This association originated in Brooklyn Long Island among some mechanics and others who were stimulated to make a practical attempt at social reform through the lectures of Albert Brisbane and Horace Greely.
At the period of the commencement of the experiment trade was bad and many workingmen were unemployed so that many of them were glad to attempt any apparently reasonable plan for bettering their condition.
Mr. C.H. Little and Mr. Mackenzie were the leading men in the association.
They formed the following Constitution and Bye-laws which contain some rather curious and interesting parts. See [illegible] 14 and 62.
[The text of the constitution is not present in the notes that were transcribed - RDE.]
Some land was offered them by a Mr. Wood in Pike Co Penn. at $1.25 per acre and the cheapness of it appears to have been the chief inducement to accepting it. They agreed to take two thousand acres at the above rate but only paid down $100; the remainder was to be paid in instalments within a certain period. A pioneer band was formed of about twenty persons who went on the property; their only capital being their subscription of $50, each. The journey there was difficult owing to the bad roads and the ruggedness of the country. The domain was such [illegible] land near the foot of a mountain [illegible] and was thickly covered with [illegible]. There was half an acre of it cleared, as a garden. There was a small house with about four rooms, a saw mill, a yoke of oxen, some pigs, poultry, etc., but altogether the accommodations were insufficient and the circumstances [illegible], for so many persons and especially at such a season of the year; for it was about
the middle of November when they went on the ground.
At the commencement of their labor they made no use of their Constitution and laws to regulate their conduct, intending to use them when they had made some progress on their domain and had prepared it for a [illegible] number of persons. All worked as much as [illegible] he could do and with an enthusiasm worthy of a [illegible] cause and all shared in common what ever there was to share. They commenced clearing land, building bridges over the runs, gathering up the boulders and improving the habitation. But, going on to an uncultivated place like that, without ample means to obtain all they required and at such a season seemed to me to have been a very imprudent step, and so the sequel proves.
So far as I can learn, none of the leading men were agriculturists and although it may be true that the soil under the boulders was excellent,
yet a band of good men without [illegible] must be deluded, if they suppose that they can support themselves and prepare a home for others, upon such a spot as that, unless they believe that Mankind can live on wood and stone.
They depended upon external support from the Brooklyn society and expected it to continue until they were firmly established on the domain. In this they were totally disappointed, for I am informed that the promised aid never came, and that indeed the subscriptions ceased entirely upon the departure of the pioneers to the place of experiment.
They, however, continued struggling with the stones, wood, climate and other opposing circumstances for about ten months and [illegible] pretty well until near the close, when the agitating increased and the means decreased.
Occasionally a new member would arrive and a little foreign assistance be obtained, yet it was thought best to abandon the enterprise which they accordingly did assigning the want of Capital as the
only true cause of their failure. There were between twenty and thirty persons engaged in this experiment and though it failed in its objects, it did some good, such as scattering persons on the country which afterwards improved their condition and giveing valuable experience to others.