stries had to be shut down. Then it was that communistic
methods of doing business became inadequate and the colony ran into
difficulties. An expert accountant in 1892 disclosed the debts of the
community to be about one and a half million dollars. But the outside
industrial enterprises in which the community had invested were sound;
and the vast debt was paid. The society remained solvent, with a huge
surplus, though out of prosperity not of its own making. When the
lands at Economy were eventually sold, about eight acres were reserved
to the few survivors of the society, including the Great House of
Father Rapp and its attractive garden, with the use of the church and
dwellings, so that they might spend their last days in the peaceful
surroundings that had brought them prosperity and happiness.

Lead me, Father, out of harm
To the quiet Zoar farm
If it be Thy will.

So sang another group of simple German separatists, of whom some three
hundred came to America from Wuerttemberg in 1817, under the leadership
of Joseph Bimeler (Baeumeler) and built the village of Zoar in
Tuscarawas County, Ohio. They acquired five thousand acres of land and
signed articles of association in April, 1819, turning all their
individual property and all their future earnings into a common fund
to be managed by an elected board of directors. The community provided
its members with their daily necessities and two suits of clothes a
year. The members were assigned to various trades which absorbed all
their time and left them very little strength for amusement or
reading. Their one recreation was singing. The society was bound to
celibacy until the marriage of Bimeler to his housekeeper; thereafter
marriage was permitted but not encouraged.

In 1832 the society was incorporated under the laws of Ohio, and until
its dissolution it was managed as a corporation. A few Germans joined
the society. No American ever requested admission. Joseph Bimeler was
elected Agent General and thereby became the chosen as well as the
natural leader of the community. Like other patriarchs of that epoch
who led their following into the wilderness, he was a man of some
education and many gifts. He was the spiritual mentor; but his piety,
which was sincere and simple, did not rob him of the shrewdness
necessary to material success. His followers were loyally devoted to
him. They built for him the largest house in the community, a fine
colonial manor ho