A "Backwoods Utopia":
The Berea Community of 1836-1837
By DAVID LINDSEY*
In April 1836 three remarkable men--a
farmer-turned-circuit
rider, a farmer-turned-evangelist and a
teacher-turned-farmer--met
on the banks of the Rocky River in
northeastern Ohio. Each man
had come a devious route to that spot.
James Gilruth, born of Scotch
immigrant parents in western Virginia in
1793, fought briefly in the
War of 1812 before taking up a farm in
Ohio's Scioto River valley.
Undergoing a deep religious conversion
in 1819, he became a circuit
rider in the Ohio Conference of the
Methodist Church. A con-
temporary remembered him as "a
giant in stature, weighing some
250 pounds . . . of enormous strength. .
. . His feat of throwing
an axe over the steeple of the Court
House in Franklinton has be-
come historic."1 A tireless
Biblical student, he whiled away his
hours while traveling between stations
on his circuit by reading the
Scriptures.2 Combining
preaching with farming, Gilruth managed
to do well materially and by the time he
was forty had acquired a
sizable amount of property.
Henry O. Sheldon, born in Connecticut in
1799, moved west and
farmed in Huron County, Ohio, for
several years.3 His religious
conversion in 1823 convinced him that
"the Holy Spirit was on
earth fulfilling the promise of
Christ" and that "it is the duty of
* David Lindsey is visiting associate
professor of history at Oberlin College.
His regular post is at Baldwin-Wallace
College in Berea.
1 J. C. Gilruth to R. C. Snyder,
November 27, 1930, quoted in Robert A. Gilruth,
"The Community of United Christians
at Berea, Ohio, in 1836" (Unpublished
bachelor's thesis, Princeton University,
1946). This study contains major portions of
James Gilruth's journal and will
hereafter be cited as Gilruth, "Journal."
2 "Some of the Early Pioneer
Business Men," "Old Northwest" Genealogical
Quarterly, XV (1912), 104-105.
3 Henry O. Sheldon, "Personal
Reminiscences of Rev. H. O. Sheldon," Firelands
Pioneer, XII (1876), 106-107.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 273
every Christian to extend the
Redeemer's kingdom to the utmost of
his ability." Under this conviction Sheldon
became a vigorous,
crusading Methodist evangelist, eager
to battle against evil what-
ever its form--be it liquor, war, or
slavery--and anxious both to
help men achieve personal salvation and
to regenerate society at
large.4 While on preaching
missions, Sheldon meditated long and
often, seeking divine guidance as to
the means of accomplishing
these ends.5 Contemporaries
considered Sheldon "sublime in his
eloquence, of noble bearing, with a
voice musical and penetrating,"
in appearance "like an ancient
pilgrim, possessed of a remarkable
face," with "piercing
eyes" and "incisive manner."6 In 1834 Sheldon
was serving as financial agent for the
Methodist seminary at
Norwalk, Ohio.7 By 1834 also
the germ of a combined community-
educational institution project was
already sprouting in his mind,
when on a trip East he visited
"every literary institution" on his
way, and discussed with educator Josiah
Holbrook in Baltimore the
possibility of a school combining
manual labor with "mental and
moral education along the lines of
Holbrook's lyceum plan."8 By
1836 Sheldon was determined to found
such an institution and
community along the east branch of the
Rocky River in Middle-
burgh Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Meanwhile, John Baldwin, a native of
Branford, Connecticut, the
son of a blacksmith-veteran of the
Revolutionary War, had already
arrived in Middleburgh Township. Before
migrating to Ohio, Bald-
win had taught school in New York,
Maryland, and Connecticut
and at times had served as a lay
"exhorter" in the Methodist Church.
In 1828, at the age of twenty-eight,
Baldwin married Mary D.
Chappel of New London. Adding his
wife's two hundred dollar
4 Henry O. Sheldon, God Is Love (12th
ed., Cincinnati, 1875), 3-4.
5 Henry O. Sheldon, "History of
Berea, with the Origin and Failure of the At-
tempted Community and Lyceum
Village," Cuyahoga Republican and Advertiser,
September 6, 1877, reprinted in Willard
H. Shaw, compiler, Historical Facts Con-
cerning Berea and Middleburgh
Township (Berea, 1936), 38-39.
Hereafter cited as
Sheldon, "History."
6 Rush R. Sloane, "Early Methodism
in Ohio--Its Beginnings and Growth in
Sandusky," Firelands Pioneer, New
Series, XII (1899), 397; Amos R. Webber, Life
of John Baldwin (Cleveland, 1925), 37-38.
7 Sheldon, "Personal
Reminiscences," 108-109.
8 Sheldon, "History," 21-22.
274
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dowry to his own savings of eighteen
hundred dollars, he caught the
"Ohio fever," moved west to
Connecticut's Western Reserve and
bought two hundred acres of farm land
and woods in Middleburgh
Township. Within three years the
Baldwins prospered to the extent
of erecting a substantial two-story
frame house in the architectural
style of the old Connecticut valley.9
Rugged in appearance, with
crag-like facial features, John Baldwin
early developed and long
practiced the Yankee virtues of
industry, self-restraint, and frugality.
His stern refusal to serve whiskey at
his house-raising, startling to
his neighbors, was as typical of his
attitudes as the plainness of his
homespun linsey-woolsey clothes and his
frequent insistence on
going barefooted, even in his later
years, were indicative of his
severity in the worldly matter of
personal adornment.10 A convert
to Methodism at eighteen, Baldwin
proceeded to hold religious
meetings in his own house in the new
Ohio country. It is not sur-
prising, then, to find farmer John
Baldwin receptive to the propo-
sition advanced in 1836 by Methodist
preachers Gilruth and Sheldon
to join them in founding a joint
community-education project.
Though arising from such diverse
origins, the Baldwin-Gilruth-
Sheldon trio had much in common by way
of religious ideas and
responses to the larger movements of
their time. In a day when the
temperance movement was gaining
momentum, Baldwin, Gilruth,
and Sheldon--teetotalers
themselves--blamed demon rum for the
corruption of man. All three responded
sympathetically to the rising
pacifist sentiment of the era. Sheldon,
for example, often meditated
on the way "to prepare the world
for that eventful period when
'the lion and the lamb will lie down
together' and 'the nations
will learn war no more.'" In an age
when antislavery feeling was
growing, Baldwin, Gilruth, and Sheldon
shared a common ab-
horrence of slavery and a concern for
its extinction. Baldwin spoke
of the "twin evils--slavery and
liquor." Gilruth served as president
of the Granville Colonization Society as
early as 1831 but soon
9 Agreements between John Baldwin and
Isaac Spencer, September 2 and September
7, 1827, and deed from State of
Connecticut to John Baldwin, October 15, 1827, in
John Baldwin Papers, Western Reserve
Historical Society; Crisfield Johnson, History
of Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, 1879), 472; Webber, Life of Baldwin, 13-17,
27-34.
10 William R. Coates, A History of
Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, 1924), I, 135-
136; Webber, Life of Baldwin, 13-17,
27-34.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 275
turned away from colonization as
impractical and urged "gradual
emancipation." Preaching
frequently on the subject, Gilruth shouted
at one audience: "O Cursed,
Cursed, Cursed Slavery!!! Heavens
purge my country of this foul
sin!"11
Sharing such common concerns, these
three men were quite un-
derstandably drawn together to join
forces to establish a communi-
tarian utopia, particularly in view of
the atmosphere of the time.
Evangelical revivalism, spilling over
from Charles G. Finney's
crusade through the
"burned-over" areas of upstate New York, was
sweeping through the Ohio country in
the early decades of the
nineteenth century. Indeed, circuit
riders Gilruth and Sheldon played
active roles in this very revivalism.
Basically, Protestant evangelism
stressed the need for Christian
perfection, which the Methodist
"exhorters" called
"perfect love" and the more radical preachers
identified as freedom from
sinfulness.12 Little wonder that Baldwin,
Gilruth, and Sheldon called upon men to
abandon the sinfulness in
using tobacco and alcohol, in gambling,
and in mistreating Negroes
and Indians.
Closely associated with perfectionism
stood the doctrine of the
millennium. Many men in the 1820's and
1830's were convinced
that the Second Coming was at hand.
Therefore individuals had best
prepare themselves for the Day of
Judgment not only by shunning
sin but by setting an example for the
rest of society to follow.
Thereby, the establishment of the
Kingdom on earth would be made
easier. Some groups like the Shakers
held that the Advent had
already taken place and that the
"gospel order" should now be set
up on the basis of "equality of
the sexes, virgin purity, unworld-
liness, the confession of sin, and
community of property."13 The
John Humphrey Noyes Perfectionists
reached many of the same
conclusions, with some variation in
practice. But as Noyes himself
put it, "The Revivalists had for
their great idea the regeneration
11 Gilruth, "Journal," 13-15;
Sheldon, "History," 18-19; Webber, Life of Baldwin,
27, 31; Paul H. Boase, "Slavery and
the Ohio Circuit Rider," Ohio Historical
Quarterly, LXIV (1955), 195-205.
12 Donald D. Egbert and Stow Persons, Socialism
and American Life (Princeton,
1952), I, 128-129; Arthur E. Bestor,
Jr., Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian and
Owenite Phases of Communitarian
Socialism in America, 1663-1829 (Philadelphia,
1950), 4-8.
13 Egbert and Persons, Socialism and
American Life, I, 135-138.
276
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the soul. The great idea of the
Socialists [i.e., the founders of
communities] was the regeneration of
society, which is the soul's
environment. These ideas . . . are the
complement of each other."14
Both these ideas are reflected in the
thinking of Sheldon and Gilruth
about a community which would encourage
personal perfection and
at the same time set an example for
regenerating society. Sheldon
spoke of additional communities that
would follow in the wake of
the Rocky River establishment.15
Already in the 1830's model communities
existed for Sheldon,
Gilruth, and Baldwin to copy in forming
their own. No evidence
exists to show that they had any
knowledge of the Moravian com-
munities in Pennsylvania or the Harmony
Society village founded
by George Rapp in Pennsylvania. But it
is certain that Gilruth (and
possibly Sheldon) had visited and picked
up ideas at the Shaker
North Union community, southeast of
Cleveland, which had well
over a hundred members in the
mid-1830's. Possibly either Gilruth
or Sheldon had also inspected other
Shaker communities in Ohio
at Union Village near Lebanon,
Watervliet near Dayton, White-
water in Hamilton County, the Separatist
Society's community at
Zoar, and the Mormon village at
Kirtland, just east of Cleveland.16
Sheldon at least was familiar with
Robert Owen's ideas and likely
knew of the abortive Owenite communities
at Yellow Springs and at
Kendal near Canton in the 1820's, and
clearly he was familiar with
the Oberlin community's beginning in the
early 1830's.17 How much
of organization and practice was carried
over consciously from the
Shakers, Owenites, Mormons, and other
communitarians to the new
Rocky River community can only be
surmised.
Gilruth, Sheldon, and Baldwin, emerging
from similar religious
experiences, cherished similar dreams of
creating a utopian com-
munity joined with an institution for
the mental and moral ele-
vation of its members. Gilruth, long
troubled by the evils he saw
in American society, deplored not only
slavery but lashed out hotly
14 John H. Noyes, History of American
Socialisms (Philadelphia, 1870), 26.
15 Sheldon, "History," 26.
16 Kenneth W. McKinley, "A Guide to Communistic Communities of
Ohio," Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, XLVI (1937), 1-15.
17 Sheldon, "History,"
18; Wendall P. Fox, "The Kendal Community," Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, XX (1911), 176-219.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 277
against mistreatment of the Indians,
worldliness in the church, in-
temperance, gambling, and the pursuit of
material wealth. He be-
lieved that while man was innately good
and capable of perfection,
he had been corrupted by abandoning the
Scriptures as the guide to
living. Men should, therefore, return to
the way of living based
upon a literal application of the
Bible.18 Fearing that a wholesale
reform and regeneration of mankind was
impossible within the
present social framework, he concluded
that small groups of dedi-
cated people, isolating themselves in
communities, could resurrect
the essentials of primitive
Christianity. Such communities could serve
as beacons for the rest of society to
follow. Having meditated on
this for some time, Gilruth began in
1831 to express his views
openly. That year in a "long
letter" to Sheldon, he explained his
"views and feelings with respect to
a christian community of
goods."19 Shortly
afterward he recorded in his diary: "I have long
thought of a Christian community
governed by the express words
or laws of the N[ew] T[estament]. . . .
Alas, I have been tied--
I petitioned the general conference but
it was rejected--I asked
lieve of the Annual Conference, but it
was denied me."20 During
the next five years, while making his
circuit rounds, Gilruth mulled
over the possibility of forming an ideal
community and talked with
anyone who would discuss the subject
with him. His diary reveals
that he talked with a Joshua Humphrey in
May 1831 "about a
christian community of goods," with
a William Sweeze in June
1831 "on the subject of a Christian
community," and with others at
later dates.21 By the end of
1831 he had drafted a tentative con-
stitution for the proposed community but
later revised it since he
was "bent on giving it a scriptural
form as near as may be." In
August 1833 he "gained some useful
ideas about community
matters" from his visit at the
Shaker community of Union Village,
Ohio.22
Meanwhile, Sheldon had been hatching a
similar scheme in his
18 Gilruth, "Journal," 13-17.
19 Ibid., 12.
20 Ibid., 9.
2l Ibid., 21.
22 Ibid., 22-23.
278
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
own mind. In 1824, pondering on how
"to extend the Redeemer's
kingdom," he heard a divine voice
answer: "By education, moral,
mental, physical, the heart, the mind,
the body. . . . By manual labor
institutions." Instantly, he says,
"the plan of an institution flashed
into my mind. Let a joint stock company
be formed of Christian
families, farmers, mechanics of the
various trades, etc., purchase a
large tract in a desirable location . .
. [establish] a Christian settle-
ment to educate for usefulness here, and
the preparation for
Heaven hereafter."23 By
1828 Sheldon was convinced he held a
divine appointment to create such a
community. In July of that year,
traveling along the east branch of the
Rocky River in Middleburgh
Township, he reached the junction of
Baldwin Creek. Here, seclud-
ing himself for prayer in "a grove
of hemlocks, remarkable for its
density and beauty," he received
"a sweet witness that there would
be such a village and . . . school. . .
. I called such a settlement as
I had imagined a Community." As
Sheldon gazed about, his at-
tention focused on "a knoll in the
southeast direction and an inward
voice said very plainly, 'Here is the
place to form the first com-
munity.'" Incredulous, Sheldon
resisted what he called "a vain
imagination," telling himself,
"There is no probability of getting
this place, it would cost too
much." Shortly afterward, at a
Methodist conference, he told Gilruth of
his experience along the
Rocky River. Gilruth related a similar
experience of his own on the
banks of the Maumee River in
northwestern Ohio some years before
and told Sheldon that on the basis of
that experience he had drafted
"a constitution for a joint stock
company, which he called a Com-
munity." Several years later, when
Gilruth changed his plan into a
common-stock community, Sheldon says he
felt doubt over the
feasibility of such a scheme.24
For several years the community dream
lay dormant. In 1834-35
Sheldon's conversations with Josiah
Holbrook in Baltimore im-
pressed him with the importance of
"joining evangelical principles
with manual labor and literature."
By early 1836 Sheldon was con-
vinced the time was ripe for his
longed-for community. In March of
23 Sheldon, "History," 18-19.
24 Ibid., 19-20.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 279
that year he learned to his chagrin
from the Rev. Edward S. Hamlin
of Elyria, Ohio, that Jacob Ward, the
founder of the first Methodist
society in Brunswick, Ohio, had
acquired the land along the east
branch of the Rocky River that had
caught Sheldon's eye several
years earlier and was planning to build
a school there and a college
nearby. In discouragement Sheldon
relayed this information to Gil-
ruth, who in reply urged Sheldon
nevertheless to try to buy the land
from Ward. For Sheldon it seemed the
hand of Providence now
intervened. Ward was laid low with a
serious illness and offered to
sell "two thirds of the east
branch for $10,000 above cost." At this
point Sheldon learned that John Baldwin
also owned land along
the east branch, but Ward assured him
that Baldwin would be in-
terested in joining the proposed
community.25
As John Baldwin recalled it, in the
fall of 1835 Jacob Ward
brought to Baldwin "a plan he had
for a school of a high order and
a village in connection." The
proposal was to purchase the land
along the Rocky River "for more
than a mile . . . . Then purchase
3 or 4 thousand acres of Mr. Granger's26
wild land adjoining then
lay out a town and make all the
arrangement for a School or
College."27 Hamlin
(later editor of a Cleveland antislavery paper)
was to negotiate with Granger for the
"wild land," while Ward
and Baldwin would buy up the land along
the river. By the spring
of 1836 these arrangements had been
undertaken. At this point
Sheldon, "learning what was going
on, came to the conclusion that
Providence was preparing the way for
the organization of a Chris-
tian Community which were [sic] to
hold their property in common
and come back to Apostolic usages by
which means the World was
to [be] Evangelized and Saved."28
When Ward's illness caused his
abandonment of the project,
25 Ibid., 21.
26 "Mr. Granger" was Francis Granger, son and heir of Gideon
Granger, who re-
ceived Middleburgh Township in the
original grant from the Connecticut Land
Company. By an odd coincidence Gideon
Granger was postmaster general under
President Jefferson; his son Francis
Granger was postmaster general under President
William Henry Harrison.
27 John Baldwin's manuscript history of
the Berea community, now in the Western
Reserve Historical Society Library's manuscript
collection; hereafter cited as Baldwin,
"Manuscript History."
28 Ibid.
280
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Baldwin was of course receptive to the
very similar proposal made
to him by Gilruth and Sheldon, who in
early 1836 made a contract
with Baldwin "legally and morally
binding themselves to consecrate
all their time, their talents and their
property to the use and benefit
of the Christian Community." The
financial arrangements for the
proposed community were tangled and
confusing, the evidence bear-
ing on this aspect scanty and obscure.
Gilruth appears to have had
scruples about going into debt to buy
land. Earlier Gilruth had
picked up some 362 acres "on the
Maumee River between Toledo
and Maumee City." Sheldon now
formed the East Maringo Com-
pany "for the purpose of buying
Gilruth's land," since Gilruth had
agreed to Sheldon's site for the new
community. Apparently stock
in this company was "secured to
Ward and Hamlin" to cover $10,-
000 of the purchase price for the Rocky
River land. Later when the
East Maringo Company collapsed and its
land was sold for taxes,
John Baldwin found himself financially
embarassed as Sheldon's
endorser.29
Meanwhile, Gilruth, in negotiation with
Francis Granger, who
owned most of Middleburgh Township, led
Granger to expect that
Gilruth would pay $20,000 for the 2,000
acres of Granger's "wild
land" that Baldwin, Ward, and
Hamlin had previously negotiated
for. Apparently Gilruth paid Granger
less than the full amount, for
Baldwin says, "Granger told me
after coming to Cleveland for the
money that he was disappointed and not
satusfyed [sic]."30 At any
rate, Baldwin later agreed to pay
Granger some $12,000 in order
to clear title to this property.31
Baldwin also sold to the community
trustees (Gilruth, Sheldon, and himself)
some 341 acres, for which
he received $9,300, and very shrewdly
inserted a prohibition against
the trustees' mortgaging this land.32
The financial confusion that
existed at the community's beginning
contributed substantially to its
ultimate downfall.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Agreement between John Baldwin and
Francis and Mindwell Granger, June 27,
1839. John Baldwin Papers.
32 Warranty
deed from Daniel Whitney to John Baldwin, August 22, 1836, and
agreement of John Baldwin, James
Gilruth, and Henry O. Sheldon with John Baldwin,
July 20, 1836. John Baldwin Papers.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 281
Final arrangements for purchasing land
for the community were
made on June 27, 1836, just ten days
after Gilruth sold his Maumee
land to the East Maringo Company. As
Sheldon described it:
We met at the house of John Baldwin . .
. who with his wife was now
ready with all their property to enter
the proposed community. Ward and
Hamlin met us with their proposition ...
by which they assigned to us their
contracts for nearly 4,000 acres of land,
having thereon two grist mills, four
saw mills, seventy feet fall of water, .
. . excellent stone quarries, plenty of
valuable timber; sufficient improvements
and buildings for temporary resi-
dence for twenty families, a natural gas
spring, plenty of iron ore, . . . a
healthy location of water of the first
quality.
Sheldon added: "I gave Ward and
Hamlin my notes amounting to
$5,000 in four annual payments without
interest endorsed by brother
Baldwin."33 Baldwin's
entrance into the community gave strength
to the project, since he was already
well established in the area and
had begun as early as 1832 to extract
rock from the ground on his
farm to be shaped and sold as
grindstones.34
In the spirit of the June 27 meeting
Sheldon drafted a compact
to which the three community founders
affixed their names, de-
claring that
we the undersigned mutually agree with
the others that we will give and
do hereby give unto the proper
constituted trustees, in trust of the community
of United Christians all our real and
personal estate . . ., our time, talents
and influence, for the promotion of
knowledge and holiness among ourselves
and families; and the extension of the
Redeemer's Kingdom among men; and
we agree . . . to vest the rights of
property in said Trustees according to the
constitution of the community.35
Thereby, the Community of United
Christians was launched on its
course.
While at first only the Baldwin,
Gilruth, and Sheldon families
comprised the settlement, the community
began to gain adherents.
33 Sheldon, "History," 22-23.
34 Coates, History of Cuyahoga
County, I, 126.
35 Sheldon, "History," 22-23.
282
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Three local families joined very soon.36
Largely drawn from the
surrounding region, other newcomers seem
to have been attracted
by the promise of economic security to
be gained by working co-
operatively in a primitive, raw
wilderness. In view of the atmosphere
of the day and of the large number of
community projects already
undertaken in Ohio in the 1820's and
1830's, it is not surprising
to find a new group forming and winning
adherents under the
Baldwin-Sheldon-Gilruth leadership.37
Just how many families eventually joined
the United Christians
cannot be determined exactly. Baldwin's
later recollection indicated
that "in the Spring of '37 more
families moved on so that I believe
in all we had about 30."38
Gilruth's journal names nineteen families,
including the three original founders,
listing the dates of joining,
which run from August 24, 1836, to May
27, 1837.39 But Baldwin
mentions the names of additional
member-families, whose names do
not appear in the Gilruth list. A
reasonable calculation would sug-
gest at least twenty-five families
participating in the communal ex-
periment at one time or another.
Before any new members had joined,
however, the three founders
had accepted for the community the
constitution that Gilruth had
drafted several years before. It is not
clear whether any substantial
changes were made at the time of
adoption in June 1836. At the very
least, when the constitution was printed
a few months later, Sheldon
added at the end a hymn, sung at the
first general meeting of
members on September 25, 1836, that
expressed sentiment typical
of the community's spirit:40
36 Coates, History of Cuyahoga
County, I, 127; Johnson, History of Cuyahoga
County, 474.
37 McKinley, "A Guide to
Communistic Communities in Ohio," 1-15. For com-
munities elsewhere as well as in Ohio,
see Charles Nordhoff, The Communistic
Societies of the United States (New York, 1875); John H. Noyes, History of American
Socialisms; William A. Hinds, American Communities (Chicago,
1902); Mark Hollo-
way, Heavens on Earth (New York, 1951); Ralph
Albertson, "A Survey of Mutualistic
Communities in America," Iowa
Journal of History and Politics, XXXIV (1936),
375-444; in addition to the works of Egbert
and Persons and of Bestor, cited above.
38 Baldwin, "Manuscript
History."
39 Gilruth, "Journal," 31.
40 Ibid., 52.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 283
Thou God of truth and love,
We seek Thy perfect way . . .
Enter into Thy wise design,
And sweetly lose our will in Thine.
Didst Thou not make us one,
That we might one remain ... 41
Something of the missionary fire
inspiring the community burns
through the lines of the preamble to the
constitutiton: "We take
the Scriptures in their plain,
grammatical sense for the laws of this
Association." Then seeking to allay
potential hostility or suspicion
from the neighborhood, the framers
declared: "We want no con-
troversy with Christians, nor contention
with men. We avoid not an
investigation of principles.... We covet
no man's silver or gold."
As to those who would join: "We
want no one among us, who
covets the riches, honors and vain
pleasures of the world; none
'whose God is their belly,' " or
"whose object is a life of ease or
idleness." The community would seek
"to accomplish a happy
maturity of society" and to
"hasten the time, when 'nations shall
learn war no more' "; when "
'the oppressed shall go free,' and 'the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord.'"42 The Biblical
allusions have the sound of being
inspired by Sheldon.
The preamble is followed by twenty-five
articles that fill sixteen
pages of fine print in the printed
version of the document. "The
objects of this Community," it is
proclaimed, are "to glorify God";
"to cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, per-
fecting holiness"; "to bear
one another's burdens"; "the promotion
of Christianity"; "the relief
of the oppressed and afflicted of the
human family"; and "the diffusion of useful
knowledge."
The machinery for managing the
community's affairs was to con-
sist of three bodies: the twelve, like
the Twelve Disciples; the seven;
and the community of members, who would
choose the first two
bodies and receive and act upon
recommendations from them. The
41 Constitution of the Community of United Christians (Berea,
1837), unpaged;
the hymn is appended at the end of the constitution.
42 Ibid., Preamble.
284
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
twelve, holding office for an indefinite
term "during competence and
diligence therein," were to make
all policy decisions regarding real
estate acquisition and sale, admission
of new members, education,
travel outside the community, health,
and welfare. The seven were
to manage the "temporal
business" by arranging for producing "the
necessities of life: food, raiment,
fuel, bedding"; "appointing mem-
bers to their proper occupations ... as
talents and circumstances may
render it proper"; supervising
sanitary facilities; appointing foremen
to jobs; planning and regulating farming
operations; and raising
new buildings. The chairman of each
executive body would be the
member "senior in age," while
any member could be removed by a
majority vote of the community. Other
officials provided for were a
foreman to have immediate charge of
manual labor projects and a
treasurer to manage the community's
finances. To get the community
under way it was provided that the first
three persons to join "shall
have all authority that is vested in the
Twelve and Seven by this
Constitution."43
Qualifications for membership and the
exact catechism through
which one had to pass in order to become
a member are prescribed
in detail in Article X of the
constitution. Each candidate would
agree to subject himself to "the
disciplinary rules of the New Testa-
ment, and the moral precepts of the Holy
Scriptures," in addition
to the rules laid down by the constitution,
the twelve, and the seven,
who would presumably be speaking the
will of God anyway. A
member who violated the rules might be
expelled by majority vote
of the community. "A plain uniform
dress, destitute of all un-
necessary trimmings, and not of costly
character" was to be ordained
by vote of the community, with suitable
allowance being made for
sex, season, and type of work performed
by the individual. Al-
though families were to live in separate
houses, they would be ex-
pected to "eat at common
tables," as soon as facilities could be
provided therefor. Single persons,
scholars, and apprentices would
"dwell in boarding houses for the
different sexes." Any person who
withdrew or was expelled would be
entitled to "an amount equal
to that which they put into the common
stock," subject to certain
43 Ibid., Articles
I-IX.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 285
exceptions where the community might
have suffered loss on ac-
count of the departing member.
Missionaries that they were, the
founders provided in Article XXIV that
new communities similar
to the present one might be established
in the future in places to be
determined by the twelve. The
constitution could be amended upon
recommendation of a majority of the
twelve and the seven and
ratified by three fourths or seven
eighths vote of the entire com-
munity, depending on whether the
proposed change was a major
or minor one.44
In actual operations during the first
few months, the Big Three--
Baldwin, Gilruth, and Sheldon--made the
decisions as trustees on
behalf of the community. Certainly it
was reasonable that they
should do so, since they had the most at
stake in the venture. Which
one of the three founders exercised the
most influence in policy de-
cisions is not entirely clear. Gilruth's
age--he was six years older
than Sheldon and Baldwin--his authorship
of the constitution, and
his imposing physical size and
appearance may well have won for
him deference from the other two men.
Sheldon declares that both
he and Baldwin were influenced by
Gilruth's "spartan firmness,
stirling [sic] integrity, and
deep conscientiousness . . .; his un-
blemished character for piety; . . .
[and] the fact of his having
been author of the plan and
constitution," adding that "all these
conspired to place him as an oracle at
our head."45 However, Bald-
win, as the only local resident of the
three, doubtless carried much
weight in policy councils, since he knew
the lay of the land and the
practical problems involved. He seems to
have served on more than
one occasion as mediator in differences
between Sheldon and Gil-
ruth. Sheldon perhaps felt entitled to
exercise some special authority
(and appears to have done so on his own
initiative in many in-
stances) because he had been appointed
by the Methodist conference
to serve as minister for the new
community. No doubt the members
of the community looked to their
preacher not only for spiritual
but also for temporal guidance. Further,
Sheldon succeeded in
having himself made postmaster and
proposed the name "Berea"
44 Ibid., Articles X-XXV.
45 Sheldon, "History," 23-24.
286
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the place, which was selected by a
toss of a coin instead of
Gilruth's proposal of "Tabor."
Sheldon says that he wanted a name
"short, expressive, different from
all others in the United States"
and that "an inward voice"
told him "Berea is the name of your
institution."46 Certainly
in crusading zeal and in his belief that the
millennium was at hand, Sheldon
surpassed his fellow founders.
Listen to his words:
The elements of society are fermenting.
. . . Light is bursting upon human
intellect. The poisonous streams of
intemperance are being dried up. . . .
Science and the arts are on the wing. .
. . The bells of duty ring to action,
the tocsin calls loud to the civilized
world to join the crusade against
ignorance; the white flag of peace is
planted on the battlements of crumbling
fortresses . . . ere long to wave
triumphant over a renovated world.47
The community got off to a fair start
with some "ten or twelve"
families in residence by the fall of
1836. Apparently community
ownership was limited to the community
land, buildings, and goods
produced from the land. Houses and
personal effects were con-
sidered the property of the individual
possessing them. A council
of the three founders made many
immediate decisions, but larger
decisions were voted upon by the entire
community. The community,
for example, determined where and what
kind of schoolhouse to
build.48 Baldwin was
distressed when the decision was made to put
only rough boards on the outside and to
fill the walls with sawdust
as insulation. This schoolhouse, large
enough to hold the entire
community in public meeting, housed also
what was known as
Berea Seminary, for which the community
trustees obtained a state
charter on March 14, 1837.49 It was here
that Sunday school,
church services, as well as regular
elementary instruction, took place
under the leadership of John L.
Johnson.50 Under the manual-labor
and education plan that Sheldon
developed, students in the seminary
were expected to devote their non-school
hours to working in jobs
46 Ibid., 23-25.
47 Ibid., 26.
48 Gilruth, "Journal," 33-34.
49 Webber,
Life of Baldwin, 41-42.
50 Baldwin, "Manuscript
History."
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 287
assigned by the seven for the
furtherance of the economic well
being of the community.
One of the first problems that had to be
met arose from the crop
failure in the 1836 season. How was the
community to be fed
during the coming winter? At length it
was agreed that the three
sawmills should turn out lumber for
sale. In addition, a boat was
constructed, carted to the Cuyahoga
River, and launched on the
Ohio Canal, to bring back from central
Ohio a load of corn, which
was stored in the community mill.51
It was agreed that each family could
retain one cow for the
family's own use, but other cows were
herded together in a
"common dary [sic] with a
foreman appointed by the council."52
Members worked cooperatively in the
community's mills and fields.
Some members ate at a common table, but
others rebelled at the
idea and prepared their meals in their
own houses. In the late
winter, maple trees were tapped for
maple sugar production. New
applicants were examined from time to
time by the council, given
instruction, and admitted to the
community. Religious services, fol-
lowing the Methodist form, were held
regularly--Wednesday and
Thursday evenings for prayer meetings,
and morning and evening
sermons on Sunday.53
Genuine efforts seem to have been made
by most members to live
according to New Testament precepts,
even though such efforts on
occasion placed a heavy strain upon
human nature. John Baldwin
relates how "a Brother while
conversing with another Brother in
the field believed he was insulted and
as he was not yet perfect in
Love his temper rose a little and he
knocked the other Brother
down." Fortunately for the state of
his soul, the assailant soon saw
and confessed his error in open meeting,
"was forgiven and re-
stored to the Community's good
graces." On another occasion, while
a member was attending the community
corn field, some hogs got
into the field, whereupon the member
sicked dogs upon the pigs and
drove them out. Thinking that the dogs
had not punished the of-
fending pigs sufficiently, the member
cut off the hogs' ears. Upon
51 Ibid.
52 Gilruth, "Journal," 35.
53 Ibid., 35-36; Baldwin, "Manuscript History."
288
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
complaint of the member who owned the
hogs, damages were
awarded by vote of the community.54
Relations between the Berea community
and its neighbors of the
surrounding area appear to have been
harmonious. There seems to
have been little of the suspicion and
antagonism on the part of
outsiders toward the community that was
experienced by the
Mormons at Kirtland or the John H. Noyes
Perfectionists in
Vermont.55 Of course there
was none of the sexual irregularity at
Berea which aroused hostility toward
some of the other utopian
communities. Then, too, non-members
residing nearby considered
the community's regular religious
services, with Sheldon as preacher,
an advantage in an otherwise rough,
primitive area.56
In some respects the Berea community
resembled, while in other
respects differing from, other utopian
communities of the 1820's
and 1830's. In view of Berea's religious
inspiration, frequent ref-
erences to the Bible and divine
authority are not surprising. In fact,
both Gilruth and Sheldon thought of the
project as instituting God's
will among men, and the constitution so
stated.57 The use of the
twelve was a conscious, direct borrowing
from early Christian prac-
tice. Both leaders and members
frequently consulted the Bible to
discover whether the community was
remaining close to the primi-
tive Christian model. Gilruth frankly
admitted that his visit among
the Shakers at Union Village had
introduced him to the "gospel
order," where "full submission
to the will of God" was the rule.58
The Zoar Separatists, the Rappites at
Harmony and later Economy,
the Mormons at Kirtland, and the Noyes
Perfectionists in Vermont
and later at Oneida, all showed similar
tendencies and practices,
although interpretations varied as to
what constituted Biblical prac-
tice and the will of God.59
54 Baldwin, "Manuscript History."
55 Noyes, American Socialisms, 614-620;
Egbert and Persons, Socialism and Amer-
ican Life, I,
141-146.
56 John Baldwin, "Manuscript
History"; Coates, History of Cuyahoga County, I,
128.
57 Gilruth, "Journal," 17, 26;
Sheldon, "History," 18-19; Constitution of the
Community of United Christians, preamble.
58 Gilruth, "Journal,"
17; Egbert and Persons, Socialism and American Life, I,
136-137.
59 Hinds, American Communities, 73-78,
100-101; Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's
Ferment (Minneapolis, 1944), 46-47, 80-107.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 289
In governmental structure the United
Christian community con-
tained some democratic elements. For
example, the twelve and the
seven were chosen by vote of the
community, and majority vote
determined policy within these executive
bodies. All who entered
the community gave consent to be
governed by its rules. While the
authority of the twelve and seven
covered a wide area, major policy
decisions required approval by the
entire community in open meet-
ing, which could be convened by any
member of the executive
bodies who felt that executive decisions
did not represent the will
of the community. These arrangements
were perhaps not as demo-
cratic as those practiced by Owenite New
Harmony, but more so
than those of the Mormons, Shakers,
Rappites, and Zoarists.60 But
the difference between theory and
practice was so great that, despite
the democratic appearance of the
constitution, the paternalism so
evident in other utopian experiments
prevailed at Berea, too, with
Gilruth, Sheldon, and Baldwin dominating
the life of the com-
munity. The practice of mutual
criticism, used extensively at the
Oneida community, had something of a
counterpart at Berea, where
members were encouraged to confess their
own shortcomings in
public meeting.61 The communities that
succeeded best over a long
period of time were those with a single
strong leader, such as
Bimeler at Zoar, Noyes at Oneida, and
Joseph Smith at Kirtland.
Perhaps if one of the trio of Baldwin,
Gilruth, and Sheldon could
have gained more complete control,
Berea's success would have been
better assured. Charles Nordhoff, in his
comments on communitarian
societies, felt that the Germans made
the best communitarians.
Whether this explanation is tenable or
not, it is clear that Yankee
individualism, so evident at Berea, was
extremely difficult to regi-
ment over an extended period of time.
While most of the communities of the
1830's rested their econ-
omies basically upon self-sufficient
farming, those that lasted longest
usually developed some income-producing
activity to supplement
agriculture. The Shakers at North Union,
for example, sold brooms;
the Oneida Perfectionists, traps, to an
outside market. The Bereans
did offer sawed lumber for sale and did
at length sell the com-
60 Bestor, Backwoods Utopias, 20-112.
61 Baldwin, "Manuscript History."
290
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
munity boat, but the records do not
reveal the amount of income
produced therefrom. The failure to make
and sell grindstones (as
was later done to great profit by John
Baldwin) from the under-
lying sandstone seems unaccountable. As
it was, only the simplest,
most ascetic living kept this community,
as others, afloat.62
In manner of living, the United
Christians generally followed the
basic utopian pattern, but the
differences were great. The efforts to
bring all members to a common dining
hall, as noted above, were
not fully successful. The establishment
of common dormitories,
which the North Union Shakers used, was
attempted at Berea only
for single persons. "The plain
uniform of dress," called for by the
Berea constitution, seems not to have
been worn by any large
number of members.
The cultivation of religious and
educational development quite
naturally constituted a fundamental
objective of the Berea com-
munity. These were the roads to
salvation for both the individual
soul and society at large. In frequency
and type of religious service,
prayer meeting, as well as personal
contemplation devoted to
spiritual elevation, the Berea community
differed little from other
sectarian communities of the day. Each
member was encouraged, as
the constitution put it, to abandon
"the luxuries and vanities of the
world," "to lead a life of
peace and righteousness," "to abide by
the disciplinary rules of the New
Testament," and "to imbibe" the
spirit of "our common Master"
and "to transcribe his life into our
own." Here was the prescription of
an ideal form of conduct, per-
haps impossible of fulfillment, but not
unlike that undertaken by
contemporary Shakers, Zoarists, and Mormons.
Since one declared purpose of the
community was "the diffusion
of useful knowledge," the
establishment of a school to which all
parents were expected to send their
children was a natural result.
Just how many students attended at any
given time and exactly what
was taught the records do not reveal. It
is clear, however, that
pupils were required to engage in manual
labor, which was believed
to have a beneficial effort upon the
participants and incidentally
helped get the heavy work of the
community done. Sheldon appears
62 Egbert and Persons, Socialism and American Life, II,
236-237.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 291
to have adopted the manual-labor idea
from Josiah Holbrook, with
whom he had conferred some years before
in Baltimore. Sheldon
also was doubtless familiar with the
contemporary manual-labor ar-
rangements at Oberlin just twenty miles
west of Berea.63 At any
rate, pupils were assigned to farm
chores, managing the common
dairy herd, working in the sawmill and
grist mill, building, cleaning,
spinning, and weaving. Sheldon and
Gilruth both had great hopes
that the educational institution would
provide a beacon to radiate
light and truth to the more benighted
residents of the country and
to show the way to a regeneration of an
unredeemed society. Al-
though these high hopes were not to be
realized, the enthusiasm for
education was catching, and eight years
later John Baldwin suc-
ceeded in founding an institution
destined to become modern
Baldwin-Wallace College.
Within twelve months after its founding
the community was on
the road to collapse and abandonment. In
fact, the seeds of its own
failure were sown at the very beginning.
Gilruth sensed it at the
time, fearing that the debt contracted
then would prove too heavy a
burden. He felt that mortgaging the land
was bad policy and ex-
perienced some concern over endorsing
Sheldon's notes to permit
the latter to participate in founding
the community.64 The fact that
Gilruth's judgments on financial matters
were usually accepted in
the community's early days may well have
caused resentment on the
part of Sheldon and Baldwin. For
instance, when Gilruth opposed
Sheldon's plan for a joint stock company
in creating the community,
and insisted instead on common ownership
of property, Gilruth's
plan was adopted, much to Sheldon's
later disgust. When Gilruth
vetoed the plan for spending some
$10,000 to erect a college in
connection with the community, both
Sheldon and Baldwin were
disturbed, for the scheme had been close
to their hearts.65
While the heavy load of debt was a major
factor contributing to
the downfall of the community, other
developments also doomed the
experiment. Gilruth believed the
community should have insisted
63 Robert S. Fletcher, A History of
Oberlin College (Oberlin, 1942), I, 87-92,
117-142.
64 Gilruth, "Journal," 37.
65 Ibid., 38-39; Sheldon, "History," 21-22.
292
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
that newcomers who were admitted should
be more deeply com-
mitted to the community's principles and
that to allow lukewarm
adherents to participate watered down
the whole effort. Similarly,
he felt community of possessions,
standard dress, and common eat-
ing tables should have been more
strictly required. Suspicion on
Gilruth's part of Sheldon's reliability
arose almost at the very be-
ginning. On June 30, 1836, Gilruth wrote
in his diary: "Br. Sheldons
situation is one that will require all
his wisdom, and activity and
gods blessing--But says that he feels
well assured that god will
bring him saifly [sic] through."
By January 1837 Gilruth's dis-
couragement had increased to the point
where he could write, "The
labor and anxiety I have passed through
since I commenced com-
munity operations have worn me down
much," and add, "I now
viewed him [Sheldon] as a perfect
bankrupt and I shall lose much
by him unless providence does something
for me." Gilruth's sus-
picion and distrust were perhaps not
entirely unfounded, since in
December Sheldon had bought some oxen
with Gilruth's money
without consulting him and a few days
later had withdrawn a
hundred shares of Gilruth's stock from a
bank without Gilruth's
knowledge. When Sheldon on his own
initiative assumed the job of
postmaster, Gilruth exclaimed:
"Good God where will this mans
presumption lead him to! Next I found
that he had ordered 500
additional copies of our constitution
printed without consulting me
or Br Baldwin. . . . I dispare [sic] of
our community if this course
cannot be cured--it must be cured--it
shall be cured Else! but here
I stop."66 There is
perhaps some inconsistency in Gilruth's com-
plaints about Sheldon's use of funds
when Gilruth was urging
more emphasis on community of property.
By March 1837 quarrels between Gilruth
and Sheldon grew more
frequent in the meetings of the twelve.
The running argument over
the debt became an open sore. When
Gilruth accused Sheldon of
lying, the latter denied it. When
accused of "meddling with my
property . . . he pleads good
intentions. . . . He confessed his fault
in not telling me he had taken the
Kinkins stock, etc., but showed no
disposition of contrition for taking
it." Gilruth felt other dissatis-
factions, namely, that the community
work kept him from his scrip-
66 Gilruth, "Journal," 37-44.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 293
tural studies, and that the community
did not take very seriously
working toward emancipation of the
slaves, which Gilruth felt
should have been one of its principal
concerns.67
Baldwin adds other details of the
factors leading to the com-
munity's distintegration. He felt that
Gilruth deserved a major share
of the blame and tended to view
Sheldon's actions more charitably
than Gilruth did. When in May 1837 the
twelve and the general
meeting both voted to sell the community
boat, thereby overriding
Gilruth's view, Baldwin noted that
Gilruth "was heard to say I am
done, which was afterward understood that he had done trying
to
sustain a community."68 Gilruth
commented in his diary that the sale
of the boat represented "a
shortsightedness that will go far to de-
stroy our Community." Soon after
this, Gilruth meditated on the
whole history of the community and
expressed the fear that
"Sheldon's emence [sic] debts"
would be the "rock which will cer-
tainly wreck our prospects."69
Although the early disagreements had
been kept quiet by the
inner circle of leaders, the conflict
between Gilruth and Sheldon
flared into a final, open explosion just
before the community's first
anniversary. On June 23, 1837, at
council meeting, Gilruth found
Sheldon and Baldwin looking
"gloomy" and depressed. For the
land Sheldon had contracted to buy,
Gilruth had agreed to enter
the "amount paid by H. O. S[heldon]
on his liabilities owed to me,
and turn the lands over to the
Community." Thereupon Sheldon,
according to Gilruth, flew into a rage,
denouncing Gilruth as "dis-
honest," "a raskle [sic],"
and "a robber." Gilruth replied that he
would give Sheldon a deed when the
latter paid his debts. When
the language again became violent,
Gilruth urged Sheldon to use
"prudent words" and suggested
that the matter be laid before the
entire community. Baldwin opposed the
suggestion, expressing the
hope that the three leaders could settle
the controversy peacefully.
Gilruth thereupon agreed to meet with
the other two the follow-
ing day.70
Baldwin presided at the meeting of June
24. Gilruth proceeded
67 Ibid., 45-46.
68 Baldwin, "Manuscript History."
69 Gilruth, "Journal," 48.
70 Ibid., 50.
294
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to charge Sheldon with "taking
money I had reserved for land and
applying it to buying a yoke of cattle
and a waggon and concealing
it untill I called for the money."
Baldwin declared that Sheldon
should repay the money. After a long,
heated argument, Gilruth
delivered an ultimatum to the effect
that he would give Sheldon
until Monday (two days later) to work
out a satisfactory arrange-
ment for settling the financial
irregularities, agreeing to release
Sheldon by taking a lien on Sheldon's
property. If Sheldon did not
comply, Gilruth would call the
community together and lay the
matter before the entire group. At the
end of this session Gilruth
recorded that he was now convinced that
Sheldon "was not the man
of stirling [sic] worth that I
had hoped him to be" and that "we
could never hereafter live together as
community men and act offi-
cially together," which conclusion
caused Gilruth "great heaviness
of heart."71
Gilruth waited not only until Monday
but until the following
Saturday. Sheldon still refused to meet
Gilruth's terms for settle-
ment. The community's first anniversary
passed in an atmosphere of
tension on June 27. At the general
community meeting on July 1
Gilruth presented his case, declaring
his willingness to do whatever
he could to make the site of the
community secure but pointing to
the difficulties raised, in his
opinion, by Sheldon's transactions and
failure to meet his financial
obligations. After Gilruth resumed his
seat, Sheldon arose and led the
community in a hymn. After this,
Sheldon made a fiery, emotional plea in
explanation of his own
position, declaring that
"community principles had been violated,"
"that he had to sustain
them," and that he would do anything and
give any amount of money, if he had it,
to make the community a
success. He then presented a long
financial statement that occupies
six pages of Gilruth's journal. Gilruth
noted that Sheldon delivered
all of this "with a great deal of
piety and sympathy to appearance--
so that most of the people were moved
to tears."
After the meeting broke up, Gilruth
felt beaten in the exchange
but appeared again at a general
community meeting the following
Tuesday, which happened to be the
Fourth of July, and presented
71 Ibid., 50-51.
A "BACKWOODS UTOPIA" 295
a long, prepared statement of his
feeling and position. After re-
viewing the difficulties between
himself and Sheldon and presenting
a detailed account of the financial
differences, he declared that he
wanted to set the record straight in
the face of Sheldon's emotional
appeal at the last meeting, which had
cast "a dark cloud over my
character" and left "such an
impression on all present as fully to
exculpate himself and condemn me."
Gilruth concluded by saying
that he blamed no one "but my own
dulness of intellect," that he
was "not cut out for strife and
broils," and that "it is impossible
for us to act much longer together
officially." He would, therefore,
resign from the twelve and "let
others manage the concern." With
this he left the meeting, preferring
not to listen to Sheldon "who I
saw was about to make a reply of some
kind."72
Who was to blame in this dispute is not
easy to determine. At
any rate, each disputant was convinced
of his own righteousness,
and Sheldon seems to have been able to
win the support of the
community. Gilruth, by virtue of his
large financial stake in the
venture, may have acted high-handedly
in the council and thereby
brought some of the resentment on his
own head.
Gilruth remained a member of the
community for almost three
months after the Fourth of July
explosion. At the end of September
he moved on west with his family. By
that time the community was
well on its way to complete disintegration.
Only twelve families re-
mained and most of these left before
the year's end.73 Gilruth's
departure seems to have been not a
complete break from the com-
munity idea. As Baldwin recalled it,
Gilruth "let the Community
have the land he had paid for in
Berea" but took "his other capital"
and with "a few others who had
cash went west to find and fix the
new site" for a new community.
Sometime later Gilruth returned
with the word "that community
principles had all leaked out of
him," and "demanded and
received" at least partial payment for his
land.74
The causes for the Berea community's
downfall appear to be prin-
72 Ibid., 52-55.
73 Ibid., 55; John Baldwin,
"Early History of Berea and Middleburgh Township,"
in Shaw, comp., Historical Facts
Concerning Berea and Middleburgh Township, 13-15.
74 Baldwin, "Manuscript
History."
296
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cipally economic and personal in nature.
The community had failed
to develop a stable, self-sufficient
economic base. Its best chance for
survival lay in producing timber,
grindstones, or some other market-
able product. This it failed to do
adequately in the first year of
operation. Whether it might have done so
in its second year can
only be guessed. The impact of the panic
of 1837, following the
inflated prices of 1836 which the
community founders had had to
pay for land, equipment, and the like,
removed the possibility of
finding buyers for any product the
community might turn out in
1837. When there is added to this the
personal suspicion, distrust,
and animosity that developed between
Sheldon and Gilruth, two of
the community's chief leaders, it is
little wonder that ordinary
members began to lose the faith and
optimism with which they had
entered the project and rapidly drifted
away.75
While it lasted, the Community of United
Christians represented
a genuine religious effort to create a
"heaven on earth"--part of the
millennial spirit of the age of
"freedom's ferment." In actuality, it
was but an eddy off the mainstream of
social reform, and its imme-
diate impact on nineteenth-century
society was nil. But viewed in
the longer light of history, the same
spirit that inspired Berea and
several other utopian communities later
moved over into the field
of education, where it led to the
founding of a number of in-
dependent colleges, whose influence has
in part at least contributed
to that betterment of society which the
founders of the Berea com-
munity so earnestly sought.
75 Ibid.
A "Backwoods Utopia":
The Berea Community of 1836-1837
By DAVID LINDSEY*
In April 1836 three remarkable men--a
farmer-turned-circuit
rider, a farmer-turned-evangelist and a
teacher-turned-farmer--met
on the banks of the Rocky River in
northeastern Ohio. Each man
had come a devious route to that spot.
James Gilruth, born of Scotch
immigrant parents in western Virginia in
1793, fought briefly in the
War of 1812 before taking up a farm in
Ohio's Scioto River valley.
Undergoing a deep religious conversion
in 1819, he became a circuit
rider in the Ohio Conference of the
Methodist Church. A con-
temporary remembered him as "a
giant in stature, weighing some
250 pounds . . . of enormous strength. .
. . His feat of throwing
an axe over the steeple of the Court
House in Franklinton has be-
come historic."1 A tireless
Biblical student, he whiled away his
hours while traveling between stations
on his circuit by reading the
Scriptures.2 Combining
preaching with farming, Gilruth managed
to do well materially and by the time he
was forty had acquired a
sizable amount of property.
Henry O. Sheldon, born in Connecticut in
1799, moved west and
farmed in Huron County, Ohio, for
several years.3 His religious
conversion in 1823 convinced him that
"the Holy Spirit was on
earth fulfilling the promise of
Christ" and that "it is the duty of
* David Lindsey is visiting associate
professor of history at Oberlin College.
His regular post is at Baldwin-Wallace
College in Berea.
1 J. C. Gilruth to R. C. Snyder,
November 27, 1930, quoted in Robert A. Gilruth,
"The Community of United Christians
at Berea, Ohio, in 1836" (Unpublished
bachelor's thesis, Princeton University,
1946). This study contains major portions of
James Gilruth's journal and will
hereafter be cited as Gilruth, "Journal."
2 "Some of the Early Pioneer
Business Men," "Old Northwest" Genealogical
Quarterly, XV (1912), 104-105.
3 Henry O. Sheldon, "Personal
Reminiscences of Rev. H. O. Sheldon," Firelands
Pioneer, XII (1876), 106-107.