New Harmony (Indiana)

New Harmony is a city of the county of Posey in the famous state of Indiana to the the United States to have been an utopian project at the beginning of the 19th century. It is located at 24 km in the north of Mount Vernon, the seat of the county, at the edge of the river Wabash. The population was of 1 341 inhabitants in 1900 and of 1 229 in 1910. It was of 916 at the time of the census of 2000.

Geography

New Harmony is located at the following coordinates: (38.128583, -87.934122).

According to the Office of the census of the United States, the city has an entire surface of 1,7 km ². The water levels account for 1,56% of this surface.

History

New Harmony, formerly called Harmony, was built by Harmony Society, was chaired by George Rapp (1757-1847) (also called Johann Georg Rapp). It is about the second of the three cities built by the German religious group, known under the name of Rappites. When they decided to turn over in Pennsylvania, they sold the 30 000 acres (121 km ²) of ground and buildings with Robert Owen (1771-1858), an utopian and socialist Welsh reformist, and with William Maclure (1763-1840) for the sum of 150 000 dollars. The latter changed the name of Harmony into New Harmony. Owen gathered inhabitants to populate his model community, but a certain number of factors quickly caused the collapse of this Community experiment.

The experiment was launched in 1825 then stopped in 1829 following many quarrels. The city banishes the money and other conveniences. Josiah Warren (1798-1874), an individualistic anarchist who was one of the first members of New Harmony Society, affirmed that the community was dedicated to its loss because of the absence of individual sovereignty and private property. He declared about the community:

The differences in term of opinions, preferences and objectives seemed to increase proportionally with the requirement for conformity. Two years were wasted in this manner; after which, I believe that three people at most still had the least hope of success. The majority of the experimenters were come from there, giving up any hope of reform, and one felt conservatism to be confirmed. We had tested all shapes of conceivable organization and government. We had a world in miniature. We had played the scene of the French revolution still and still with for result our hearts despaired instead of the corpses. It appeared that it was the proper law of diversity inherent in the nature which had overcome us. Our “union of interests” was in direct war with the individuality of the people and the circumstances, and with the instinct of car-safeguarding… and obviously, it appeared that in proportion of the meeting of people or interests, the concessions and the compromises proved to be essential|Josiah Warren|(Periodical Letter II, 1856)

Demography

At the time of the census of 2000, the city counted 916 people, 382 households and 228 families. The population density was of 552,6 per km ². One counted 432 residential units and an average density of 260,6 per km ². The ethnic cutting of the city was the following: white (98,91%), Amerindians (0.55%), Asian (0,22%), others (0,33%). The Hispanic ones and the Latin-American ones accounted for 0,44% of the population.

One counted 382 households including 27,0% including children of less 18 years. 46,9% of them were inhabited by married couples living together, 9,9% by women without husband present, and 40,1% by people not having the statute of family. 38,0% of these households were composed of only one person, and 21,2% of a 65 year old person or more alive only. The intermediate size of a household was among 2,12 and that of a family of 2,80.

The distribution by age bracket was the following one: less than 18 years (20,3%), 18-24 years (4,5%), 25-44 years (21,2%), 45-64 years (24,7%), 65 years or more (29,4%). The median value was 47 years. One counted 82,5 men for 100 women. For the 18 year old people or more, this figure was of 71,4 men for 100 women.

Concerning the incomes, the median value was of 28.182 $ for the households and 40.865 $ for the families. For the men, the median value was of 39 250 $ against 21 607 $ for the women. The average revenue by anybody was of 17.349 $. Approximately 12,2% of the families and 12,4% of the population were in lower part of the poverty line, including 14,8% of less than 18 years and 17,1% of the 65 year old people or more.

The Paul Tillich Park

The Paul Tillich Park was dedicated on June 2nd, 1963 to Paul Johannes Tillich (1886-1965), celebrates theologist of the 20th century. Its ashes were buried there in 1965.

Located just opposite Roofless Church on other side of North Street Hand, the park is composed of a thicket of evergreen trees planted in elevated ground and surrounding an alley. Along this alley several stones carrying of the quotations of Paul Tillich are. The sculpture of its face per James Rosati is drawn up at the northern end of the alley, giving on a clearing and a large pond.

Those which traverse the park today can meditate on the writings of Paul Tillich registered on the large stones which border the alley.

The words “ natural Man and belong together in their created glory - in their tragedy and in their salvation ” (free translation: “The man and nature are made to go together in their splendor created by God, in their tragedy and in their safety”) are particularly suitable: “The man” represents the members of the community of New Harmony (in other words Harmonistes and Owenites), while “nature” refers to the naturalists of New Harmony who revealed the secrecies of the life and the ground of creation. The word “tragedy” summarizes most of the history of New Harmony, like that of the man, and the word “hello” crowns the human experiment like a promise, constant in the faith of Harmonistes and the mission of Tillich.

References

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