Rappite Woman - New Harmony, IN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 07.807 W 087° 56.097
16S E 418058 N 4220664
"Community House Number 2, a three-story, brick dormitory for single Harmonist members built in 1822, was later used by the Owenites for community activities, including a school" ~ Wikipedia
Waymark Code: WMN31C
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/16/2014
Views: 7
County of art: Posey County
Location of art: Church St., Rappite Community House No. 2., New Harmony
Plaque text: Marker Text:
RAPPITE COMMUNITY HOUSE
NO. 2
ERECTED 1816-1822
Tablet placed in 1936 by
The Woman's Library Club
Beta Chapter Tri-Kappa
New Harmony Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution
"New Harmony is the site of two of America's great utopian communities. The first, Harmonie on the Wabash (1814-1824), was founded by the Harmony Society, a group of Separatists from the German Lutheran Church. In 1814, led by their charismatic leader Johann Georg Rapp, they left their first American home, Harmonie, PA. Indiana's lower Wabash Valley on the western frontier gave them the opportunity to acquire a much larger tract of land. In 1825, the Harmonists moved back to Pennsylvania and built the town of Economy near Pittsburgh. Robert Owen, Welsh-born industrialist and social philosopher, bought their Indiana town and the surrounding lands for his communitarian experiment." ~ New Harmony Tourism
"The singularities of the Rappite religion and philosophy need not concern us, but the fact that these fearless Germans were gifted with heroic capacity for creative work and possessed admirable talents for constructive progress-iveness does have a direct bearing on what I shall attempt to narrate.
"Becoming dissatisfied with their Pennsylvania environment the Rappites decided to move elsewhere. In 1814 George Rapp discovered the rich lands on the banks of the Wabash River and concluded, that, wilderness though it was, the beautiful tract in what is now Posey County, was the Promised Land that he and his followers needed for the ultimate success of their communal pursuits. Accordingly, he acquired some thirty thousand acres and in 1815 the whole colony left the Keystone State, migrated to their new domain and forthwith began the building of a new town which they named in memory of their old home in Pennsylvania." ~ Indiana Magazine of History