
The reformer was a man Of dauntleSs
spirit, and had never yielded to intim1-
dalton. He armed himself with two RI
fles, barricaded his doors for night at
tack, and sent Kinney word that he was
ready to receive visit from the worst
members of his regulating legions. Sharpe
was never molested.
FAILURE OF THE PROJECT.
The colony dragged on several years
through the Bald Knobber period and
Sharpe became very poor. The breach
between him and his New York wife
widened and she finally began a suit for
divorce. claiming at the same time the
fancy county property on the ground
that her money had bought the land.
bitter correspondence was carried on be-
tween the manager of the colony and the