THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
in fruitless efforts to establish themselves on this site, in Nauvoo, 111., then recently abandoned by the Mormons (q.v.). The society was afflicted with dissensions that resulted in several secessions and the founding of new colonies, which had only short lives.
The community at Nauvoo removed to Iowa in 1860, and was again involved in a controversy in which legal measures were employed. By a settlement in 1879, one of the parties remained on the site and retained the name, Icaria; while the other formed a new settlement, named New Icaria, on the Nodaway River. The older colony lived only a short time; while the community of New Icaria existed till 1895, when it was dissolved by the unanimous vote of the twenty-three remaining members.
The Icarian Community was organized without any religious basis. Complete tolerance was given to individual opinion in matters of religion so long as its expression did not provoke dissension. The society was a pure democracy, in which a complete community of goods was contemplated. Direction was vested in a general assembly of all the members, whose decisions were carried into effect through officers elected annually. Transgressions of the principles, laws, and regulations of the community were punished by public censure, deprivation of civil rights, or exclusion of the transgressor, according to the gravity of the offense.
W H. Larrabee.
Bibliography: W A. Hinds, American Communities, pp. 361-396, Chicago, 1908; C. Nordhoff, Communistic Societies, New York, 1875; A. Shaw, Icaria. A Chapter in the Hist, of Communism, ib. 1884; J. Prudhommeaux, Icarie el son fondateur Etienne Cabet, Paris, 1907 (a large volume of more than 700 pages).
8. The Perfectionists or Oneida Community:
Founded in 1845 by John Humphrey Noyes (b. at Brattleboro, Vt., Sept. 6, 1811; d. at Niagara Falls, Canada, Apr. 13, 1886). He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1830, studied theology at Andover and Yale, and was licensed as a Congregationalist minister about 1833. Avowing a belief that the second coming of Christ had occurred within a generation and professing the doctrine of Perfectionism (q.v.), he withdrew from the ministry and retired to his home in Putney, Vt. There he established a Bible class, which grew into an association of Perfectionists and was organized in 1845 into the Putney Corporation. Adverse public opinion gradually developed especially against its views respecting marriage. In Nov., 1847, Noyes and other members withdrew and with new recruits settled in Central New York, where, in Sept., 1848, a new community was formed, " for the establishment of the kingdom on the principles of heavenly association," of which the renunciation of any claim to private property was one. The remainder of the Putney community joined them in June, 1849. Besides the main community at Oneida, N. Y., six branch societies were maintained for a time, but all these were eventually given up except one at Wallingford, Conn. Agricultural and small manufacturing industries were carried on, and the products of the community acquired a wide reputation for excellence.
The Perfectioni-sts had a peculiar theory of the sexual relations which they called complex marriage, and the marriage contract was regarded as an affair of the community. Couples were united temporarily according to their preferences under the supervision of the society, but a permanent exclusive attachment of one person to another was regarded as wrong. Children who had reached an age to bear separation from the mother were put into the children's house to be cared for by nurses during the day and returned to their mothers at night; later they were passed to a second department, and the mother resumed her place in the household. A unique feature of the society was a system of mutual criticism to which all were subject, and in which all might take part. This constituted the principal means of discipline and government.
The pressure of public opinion against the doctrines and practises of the Oneida Community became so strong that the community yielded and gave up the system of complex marriage in 1880. Finally, Jan. 1, 1881, the community organization was dissolved and the society was converted into a joint stock company. The Oneida Community was exceptionally well managed and enjoyed a prosperity and harmony seldom found in such enterprises. At the time of dissolution there were 306 members at Oneida and Wallingford and the new company started with a paid up capital of $600,000. The present capital stock is $1,200,000 held by about 250 stockholders, of whom not far from 120 are connected with the factories or offices of the company. Employment is given to some 800 people in addition to the resident stockholders.
W. H. Larrabee.
Bibliography: For history consult W A. Hinds, American Communities, pp. 181-231, Chicago, 1908; C. Nordhoff, Communistic Societies, New York, 1875; J. H. Noyes, Hist, of American Socialisms, Philadelphia, 1870; A. Estlake. The Oneida Community, London, 1900; H. Dixon, New America, London, 1867 (a criticism to which Mr. Noyes replied in Dixon and his Copyists, Oneida, 1871); J. H. Noyes, Handbook of the Oneida Community, Oneida, 1871. The doctrines of the community appear in the writings of Noyes — The Perfectionist, Putney, Vt., 1843- 1846; The Berean, ib. 1847; Religious Experiences, 1850; On Scientific Propagation, 1873. From 1854 to 1874 the organ of the community was The Circular.
9. The Separatists: A society of German origin, which settled in Zoar, Tuscarawas County, 0., 1817-19. The movement gathered first in Wiirttemberg around Barbara Grubermann, a Swiss refugee to Germany, whom those who separated from the German State Church (whence the name) accepted as their leader. On her death Joseph Baumeler (Bimeler; d. 1853) became the head of the movement, and, securing the aid of some English Quakers in the persecution which followed, led the emigration of his followers to the United States. The first intention was not to adopt the communistic principles, but the diversity of station among the members and the great inequality of means seemed to make this necessary. Marriage was discouraged in the beginning, but was adopted a few years later. The society reached its largest membership about 1832 through immigration from Germany, when it numbered about 500 persons. The