Iowa
Old Press
Adams County Free Press
Corning, Adams County, Iowa
February 20, 1895
STATE SENATOR BALDWIN died of dropsy at his home
in Cascade on the 9th, aged 60 years, he was until a year ago
owner of tho Cascade Pioneer, and was a forcible writer and a
power
in Dubuque county polities. He was the first mayor of Cascade.
His wife and eight children survive him.
[transcribed by K.W., April 2009]
Adams County Free Press
Corning, Adams County, Iowa
February 21, 1895
THE FRENCH COLONY
This Organization About To Be Mutually Dissolved
Our readers in the vicinity of Corning are all familiar with the
communistic society known as the Icarian Community situated about
three miles east of this city. A feeling has pervaded the
community for some time until at last it has been amicably and
mutually agreed upon, that it is for the best interests of all
concerned that the colony be dissolved and steps have been taken
to secure a division of the property. We understand that various
considerations such as the rights of heirs of deceased members of
the colony, have rendered it advisable to have a receiver
appointed and matters adjusted in a legal manner, but that it is
a voluntary act upon the parts of all interested and no
animosities whatever exist.
A brief retrospective glance over the affairs and history of this
organization may interest many, and we herewith give a brief
sketch of the inception of the Icarian Community. Just previous
to the French Revolution an advanced guard of socialists, under
the direction of E. Cabet, founder of the Icarian Society,
departed from France and settled in Texas, near the Red River.
Privations and dissatisfactions soon led them to abandon this
territory and they journeyed to New Orleans. Meantime, Cabet, who
was still in France, learning of the change from Texas,
immediately sailed for New Orleans and assumed personal
supervision of the colony. From New Orleans they migrated to
Nauvoo, Illinois, which had just been abandoned by the Mormons
after the assassination of Joseph Smith. Here the community
flourished for a time, but later internal misunderstandings led
to a change of base to the present location in Adams county. This
was about 1855. In the following year the founder of Icaria died
in St. Louis, whither he and a number of his adherents had gone.
The faction in Iowa were charted under the laws of Iowa as
“Icaria.” In 1876 its liabilities were $4000 and its
assets were computed at about $60,000. Another rupture between
factions occurred, however, in 1879. Previous to this time the
community had grown until about eighty-five persons were numbered
as its adherents. At the time of the last division a good many of
one faction departed for California, while some remained upon
land allotted them.
Almost all the intervening time from 1879 until the present date
our friend E. F. Bettannier has been president of the colony. He
has proven a wise, capable officer and skillfully conducted an
enterprise which many businesses men would not care to undertake.
The community is perhaps the only one in the United States, if
not in the world, which is conducted upon such ultra socialistic
principles. We know of a German settlement in Iowa county which
is similar to Icaria in some respects, but the citizens of Amana
are far more conservative than inhabitants of Icaria. Here
departmental heads have always been chosen and the entire
business of the community conducted as though it were one large
family. A common table furnished food for all, one person
purchased all supplies in wearing apparel, another performed a
like office in superintending agricultural operations, and so on.
At one time the settlement published a organ, La Revue Icarien,
and numerous other industries were represented.
The objects and tenets of the community are well set forth in a
few paragraphs from their constitution, as witness the following:
“It is established in the interest of entire humanity, in
devotion to its well-being, in order to present to it a system of
society capable of rendering it happy, and to prove by experience
that communism based upon complete solidarity is realizable and
possible.”
A common fund supplied the wants of all and a common treasury
received the earnings and savings of all. A general assembly of
Icarians, irrespective of sex, over twenty-one years of age
constituted the legislative authority, while executive power was
vested in three trustees. Admission into the community was gained
by the applicant putting his possessions into the common fund and
conforming to the constitution. Withdrawals were permitted by the
party desiring to sever his connection with the society giving
one month’s notice of the same, whereupon the general
assembly took into consideration the services he had rendered the
community and all attendant circumstances, and bestowed upon him
two-thirds of the amount originally invested and a reasonable
compensation for his services while a member.
Members of this community were free to follow their own
inclinations in regard to religious dogmas and exercised the
greatest liberties in all matters that did not interfere with any
of the socialistic tenets. About $10,000 in personal property and
1000 acres of land will be divided between the members, we
understand.
[transcribed by K.W., April 2009]