Part 36 (1/2)
”The Phalanx has purchased and cancelled during the year $2,000 of stock; we have also, by the a.s.sistance of our mill (which has been in operation since June), and from our available products, paid off the inc.u.mbrance of $1,095.33 with which we commenced the year; made our mechanical and agricultural improvements, and advanced to members, in rent, provisions, clothing, cash, etc., $5,237.07. The annexed schedule specifies the kinds and valuation of the property on hand:
1,713 acres of land at $3.00 $5,139.00 Agricultural improvements 3,509.77 Agricultural products 5,244.16 Mechanical improvements 12,520.00 Live stock 2,983.50 Farm and garden tools 1,219.77 Mechanical tools 380.56 Personal property, miscellaneous 1,567.42 ---------- Amount $32,564.18
”BENJ. WRIGHT, President.”
In June, 1848, Warren Chase sent a letter to the _Boston Investigator_, complaining of the _Harbinger's_ indifference to the interests of the Wisconsin Phalanx; and another writer in the _Investigator_ suggested that this indifference was on account of the irreligious character of the Phalanx; all of which the _Harbinger_ denied. To the charge of irreligion, a member of the Phalanx indignantly replied in the _Harbinger_, as follows:
”Some of us are and have been Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. Others have never been members of any church, but (with a very few exceptions) very readily admit the authenticity and moral value of the Scriptures. The ten commandments are the sum, substance and foundation of all true law. Add to this the gospel law of love, and you have a code of laws worthy of the adoption and practice of any man or set of men, and upon which a.s.sociationists must base themselves, or they can never succeed. There are many rules, doctrines and interpretations of Scripture among the (so denominated) Orthodox churches, that any man of common sense can not a.s.sent to. Even they can not agree among themselves; for instance the Old and New School Presbyterians, the Baptists, Methodists, etc. If this difference of faith and opinion is infidelity or irreligion, we to a man are infidels and irreligious; but if faith in the principles and morality of the Bible is the test, I deny the charge. I can scarcely name an individual here that dissents from them.
”I have been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for about twenty years, and a Methodist local preacher for over three years, and am now Secretary of the a.s.sociation. I therefore should know somewhat about this matter.”
[From the New York _Tribune_, July, 1848.]
”WISCONSIN PHALANX.--Having lately seen running around the papers a statement that the last remaining 'Fourier a.s.sociation,' somewhere in Illinois, had just given up the ghost, we gladly give place to the following extracts from a private letter we have just received from a former fellow citizen, who partic.i.p.ated in two of the earlier attempts (Sylvania and Leraysville) to establish something that ultimately would or might become an a.s.sociation after the idea of Fourier. After the second failure he attached himself to the communistic undertaking near Skaneateles, New York, and when this too ran aground, he went back perforce to the cut-throat system of civilized compet.i.tion. But this had become unendurably hateful to him, and he soon struck off for Ceresco, and became a member of the Wisconsin Phalanx at that place, whereof he has now for some months been a resident. Of this a.s.sociation he writes:
”I have worked in the various groups side by side with the members, and I have never seen a more persevering, practical, matter-of-fact body of people in any such movement. Since I came here last fall, I see a great improvement, both externally and internally. Mr. Van Amringe, the energetic herald of national and social reform, did a good work by his lectures here last winter; and the meetings statedly held for intellectual and social improvement, have an excellent effect. All now indicates unity and fraternity. The Phalanx has erected and enclosed a new unitary dwelling, one hundred feet long, two stories high, with a s.p.a.cious kitchen, belfry, etc. They have burnt a lime-kiln, and are burning a brick-kiln of one hundred thousand bricks as an experiment, and they bid fair to be first-rate. All this has been accomplished this spring in addition to their agricultural and horticultural operations. Their water-power is small, being supplied from springs, which the drought of the last three seasons has sensibly affected. In adding to their machinery, they will have to resort to steam.
”The location is healthy and pleasant. The atmosphere is uniformly pure, and a good breeze is generally blowing. I doubt whether another site could be found combining so many natural advantages. I have visited nearly all the a.s.sociative experiments in the country, and I like this the best. I think it already beyond the possibility of failure.
D.S.”
Mr. Van Amringe spent considerable time at Ceresco, and sent several elaborate articles in favor of the Phalanx to the _Harbinger_. One of the members wrote to him as follows:
”Since you left here a great change has taken place in the feelings and tastes of the members, and that too for the better.
You will recollect the black and dirty appearance of the buildings, and the wood-work inside scrubbed until it had the appearance of a dirty white. About the first of May they made a grand rally to alter the appearance of things. The long building was white-washed inside and out, and the wood-work of nearly all the houses has been painted. The school-house has been white-washed and painted, the windows white, the panels of the wood-work a light yellow, carvings around a light blue, the seats and desks a light blue; this has made a great change in its appearance. You will recollect the frame of a new building that stood looking so distressed; about as much more was added to it, and all covered and neatly painted. The corridor is now finished; a handsome good kitchen has been put up in the rear of the old one, with a bakery underneath; a beautiful cupola is on the top, in which is placed a small bell, weighing one hundred and two pounds, about the size of a steamboat bell; it can be heard on the prairie. The blinds in the cupola windows are painted green. Were you to see the place now you would be surprised, and agreeably so, too. Some four or five have left since spring; new members have been taken in their stead, and a good exchange, I think, has been made. Two or three tailors, and the same number of shoemakers, are expected shortly.”
From the Annual Statement of the Condition and progress of the Wisconsin Phalanx, for the fiscal year ending December 4, 1848.
”Religious meetings are sustained by us every Sabbath, in which the largest liberty is extended to all in the search for truth.
In the educational department we do no more than sustain a common school; but are waiting, anxiously waiting, for the time when our condition will justify a more extended operation. In the absence of a reading-room and library, one of our greatest facilities for knowledge and general information is afforded by a great number and variety of newspapers and periodical publications, an interchange of which gives advantages in advance of the isolated family. The number of resident members is one hundred and twenty, viz.: sixty-three males and fifty-seven females. The number of resident families is twenty-nine. We have resident with us, who are not members, one family and twelve single persons. Six families and three single persons have left during the year, a part of whose stock we have purchased. We have lost by death the past year seven persons, viz.: one married lady (by consumption), one child two years of age, and five infants. The health of the members has been good, with the exception of a few cases of remittent and billious fevers. The Phalanx has sustained a public boarding-house the past year, at which the majority of the members have boarded at a cost not exceeding seventy-five cents per week. The remaining families board at their own apartments.
”The number of hours' labor performed during the year, reduced to the medium cla.s.s, is 97,036. The whole amount of property at the appraisal, is $33,527.77. The net profits of the year are, $8,077.02; which gives a dividend to stock of 6-1/4 per cent., and 6-1/4 cents per hour to labor. The annexed schedule specifies the kinds and valuation of property on hand:
Real estate 1,793 acres at $3.00 $5,379.00 Live Stock 3,117.00 Mechanical tools 1,866.34 Farming tools 1,250.75 Mechanical improvements 14,655.00 Agricultural improvements 2,298.90 ” products 3,161.56 Garden products 1,006.13 Miscellaneous property 793.09 ----------- Total amount $33,527.77
”S. BATES, President.”
The following anonymous summary, well written and evidently authentic, is taken from Macdonald's collection:
[History of the Wisconsin Phalanx, by a member.]
”In the winter of 1843-4 there was considerable excitement in the village of Southport, Wisconsin (now Kenosha City), on the subject of a.s.sociation. The subject was taken up with much feeling and interest at the village lyceum and in various public meetings. Among the advocates of a.s.sociation were a few persons who determined in the spring of 1844 to make a practical experiment. For that purpose a const.i.tution was drawn up, and a voluntary a.s.sociation formed, which styled itself 'The Wisconsin Phalanx.' As the movement began to ripen into action, the friends fell off, and the circle narrowed down from about seventy to twenty persons. This little band was composed mostly of men with small means, st.u.r.dy const.i.tutions, below the middle age, and full of energy; men who had been poor, and had learned early to buffet with the antagonisms of civilization; not highly cultivated in the social and intellectual faculties, but more so in the moral and industrial.
”They raised about $1,000 in money, which they sent to the land-office at Green Bay, and entered a tract of land selected by their committee, in a congressional towns.h.i.+p in the north-west corner of Fond du Lac County, a towns.h.i.+p six miles square, without a single inhabitant, and with no settlement within twenty miles, except a few scattered families about Green Lake.
”With teams, stock, tents, and implements of husbandry and mechanism, they repaired to this spot in the latter part of May 1844, a distance of about one hundred and twenty-five miles from their homes, and commenced building and breaking up land, etc.
They did not erect a log house, but split out of the tough burr and white oak of the 'openings,' s.h.i.+ngles, clapboards, floors, frames and all the materials of a house, and soon prepared a shelter. Their families were then moved on. Late in the fall a saw-mill was built, and every thing prepared as well as could be for the winter. Their dwellings would have been unendurable at other times and under other circ.u.mstances; but at this time zeal, energy, excitement and hope kept them from complaining.
Their land, which was subsequently increased to 1,800 acres, mostly at $1.25 per acre, consisted of 'openings,' prairie and timber, well watered, and with several small water-powers on the tract; a fertile soil, with as healthy a climate as could be found in the Western States.
”It was agreed to name the new town Ceresco, and a post-office was applied for under that name, and obtained. One of the members always held the office of post-master, until the administration of General Taylor, when the office was removed about three-quarters of a mile to a rival village. In the winter of 1844-5, the a.s.sociation asked the Legislature to organize their town, which was readily done under the adopted name. A few settlers had by this time moved into the town (which, owing to the large proportion of prairie, was not rapidly settled), and in the spring they held their election. Every officer chosen was a member of the society, and as they were required to elect Justices and had no need of any, they chose the three oldest men. From that time until the dissolution of the society nearly every town-office of importance was filled by its members. They had also one of their members in both Const.i.tutional Conventions of the State, and three in the State Senate for one term of two sessions. Subsequently one of their members was a candidate for Governor, receiving more votes in his town than both of the other candidates together; but only a small vote in the State, as he was the free-soil candidate.