Chapter XXX: The Clermont Phalanx

This Association originated in Cincinnati. An enthusiastic convention of Socialists was held in that city on the 22d of February, 1844, at which interesting letters were read from Horace Greeley, Albert Brisbane, and Wm. H. Channing, and much discussion of various practical projects ensued. A committee was appointed to find a suitable domain; and at a second meeting on the 14th of March, the society adopted a constitution, elected officers, and opened books for subscription of stock. Mr. Wade Loofbourrow, a gentleman of capital and enterprise, took the lead in these proceedings, and was chosen president of the future Phalanx. A domain of nine hundred acres was soon selected and purchased on the banks of the Ohio, in Clermont County, about thirty miles above Cincinnati. On the 9th of May a large party of the members proceeded from Cincinnati on a steamer chartered for the occasion, to take possession of the domain with appropriate ceremonies, and leave a pioneer band to commence operations. Macdonald accompanied this party, and gives the following account of the excursion:

"There were about one hundred and thirty of us. The weather was
beautiful, but cool, and the scenery on the river was splendid
in its spring dress. The various parties brought their
provisions with them, and toward noon the whole of it was
collected and spread upon the table by the waiters, for all to
have an equal chance. But alas for equality! On the meal being
ready, a rush was made into the cabin, and in a few minutes all
the seats were filled. In a few minutes more the provisions had
all disappeared, and many persons who were not in the first
rush, had to go hungry. I lost my dinner that day; but improved
the opportunity to observe and criticise the ferocity of the
Fourieristic appetite. We reached the domain about two o'clock
P.M., and marched on shore in procession, with a band of music
in front, leading the way up a road cut in the high clay bank;
and then formed a mass meeting, at which we had praying, music
and speech-making. I strolled out with a friend and examined the
purchase, and we came to the conclusion that it was a splendid
domain. A strip of rich bottom-land, about a quarter of a mile
wide, was backed by gently rolling hills, well timbered all
over. Nine or ten acres were cleared, sufficient for present
use. Here then was all that could be desired, hill and plain,
rich soil, fine scenery, plenty of first-rate timber, a
maple-sugar camp, a good commercial situation, convenient to the
best market in the West, with a river running past that would
float any kind of boat or raft; and with steamboats passing and
repassing at all hours of the day and night, to convey
passengers or goods to any point between New Orleans and
Pittsburg. Here was wood for fuel, clay and stone to make
habitations, and a rich soil to grow food. What more could be
asked from nature? Yet, how soon all this was found
insufficient!

"The land was obtained on credit; the price was $20,000. One
thousand was to be paid down, and the rest in installments at
stated periods. The first installment was paid; enthusiasm
triumphed; and now for the beginning! On my return to the
landing, I found a band of sturdy men commencing operations as
pioneers. They were clearing a portion of the wood away with
their axes, and preparing for building temporary houses, the
materials for which they brought with them. A temporary tent was
put up, and it would surprise any one to hear how many things
were going to be done.

"We left the domain on our return at about five P.M., and I
noticed that the president, Mr. Loofbourrow, and the secretary,
Mr. Green, remained with the workmen. There were about a dozen
persons left, consisting, I believe, of carpenters, choppers and
shoemakers. They all seemed in good spirits, and cheered merrily
on our departure."

A second similar excursion of Socialists from Cincinnati came off on the 4th of July following, which also Macdonald attended, and reports as follows:

"We left Cincinnati triumphantly to the sound of martial music,
and took our journey up the river in fine spirits, the young
people dancing in the cabin as we proceeded. We arrived at the
Clermont Phalanx about one o'clock. On landing, we formed a
procession and marched to a new frame building, which was being
erected for a mill. Here an oration was delivered by a Mr.
Whitly, who, I noticed, had the Bible open before him. After
this we formed a procession again and marched to a lot of rough
tables enclosed within a line of ropes, where we stood and took
a cold collation. After this the folks enjoyed themselves with
music and dancing, and I took a walk about the place to see what
progress had been made since my last visit. The frame building
before mentioned was the only one in actual progress. A
steam-boiler had been obtained, and preparations had been made
to build other houses. A temporary house had been erected to
accommodate the families then on the domain, amounting as I was
informed, to about one hundred and twenty persons. This building
was made exactly in the manner of the cabin of a Western
steamboat; i.e., there was one long narrow room the length of
the house, and little rooms like state-rooms arranged on either
side. Each little room had one little window, like a port-hole;
and was intended to accommodate a man and his wife, or two
single men temporarily. It was at once apparent that the persons
living there were in circumstances inferior to what they had
been used to; and were enduring it well, while the enthusiastic
spirit held out. But it seldom lasts long. It is said that
people will endure these deprivations for the sake of what is
soon to come. But experience shows that the endurance is
generally brief, and that if they are able, they soon return to
the circumstances to which they have been accustomed. They
either find that their patience is insufficient for the task, or
that being in inferior circumstances, _they_ are becoming
inferior. Be the cause what it may, the result is nearly always
the same. This Association had been on the ground only a few
months; but I was told that disagreements had already commenced.
The persons brought together were strangers to each other, of
many different trades and habits, and discord was the result, as
might have been anticipated. From one of the shoemakers I
gained considerable information as to their state and
prospects. In the afternoon we returned to the city."

[From the _Phalanx_, May 3, 1845.]

"We are glad to learn by the following notice, taken from a
Cincinnati paper, that the _Clermont Phalanx_ still lives, and
is in a fair way of going on successfully. We have received no
account of it lately, and as the last that we had was not very
flattering in respect to its pecuniary condition, we should not
have been surprised to hear of its dissolution. The indiscretion
of starting Associations without sufficient means and a proper
selection of persons, has been shown to be disastrous in some
other cases, and that we should fear for the fate of this one
was quite natural. But if our Clermont friends can, by their
devotion, energy and self-sacrificing spirit, overcome the
trying difficulties of a pioneer state, rude and imperfect as it
must be, they will deserve and will receive an abundant reward.
We bid them God speed! They say:

"'The pioneer band, with their friends, took possession of the
domain on the 9th day of May last year, since which time we have
been engaged in cultivating our land, clearing away the forest,
and erecting buildings of various kinds for the use of the
Phalanx.

"'The amount of capital stock paid in is about $10,000; $3,000
of which has been paid for the domain. We have a stock of
cattle, hogs and sheep, and sufficient teams and agricultural
utensils of various kinds; also a steam saw- and grist-mill.
Shoe, brush, tin and tailor's shops are in active operation.
There are on the ground thirty-five able-bodied men, with a
sufficient number of women and children.

"'When we first entered on our domain, there were no buildings
of any description, except three log-cabins, which were occupied
by tenants. We have since erected a building for a saw- and
grist-mill, a frame building forty by thirty feet, two stories
high, and another, one story high, eighty by thirty-six feet,
and one thirty-six by thirty feet, together with a kitchen,
wash-house, etc. These buildings are of course slightly built,
being temporary. We have also commenced a brick building eighty
by thirty feet, three stories high, which is ready for the roof;
all the timbers are sawed for that purpose; and we expect soon
to put them on.

"'There are about two thousand cords of wood chopped, part of
which is on the bank of the river. There are thirty acres of
wheat in the ground, in excellent condition, and it is intended
to put in good spring crops. We are also preparing to plant
large orchards this spring, Mr. A.H. Ernst having made us the
noble donation of one thousand selected fruit-trees.'"

[From the _Harbinger_, June 14, 1845.]

"George Sampson, Secretary of the Phalanx, says, in an address
soliciting funds: 'The members of the Association have the
satisfaction of announcing that they have just paid off this
year's installment due for their domain, amounting to $4,505,
and have also advanced nearly $1,000 on their next year's
payment. With increased zeal and confidence we now look forward
to certain success.'"

[Letter from a member, in the _Harbinger_, October 4, 1845.]

"_Clermont Phalanx, September 13, 1845._"

"I am pleased to have to inform you, that we are improving since
you were among us. We have had an accession of members, three
single men, and two with families. One of them attends the
saw-mill, which he understands, and the others are carpenters
and joiners, whom we much needed.

"We are now hard at work on our large brick edifice. We are
fitting up a large dining-hall in the rear of it, with kitchen,
wash-house, bakery, etc. We think we shall get into it in about
five weeks from this time. We now all sit down to the Phalanx
table, and have done so for about six weeks, and all goes on
harmoniously. How much better is this system than for each
family to have their own table, their own dining-room, kitchen,
etc. We have admitted several other members, who have not yet
arrived. We have applications before us from several members of
the Ohio Phalanx. How much I regret that these people were
compelled to abandon so beautiful a location as Pultney Bottom,
merely for want of money to carry on their operations. Their
experience is the same as ours. Though their movement failed,
they have become confirmed Associationists; they know that
living together is practicable; that the Phalanstery is man's
true home; and the only one in which he can enjoy all the
blessings of earthly existence, without those evils which flesh
is heir to in false civilization."

Macdonald concludes his account with the following observations:

"The Phalanx continued to progress, or to exist, till the fall
of 1846, when it was finally abandoned. During its existence
various circumstances concurred to hasten its termination; among
them the following: Stock to the amount of $17,000 was
subscribed, but scarcely $6,000 of it was ever paid;
consequently the Association could not meet its liabilities. An
installment of $3,000 had been paid at the purchase of the
property, but as the after installments could not be met, a
portion of the land had to be sold to pay for the rest. A little
jealousy, originating among the female portion of the Community,
eventually led to a law-suit on the part of one of the male
members against the Association, and caused them some trouble. I
have it also on good authority, that an important difficulty
took place between Mr. Loofbourrow and the Phalanx, relative to
the deed of the property which he held for the Phalanx.

"At one time there were about eighty persons on the domain,
exclusive of children. They were of various trades and
professions, and of various religious beliefs. There was no
common religious standard among them.

"Some of the friends of this experiment say it failed from two
causes, viz., the want of means and the want of men; while
others attribute the failure to jealousy and the law-suit, and
also to losses they sustained by flood."

The fifth volume of the _Harbinger_ has a letter from one who had been a member of the Clermont Phalanx, giving a curious account of certain ghosts of Associations that flitted about the Clermont domain, after the decease of the original Phalanx. Here is what it says:

[Letter in the _Harbinger_, October 2, 1847.]

"It was well known that our frail bark would strand about a year
ago. I need not say from what cause, as the history of one such
institution is the history of all; but it is commonly said and
believed that it was owing to our large indebtedness on our
landed property. Persons of large discriminating powers need not
inquire how and why such debt was contracted; suffice it to
say, it was done, and under such burden the Clermont Phalanx
went down about the first of November, 1856. The property of the
concern was delivered up to our esteemed friends, B. Urner and
C. Donaldson of Cincinnati, who disposed of the land in such a
way as to let it fall into the hands of our friends of the
Community school, of which John O. Wattles, John P. Cornell and
Hiram S. Gilmore are conspicuous members, and who seem to have
all the pecuniary means and talents for carrying on a grand and
notable plan of reform. They are now putting up a small
Community building, spaciously suited for six families, which
for beauty, convenience and durability, probably is not
surpassed in the western country.

"Of the old members of the Clermont, many returned again to the
city where the institution was first started, but a goodly
number still remain about the old domain, making various
movements for a re-organization. After the break-up, a deep
impression seemed to pervade the whole of us that something had
been wrong at the outset, in not securing individually a
permanent place _to be_, and then procuring the things _to be
with_. Had that been the case, a permanent and happy home would
have been here for us ere this time. But I will add with
gratitude that such is the case now. We have a home! We have a
place to be! After various plans for uniting our energies in the
purchase of a small tract of land, we were visited during the
past summer by Mr. Josiah Warren of New Harmony, Indiana, who
laid before us his plan for the use of property, in the
rudimental re-organization of society. Mr. Warren is a man of no
ordinary talents. In his investigations of human character his
experience has been of the most rigorous kind, having begun with
Mr. Owen in 1825, and been actively engaged ever since; and
being an ingenious mechanic and artist, an inventor of several
kinds of printing-presses and a new method of stereotyping and
engraving, and an excellent musician, and combining withal a
character to do instead of say, gives us confidence in him as a
man. His plan was taken up by one of our former members, who has
an excellent tract of land lying on the bank of the Ohio river,
within less than a mile of the old domain. He has had it
surveyed into lots, and sells to such of us as wish to join in
the cause. An extensive brick-yard is in operation, stone is
being quarried and lumber hauled on the ground, and buildings
are about to go up 'with a perfect rush.' Mr. Warren will have a
press upon the ground in a few weeks that will tell something.
So you see we have a home, we have a place. But by no means is
the cause at rest. We call upon philanthropists and all men who
have means to invest for the cause of Association, to come and
see us, and understand our situation, our means and our
intentions. We are ready to receive capital in many forms, but
not to hold it as our own. The donor only becomes the lender,
and must maintain a strict control over every thing he
possesses. [Here Warren's Individual Sovereignty protrudes.]
Farms and farming utensils, mechanical tools, etc., can be
received only to be used and not abused; and in the language of
the 'Poughkeepsie seer,' of whose work we have lately received a
number of copies, this all may be done without seriously
depreciating the capital or riches of one person in society. On
the contrary, it will enrich and advance all to honor and
happiness."

Here we come upon the trail of two old acquaintances. John O. Wattles was one of the founders of the Prairie Home Community. It seems from the above, that after the failure of that experiment, he set up his tent among the _debris_ of the Clermont Phalanx. And Josiah Warren came from the failure of his New Harmony Time-store to the same favored or haunted spot, and there started his Utopia. These intersections of the wandering Socialists are intricate and interesting. Note also that the ideas of the "Poughkeepsie seer," A.J. Davis, whose star was then only just above the horizon, had found their way to this queer mixture of all sorts of Socialists.