History of American Socialisms - dana ward's homepage

34 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS.
mills, factories and thirty thousand acres of land, for one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This was an immense
sacrifice; but they were determined to leave the
country, and they submitted to the loss. Having in the
meantime made a purchase of their present lands in
Pennsylvania, on the Ohio river, they built a steamboat
and removed in detachments to their new and final place
of settlement."
Thus Owen, the first experimenter in .non-religious
Association, had substantially the ready-made material
conditions which Fourier and his followers considered
indispensable to success.
We proceed now to give a sketch of the Owen
experiment chiefly in Macdonald's words. When our
own language occurs it is generally a condensation
of his.
OWEN'S NEW HARMONY.
"Robert Owen came to the United States in December
I 824, to complete the purchase of the settlement at
Harmony. Mr. Rapp had sent an agent to England to
dispose of the property, and Mr. Owen fell in with him
there. In the spring of 1825 Mr. Owen closed the bargain.
The property consisted of about 3°,000 acres of
land; nearly 3,000 acres under cultivation by the society;
19 detached farms; 600 acres of improved land occupied
by tenants; some fine orchards; eighteen acres
of full-bearing vines; and the village, which was a
regularly laid out town, with streets running at right
angles to each other, and a public square, around which
were large brick edifices, built by the Rappites for
churches, schools, and other public purposes."
We can form some idea of the size of the village from