Hometown History
by Carol Anderson
A Commune In LaGrange County Pt. 2
Last month I wrote
men of great faith in humanity and
its possibilities, but, after a few years,
about Charles Fourier, a man dropped out, with little faith left, and
who proposed communal living a resolution to bear the ills we have
in the early 1800s. Believers in his in society rather than sacrifice themselves in a vain attempt to reconstruct
philosophy built such a place in LaGrange County sometime in the 1840s. it. The society organized in this county
has not had itself perpetuated in
I found an account of the LaGrange
romance, as was the “Brook Farm,” by
Phalanx in a book written in 1882
called 1882 History, LaGrange County, Nathaniel Hawthorn, but it made a no
less earnest effort for success, and had
Indiana. From this book:
It will be remembered that among a pleasant existence for several years.
History of this organization, as far
the many schemes proposed in first
as it is handed down to us, is full of inhalf of the century for changing the
social order and inaugurating an era of terest. Some of the best and most prominent citizens of Springfield Township
good feeling and heavenly acting, the
were the founders of the enterprise.
system of Charles Fourier attracted
A constitution of thirty articles
great attention. Into different forms of
was framed in 1844, upon the basis of
these socialistic schemes went young
Fourier’s doctrines as modified
nd
and published by
at New Life Fellowship Albert Brisbane, of
New York, in 1843.
Located at 2755 S. SR 5
Shipshewana, IN 46565
A charter was
granted to William
Friday, October 28th at 6:30 pm – 9:15 pm
Prentiss, Benjamin
th
Jones and Harvey
Continuing Saturday, October 29
Olmstead, by the
with coffee & Donuts at 7:30 am – 8:00 am
Legislature. The
Saturday’s first session begins
name chosen was
at 8:15 am – shortly after noon
the rather warlike
For more info on event please go to CA-YA.com!
one of the La“Men of Strength”
Grange Phalanx.
Session 1—Real Family Values
Hosted
Session 2—Resisting Sexual Temptation
Joseph Wade,
by Area
Session 3—Reaching your Potential
son of MargaChurches
Session 4—Recovering from your Mistakes
ret Wade, and a
Session 5—Realizing Who You Are
schoolboy at the
A good will offering will be taken to
time, said in a pacover expenses of the event.
Matt and
per on this subject
A portion of funds will be
Jason
donated to LaGrange
in 1876,: “There
leading
County Compassion
are many pleasPregnancy Center.
worship!
ant recollections
clustering around
those years, when
This year’s speaker
120 people from
David Gallimore
A world-wide
Indiana and MichiPastor/Evangelist
gan lived under the
2
Annual Men’s Retreat
same roof and ate at the same table. The
home of the Phalanx was a house 210
feet long by 24 feet wide and two stories high, with a veranda to both stories
on the front. In the center of the first
story was a dining room, forty feet long
by 24 feet wide; immediately above the
school room, which was large enough to
accommodate the children. And a better controlled and managed school, it
was never my fortune to attend.
The system of management in the
Phalanx was as follows: The industrial
department was managed by a Council
of Industry, who controlled, laid out,
and directed all of the agricultural and
mechanical departments, upon the basis as describe in Article XVI (75 cents
per day of ten hours), and so ordered
that ten hours of the man who plowed
were paid the same as eight hours
of him who grubbed.. The Council of
Commerce had under its supervision
all the buying, selling and traffic of
the Phalanx. The Council of Education
(made up of the best educational talent) had the entire management of the
school and educational matters in the
Phalanx. The several councils consisted
of three or more members. The different departments were subdivided into
groups of from three to eight persons,
each group having its foreman, chosen
by its members, who reported the time
of each member to the Secretary once
every week, in days and hours.
“This system in many respects
was advantageous to successful labor,
and but for the fact of too little care
in taking in members, might have
been successful and popular as a labor
saving organization. But the whole
thing was new and untried, and many
adventurers came in, some for want
of a home, others to winter and leave
in the spring. I do not doubt that the
prudent, careful men of the Phalanx,
after disbanding that organization,
could, with their years of experience,
have formed one that would have been
a step in advance of the old isolated
system of living, not for successful
industry merely, but socially and
educationally. This Phalanx was wound
up and settled in 1847 or 1848, and its
members scattered.
The Hometown Treasure · Nov.. ‘11 · pg 47