Click here to return to Table of Contents
Milo's involvement in the antislavery movement, education, community experiments adapted from the theories of Charles Fourier (Association), and the needs of the laboring class are reflected in the information that follows, the source in most instances being his scrapbooks and letters. All that is known of his relationship to the women's movement has been covered in chapter 23.
That reformers who came to lecture in New Brighton were welcomed as guests in the home of Milo and Elizabeth Townsend is attested to in an article by an unknown writer, possibly A.E. Newton, a Spiritualist of Philadelphia who frequently corresponded with Milo. The article is signed A.E.N. and dated November 10, 1858:
Here I was greeted warmly by one whom I have long known and esteemed, but had never before seen,-- Milo A. Townsend...whose house has for years been a shelter and home for unpopular reformers. Not less genial was the welcome of his worthy companion, and I was soon made to regret that I could not stay longer to enjoy their hearty hospitality. Gave one lecture at New Brighton, on a most unpromising evening, but to a large and attentive audience (Scrapbook VI 22).
In 1862 Milo Townsend wrote a letter to accompany a petition to Abraham Lincoln urging the President to emancipate the slaves. The accompanying petition had been signed by 111 people. The letter, which follows, appears as a newspaper clipping in one of Milo's scrapbooks.
President Lincoln:
Respected Friend -- On behalf of one hundred and eleven signers of an accompanying petition, I would respectfully ask to submit a few brief reflections for your consideration.
From the moral stand-point which we occupy, it does seem to us that this terrible war might be brought to a speedy and righteous termination were all the instrumentalities brought to bear upon it which lie within your reach under the war power as President of the United States.
Though now occupying, as you do, one of "the high places of the earth," we have nevertheless been led to regard you as one possessing feelings and sympathies in common with the people and who conscientiously does his part in accordance with his convictions of duty. Yet, while we thus regard you, we cannot see clearly why you shrink from grappling with the active and vital cause of our present national troubles.
Slavery seeks to extend its dominions -- seeks to rule or to be "let alone." Its intrinsic nature is to tyrannize over humanity and to rule as with a rod of iron. "Slavery is itself essentially and in its most quiet condition a rebellion -- a rebellion against the law of this universe -- a guilty defiance of God and man." It asks not whether its subjects be white or black -- only that its insatiable demands be heeded and its empire extended. For this sole purpose is the South now at war, and in slavery lies her strength as well as her weakness. Strike the blow at slavery, and the rebellion ends. Treat it as something too sacred or time-honored to be handled roughly or irreverently, and it sits in demoniacal power and dignity, to baffle and foil every effort to conquer the rebellion.
While the South is radically in the wrong, the North is not radically in the right. The one is fighting for slavery per se , while the other is not fighting for Liberty as a principle, but for the Union and the Constitution, which are only a shadow or a sham if they do not represent the Genius of Liberty and are not vitalized by the spirit of Justice.
If we plant ourselves upon the rock of principle, contending inflexibly for freedom and justice, on the side of which are arrayed the Lord and his angel hosts, we shall "conquer gloriously." Otherwise new difficulties, new entanglements, and new complications will arise to educate us, as it were, in the school of calamity and to purify us by the fires of suffering until we are humbled and made willing to do the will of heaven!
Be assured, President Lincoln, there is no more peace or rest to this nation until it is willing to do simple justice. For long years things have been culminating for the great issue now at hand.
"Let truth and falsehood grapple" -- let there be a distinct issue between Liberty and Slavery -- between God and Baal, and the result is not doubtful. It is only by a temporizing, compromising policy and a disposition to make friends "with the mammon of unrighteousness" that the reign of Evil has been so long perpetuated on the earth. There is safety only in the Right -- on the side of God and Justice. There are perils and woes unspeakable in the wrong -- for sorrow and suffering must follow wrongdoing as surely as God's laws are unrepealable and His truth everlasting. For the slaveholder as well as the slave, Justice and Truth have blessings -- to the realization of which Slavery rears forever an impassable barrier. Let this dark barrier be thrown down that a delivered nation's Jubilee may come amid gratulations of brotherhood and hasannas [sic.] of rejoicing!
"The work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever."
With cordial good wishes and with every consideration of esteem,
I am truly yours,
Milo A. Townsend
New Brighton, Pa. (Scrapbook I 2).
Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September, 1862, warning the South to return to the Union or he would on January 1, 1863, declare all slaves held within the Confederacy to be free. There being no forthcoming capitulation from the South before the effective date, the proclamation became mandatory with the added official authorization for the Union to enroll black troops (Bailyn 709).
The Emancipation, however, had some rather serious faults: it applied only to the areas which the Confederacy controlled (and where it could not be enforced), not to the border states still loyal to the Union. By the proclamation no slaves were physically freed at that time. Many abolitionists found in the document little or nothing over which to rejoice; its sole purpose was to save the Union, not to save the slaves. To Abby Kelley Foster it seemed certain that emancipating the slaves for military reasons would leave their race still hated. She believed that the "poison of this wickedness" would eventually destroy this guilty nation. Charles Remond stated that hatred for the black people was at its height at that time. Parker Pillsbury remarked of Lincoln's proclamation, "A little glad I was" (Sterling 335).
Then, slightly more than a month before the end of the Civil War, the North was shocked by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning at 7:22 a.m. (Kull 227). As is usual in an event so traumatic as the assassination of the head of state, many of those who had found the President weak and ineffectual in his treatment of the slavery issue now praised the man and the work he had accomplished.
Milo, reflecting the shock and sorrow of the nation, wrote the following account, which is dated April 15, 1865, 11 a.m.
The nation has been stunned this morning as by the sudden shock of an earthquake or a peal of thunder from a clear sky by the startling announcement of the assassination of president Lincoln and Secretary Seward!1 People are amazed - struck dumb by the appalling intelligence that there should still live on the earth a single wretch so infamous, so dastardly as to seek and take the lives of men whose only crime is their fidelity to Liberty and Duty in the hour of their nation's peril - men who have stood firmly at the helm and have so bravely and faithfully piloted the ship of State through the angry storms that have threatened to engulf it for the last four eventful and troubling years! But alas! there are such infamous beings yet incarnated in the flesh, as there are in the dark abodes of the spirit world. But their time is short - the reign of the tyrant approaches its end. These are the death-struggles, the spasmodic contortioning that herald their doom. It may yet - the victorious and final triumph of Liberty - be through other rivers of blood and over the prostrate forms of other thousands of our countrymen.
"My hope for us all," in the language of my friend Judd Pardee, "is in the full advent of Truth. Until the very Christ of Love, Wisdom and Truth is come, we are all at sea. But as even the sea is swept around the horizon of Heaven, so our ocean of woe is overbrooded by the Love of God! Out of it shall come the Savior of men - triumphant truth and Holy Love and radiant Wisdom!"
A nation has just been plunged, by the astounding intelligence of this morning, from the highest joy to the deepest woe! The late victories over the hosts of hell and the enemies of Liberty and Light had but a few days before thrilled the nation's heart with unspeakable joy. But how sudden is the transition! Sorrow and mourning now fill the land. By the hand of the midnight assassin, our noble chief has fallen together with one of his faithful compeers. Lincoln, the generous, the just, the merciful, expires from a shot by a hired tool of the Southern tyrants and their Northern allies - But "his name shall be held in everlasting remembrance" as one of earth's noblest sons and benefactors - A fearful time has come in earth's dark history that has the duty of recording a deed so direful and damning.
Still, we will not despair that God is at the helm of the Universe, guiding the destiny of this and of all nations.
Hail! hail to thee, Messiah of Nations, thou who comest from Edom with thy garments dyed red! With thee go the blessings, for thee rise the prayers, of noble hearts all over the world, as thou goest forth steadfastly to tread the wine press prepared by Destiny for thy feet, knowing not the wine that shall come, only that it shall make glad the heart of man! O, my country, there is a path that leads from Gethsemane, garden of Agony, up to the snow-pure summit of Tabor, Mount of Transfiguration. There shall thy nobler children rear for thee the tabernacles of the past, the Present, and the Future!
(Milo A. Townsend. Journal . Property of Deborah L. Snowden Whalen, his great-great granddaughter).
1William Henry Seward (1801-1872), Secretary of State under Lincoln, and Johnson, was in bed ill at the time of the assassination and was stabbed by another conspirator. He recovered.
Milo believed that careful attention to children's health should be an important aspect of the educational process. His views are set forth in the following article, which he wrote for Clark's School Visitor.
It was said by a distinguished physiologist that "Happiness depends upon the proper adjustment of the nervous system." The same, or a similar thought, might be expressed thus: Happiness depends upon good health.
2. We know that man may be in possession of every external luxury and all the wealth of earth; yet if he have not health, he is not happy. Let us inquire for a moment as to what are some of the conditions or laws of health.
3. One of these is pure, unvitiated air. Is such found during six hours confinement in the school-room? It is estimated that a strong, vigorous man breathes twenty-seven hogsheads of air every twenty-four hours. At this rate, how long will it require thirty scholars to breathe or use up an ordinary school-room of air? If we include the action of the fires or furnaces on the air, it is rendered more or less unhealthful or vitiated in a few minutes. Thus one of the essential elements of life and health is made the agent of disease and degeneracy. The noble Horace Mann, in alluding to school-rooms generally, remarks as follows: "To put children on a short allowance of fresh air is as foolish as it would have been for Noah, during the deluge, to have put his family on a short allowance of water. Since God has poured out an atmosphere fifty miles deep, it is enough to make a miser weep to see our children stinted in breath."
4. These unventilated school-rooms and public halls generally, unquestionably send out a stream of corruption and disease that tells on the present and rising generation. I do not wonder that Crandall, in his able work entitled "Three Hours' School a Day," has pronounced school houses generally, as "Dyspeptic Factories." Think of an adult audience being confined six hours a day in a school-room, attempting to be patient and contented with the monotonous routine of what is popularly considered the legitimate educating process. How varied, and interesting and attractive must be the exercises of any entertainment even to be made tolerable to grown people for six hours a day during a series of months or years! Then think of keeping the interest of children in a school-room for that length of time! The thing is impossible, or if possible, utterly unnatural, stultifying, and undesirable. For it would be out of the question for a child to enjoy a vigorous, full, and healthy growth if his brain were so occupied and exercised as to become satisfied with a course of life so one-sided and contrary to the laws of our being.
5. "The business of childhood," says Crandall, "is to grow." Strange that any body should ever have thought otherwise, and should have instituted a system of education (?) that renders muscular development and natural growth impossible. Well is it for humanity and the emasculating race that a pioneer in physical education should arise in the person of Dr. DIO LEWIS and institute a system that demonstrates the importance of muscular development in harmony with intellectual and brain development.
6. A condition of perfect health can only be attained by the exercise of all the functions of the body and all the faculties of the mind. In the schools, as generally conducted, only a few faculties of the mind are called into play, whereby these few receive undue exercise while the moral, social, and physical being receive little attention; and hence children grow up (if they reach the years of maturity) angular, lop-sided, and inharmonious in mind and body. What folly to attempt to make sages and philosophers of little children! A precocious child is a sad sight to all thinking minds.
7. Thus far I have "found fault" with the present school system and have only hinted at a few of its errors. In my next I will suggest some improvements as well as endeavor further to show how degenerating to the race has become the popular schooling process and that a wise, philosophical education contemplates the development of the physical, social, moral, intellectual, and religious departments of one's being, thus making whole, self-poised, symmetrical, magnanimous men and women.
New Brighton, Pa., Nov. 3, 1863 (Scrapbook I 8).
Luly Morrill, a teacher in Fisherville, New Hampshire, wrote to Milo on May 13, 1855, expressing her agreement that teachers and children should not be shut up for six hours a day in an unventilated school room. This seems to lend some credence to the contention that students did suffer from such an unhealthy school environment at that time.
In 1875 Milo A. Townsend's book, The Battle for Bread, or, Justice, the Forlorn Hope of Humanity was published by Dickson, McKalip & Co. 55 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Milo wrote under the pseudonym the Hermit of the Hills. The 74 page book sold for 25¢.
In the preface he stated a recurring theme, "The welfare of all must be consulted before the welfare of any can be secured -- for Humanity is a Brotherhood ."
One of Milo's scrapbooks contains a number of
advertisements and reviews which identify him as the Hermit of the Hills, indicate something of the scope and viewpoints expressed in his book, and throw some light on his reputation as a reformer. The following are selections from some of these:
[The Battle for Bread] is the name of a little pamphlet ... just published at Pittsburgh by The Hermit of the Hills. It takes up the labor question and handles it intelligently and honestly and shows up the injustice practiced by greedy capital on helpless labor. All the chapters are short and spicy. (Scrapbook VI 34).
This is a beautifully printed little book ... embodying some very suggestive and timely thoughts on living. The author we recognize as an old friend, a reformer, and a thinker of great clearness and force
(Scrapbook VI 34).
The Battle for Bread ... is the title of a small pamphlet on our table by Milo Townsend of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.... It is intended as another ally and aid in the great cause of social and political reform....
(Scrapbook VI 34).
[The Battle for Bread] is the title of a very neatly printed pamphlet ... by "The Hermit of the Hills," who has been an occasional contributor to our columns.... It discusses the question of Capital and Labor and shows up the wrongs of monopoly and the competitive systems of the business and financial world.
A literary critic of Philadelphia in writing of this little book says, "I have given it a careful perusal and the conclusion of my mind is that it is a very able exposition of the evils of the present social order. Some of the passages possess a fiery vehemence and logical force which must find entrance into every fair and logical mind." Another author in a private letter writes: "'The Battle for Bread' is an eloquent plea for the rights of a down-trodden humanity. It is one protest more entered before the "Supreme Court" of Heaven against the great demoralizing sin of the ages, the sin of avarice, and I sincerely congratulate the author upon the position he occupies and the truths he so forcibly declares" (Scrapbook VI 34).
The following review includes some quotations from the book, making clearer the scope and character of the work:
The Battle for Bread is the title of an earnest brochure that grapples with the question of poverty in various ways. In the "Hermit of the Hills" we recognize marks of the style and spirit of Mr. Milo A. Townsend, the estimable Friend whose poetical and other contributions we have welcomed since the first issue of our paper. He holds that the radical question of our time is poverty, and how to diminish it. It is the cause of most of the disease and crime and the prolific mother of untold miseries. He contends that what the poor want is not charity but justice. It was said by Margaret Fuller that "While any are base, none can be pure and noble." It must be said that while any are oppressed, none can be entirely free. Even the disposition to oppress proves the mind to be in bondage to evil. By causing others unhappiness or by being indifferent to their rights or welfare, no one can be happy though he possess mountains of diamonds and oceans of gold. In the words of the noble Pestalozzi, "There is no rest for him who oppresses and persecutes. Nay, there can be no repose for him; for the sighs of the unfortunate ascend as swift witnesses before the living God." He looks on monopoly as the chief cause of the difficulty that oppresses the country. "When two-thirds of the wealth of the country is in the hands of one-fifth of the people; when three thousand houses are owned by one man in the city of New York; when two men own a frontage on the San Joaquin river, California, of forty miles in extent, and other gigantic monopolies of equal magnitude exist; and while at the same time, thousands of men, women and children are crying for bread, it becomes a serious question and demands the profound consideration of every well-wisher of his race. For it is evident that our nation can never stand on the heights of moral grandeur or attain that high destiny which our fathers dreamed of and sought to lay the foundations for so long as vast monopolies exist on the one hand and toiling poverty on the other." He touches suggestively on many remedies, such as cooperation, palaces of industry, and graduated taxation. The little book is full of suggestion and provocation and that sympathy for the suffering which is a thousand times more helpful than eloquent declamation. It raises more questions than a score of economists can solve, but it is a great thing to raise the right questions. (Scrapbook VI 35).
[The Battle for Bread] is the title of a small, neat ... pamphlet now lying before me, the production of that noble brother and indefatigable worker for the cause of humanity, Milo A. Townsend. I have long been familiar with the name of this untiring philanthropist and have often wished the world could be blessed with more such earnest laborers. "The Battle for Bread!" How pregnant with meaning! how significant these words just now when millions of our fellow countrymen are nearing the door of starvation! How appropriate such a work in an age when sordid avarice is snatching "the staff of life" from the laboring poor -- almost the only class entitled by "heaven's just law" or a court of strict moral justice to receive it. In a country whose religion strictly forbids its disciples to lay up treasure on earth and imposes the solemn, rigid and imperative injunction, "Having food and raiment, herewith be content," we observe nearly all its leading professors striving to live the life of a Dives and yet hoping at death to receive the reward of a Lazarus. Vain hope!.... Friends, get this little work of Bro. Townsend's. It is a live coal on the altar of humanity and will awaken new sympathy in your souls for the toiling millions now suffering for bread and excite a new zeal in the noble work of trying to do something to relieve them.
K. Graves. Richmond, Ind. (Scrapbook VI 32).
The following letter from Milo published in the Pittsburgh Gazette was written before the publication of The Battle for Bread , but it reflects Milo's thinking on the subject eleven years before his book was in print:
For the Pittsburgh Gazette
The Battle for Bread
Editors Gazette --The facts and reflections presented in one of your recent able editorials concerning the prevailing extravagance on the one hand, as exhibited in our cities -- especially New York--and of poverty and want on the other, are truly worth "pondering" by every one who feels any interest in the welfare of his kind.
To how many millions is this life a mere battle for bread! Not only men and women are "drafted" into this battle by the hard hand of necessity; but little children, who should be out on the hill sides free from care and knowing nothing but the freshness, the health, and the elasticity of a new-born existence, are pressed into this weary conflict with want to save a sorrowing mother or a decrepid [sic.] father from starvation's doom. How many sighs are heard, how many tears are wept, how many hearts are broken, how many souls are forced to stand in the places of sin and shame because of this unequal battle for bread, which wages increasingly from day to day! To millions this is the battle that knows no truce, no armistice, no capitulation. "Do or die" is the inevitable alternative.
For making a pair of cotton drilling drawers with buckles, button-holes, straps and strings, a sewing woman is paid four and one-sixth cents. A smart woman using a sewing machine can make four pairs in a long day--working, that is to say, from seven in the morning till nine at night. For such a day's work the reward is sixteen and three-quarter cents. Another sewing woman receives five and a half cents for making large canton flannel drawers by hand, each pair containing two thousand stitches, and having button holes, eylet-holes, buttons, stays and strings; but this poor woman has to furnish her own thread. She is able to make two pairs of such drawers in a very long day, which includes a considerable part of the night.
These, among other facts set forth by the needle women at their recent meeting in Cooper Institute, New York, are additional confirmations of the terrible struggle to which thousands of poor, worthy women are subjected and of the meanness and inhumanity of their employers, who are willing to make money out of their very life-blood.
We read of the noble daring, the beautiful self-sacrifice of a Capt. Herndon, who not only put forth every effort in his power, but gave his life to the sharks of the deep to save from a like fate the women and children that thronged his doomed vessel! Universal humanity applauded a deed so self-denying, so heroic, so grand!
But what shall we say of those squandering spendthrifts--those shrivel-souled money-mongers, who, if possible, would monopolize the very air and water and sunshine--would jam up the very 'rivers of life' and sell the Morning Stars if thereby they could subserve their selfish and unhallowed purposes? Such men care not who sinks, so they swim . Unlike the noble Herndon, they turn not to help the perishing; but, seeking their own safety with an indifference and heartlessness befitting the pirates that sail upon the high seas, they allow their struggling, sinking brothers and sisters to go down in the surging waters of poverty, sorrow and desolation. It was said by the excellent Pestalozzi that "There is no happiness for him who oppresses and persecutes; no, there can be no repose for him; for the sighs of the unfortunate cry for vengeance to Heaven." It is not in the nature of things that men can waste the gifts of God or shut themselves up in their palaces of wealth and yet be happy while needy ones are suffering in want and poverty all around them. God will not let such men be happy. He will haunt them with the ghosts of a thousand imaginary wants; and with a restless craving, they must go up and down the earth, "seeking rest but finding none."
Someone has remarked that "Heaven is for those who have not succeeded in this life." It might be said with greater force, perhaps, that Heaven is not for those who have succeeded selfishly in this life. The Bible speaks of those who have their portion in this world, as Dives, the rich man, who in his lifetime "had his good things" --his wealth and great possessions, but using them selfishly, and without reference to the good of others, was tormented in the future life, while the poor, ragged, but kind-hearted Lazarus was comforted and made happy.
So long as mankind set no limit to their desires and struggles for worldly riches--houses, property and lands--and so long as they do set limits to their aspirations and desires for intellectual and spiritual riches--Wisdom, Goodness, Justice, Righteousness--just so long shall we have extravagance, pomp and "gilded villainy" on the one hand and poverty and want on the other, with harmony and happiness on neither. While this spirit of avarice lasts, how can the Kingdom of Heaven descend upon the earth? May we not hope that,
"The carnival of sin is almost o'er,
The great world's Passion-week is near at hand,
Freedom derided, crucified and slain,
Shall roll the rock from its dark sepulchre,
And throne itself in majesty thereon,
With face like lightning and with robes like snow."
Milonus
March 27, 1864 (Scrapbook I 5-6)
In the 1840s a movement for what was termed Association arose in the Northeaster United States. This grew out of the type of society first promoted in France by Francois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837), a French socialist and reformer who developed a system to organize society "into small, self-sufficient, cooperative agricultural communities" (Webster's New World Dictionary ).
Although Fourier's views were chaotic and extravagant, a young American, Albert Brisbane (1809-1890), who had worked under Fourier, brought his system to America, tailoring it to fit his own practical nature and making it agreeable to the culture and mind set of the American people (Holloway 140).
Brisbane's first introduction to Fourierism occurred when he happened to pick up Fourier's book, L'Association Domestique-Agricole , and read the words "Attractive industry." As Mark Holloway explains in Heavens on Earth: Utopian Communities in America between 1680-1880 , these words so fired Brisbane's interest that he sought out Fourier and his associates and made an exhaustive study of the theory under their direction (140).
Attractive industry was Fourier's most practical idea, and it was to this that Brisbane clung. In 1840 he published Social Destiny of Man , presenting clearly the essential Fourierism without its more offensive and fanciful aspects (Holloway 149; Hart 107).
Brisbane's adapted system was practical and workable, at least in theory. His views had great appeal and became well known after his Social Destiny of Man had converted Horace Greeley, at that time editor of the New York Tribune . Greeley offered Brisbane a regular column in that paper, and a front page headline in the spring of 1842 announced the purchase of the column by the Advocates of Association (Holloway 140-141).
Greeley himself spoke on behalf of the movement, helped to arrange meetings, and pledged his property to Association (141).
Milo was introduced to the concept at least as early as January of 1849, when Sarah W. Taylor wrote to him about regular meetings held by some Pittsburgh families to discuss the subject. The following is an excerpt from her January 16, 1849, letter:
We would like to have you here this evening to be present at a social meeting at our room. A few families of us meet once a week at each other's residences for the purpose of reading upon the subject of Association. We all enjoy these meetings very much. They were got up by Mrs. Dr. Cote´1, an intelligent woman and a very zealous associationist. When you come to this city again, I must take the liberty of introducing you to her. You will certainly be pleased with her acquaintance.
1For more on Emma Cote´see chapter 22.
In 1843 an association paper called the Phalanx was started, but it was replaced in 1844 by the Harbinger of Brook Farm, that cooperative community having adopted Fourierism. Whittier, Lowell, William Henry Channing, and Margaret Fuller were among those who contributed articles on the subject. Other newspapers and books furthered the cause, not only in New York and New England, but also in other states. Lecture tours were organized, and meetings and conventions were held to study and discuss Association (141).
Fourier had believed that there would be a 35,000 year period of harmony and that during this time the world would be organized into a great number of self-contained cooperative communities to be called phalanxes. There were to be about 1750 people in each phalanx and private property would be maintained (103). However, the people were in time to build and live in a large three-story building called a phalanstery rather than in individual homes. The phalanstery would provide all conveniences (136).
One of his tenets pertained to wages. According to Fourier the highest wages should be paid to those doing the most repulsive and exhausting work and the least to those doing more agreeable work, the highest wage being the U.S. equivalent of ten cents an hour and the lowest six cents. He also taught that people should perform a variety of work during each day to prevent weariness or boredom and to promote enthusiasm and joy (136-137, 150).
Of the Association experiments organized in the United States, the three most successful were the following:
1. The North American Phalanx, located near Red Bank in Monmouth County, New Jersey, which continued in operation for twelve years.
2. The Wisconsin Phalanx, which lasted six years.
3. Brook Farm, which existed for five years but for only two as a phalanx (148).
The Association movement was strongest in the northeastern states, where unemployment was high as the result of a sharp economic crisis. In addition, the anti-slavery movement, as it grew, began to call for abolition of wage slavery as well as an end to the enslavement of human beings as property. The idea of attractive industry in a cooperative association had a strong appeal for these people (142).
Unfortunately, many, having grasped the general idea of Association, tried to begin such a community without proper organization and careful advanced planning. A number bought wasteland that was incapable of producing the food they would need. Tragically, not a few lost all they had on dozens of poorly organized ventures. Of the more than forty such experiments that were begun, only the three named above survived more than two years and three others no more than fifteen months (142).
Of those three most successful Phalanxes, the North American Phalanx, which had bought good land, prospered exceedingly well for some years. The members were able to produce abundant crops of even better quality than those of nearby farmers and to provide varied labor throughout each day to prevent weariness and boredom. Then religious dissension led to the withdrawal of a number of members and stockholders, who formed the Raritan Bay Union [See under chapter 17]. In addition, an 1854 fire destroyed their mills and workshops. The remaining members had not the heart to go on, though they were offered aid (148-149).
D.H. Jacques, about whom nothing is known apart from the contents of the following letter, wrote to Milo from the North American Phalanx in New Jersey in 1856, two years after the disastrous fire. Other Association settlements are mentioned in his letter which follows:
Letter 67
From D.H. Jacques
Phalanx N.J.
July 6, 1856
I am farming a little here and writing some occasionally--pretty busy as usual, and don't keep up my correspondence as promptly as could be wished.
Latest accounts from the Texas Colony are not very favorable, though the settlement at Reunion is carrying on its operations with considerable energy.
A person from this place returned from there last spring and gave so discouraging an account that those who were going from here have all abandoned the movement. I gave it up with great reluctance, as you may easily imagine.
But I must go somewhere. Must seek a milder climate. Where shall I go and who will go with me? Must we abandon the hope of an associative settlement? I am looking toward East Tennessee and a favorable locality with the finest climate in the world, good soil and tolerably cheap land. Who will go to East Tenn, or some other portion of the mountain region of the south to help found a progressive settlement?
The Central Management of the Phalanx has passed from the hands of Arthur Moung [?] and is going on from bad to worse. So the world goes. One hope after another of poor struggling humanity fades away-- but there is a divine Providence and all will yet be well. This is my faith.
I shall be glad to hear from you. What are your friends and correspondents doing in reference to social movements? Can we get up a southern movement of our own?
Stephen Young, as I know you know, has given up the Kansas Settlement Company.
Yours for Progress
D.H. Jacques
Milo Townsend wrote a letter to Albert Brisbane, the founder of Fourierism, or Association, in America. Brisbane's answer follows:
Letter 122
From Albert Brisbane
New York, March 19. 1859
Dear Sir,
You letter came to hand in due course of mail. The cooperation of good men such as you speak of gives me great satisfaction. If we can transport to a new soil a diverse population with every means of facilitating production and of educating thoroughly every person, we can build up, it seems to me, a Society worthy of being called a Society of human beings . We must endeavor if possible to give a new direction to society in the great region lying west of the present settlements; that is, found an advanced stage of society in the regions east [possibly west ] of the Modry mountains. We begin in north Texas and spread north, south and west, organizing a state of things far in advance of the present.
I have not written sooner as I wished to send you some documents-- the articles of government which are being translated into English. I think they will now be done in a week. I will then forward them to you with some remarks on what is being accomplished at present.
Mr. Considerant1 is here, but leaves in a couple of weeks for Texas with his family.
We have some 30 persons on the ground with a few transfers and works progressing.
A capital of some two millions of dollars is promised in France: $300,000 paid in. A large number of superior persons are waiting to insure. If success attends our fervid efforts, we can draw the elite of the French population to us, that is, that portion imbued with progressive ideas.
Mrs. Cote´ often spoke to me of you, but I did not hope so soon to hear from you.
Until the time comes that we can meet face to face,
I assure you of my cordial esteem and friendship.
A. Brisbane
1Victor Considerant was one of Fourier's two must enthusiastic disciples, the other being Brisbane (Holloway 139).
In the following letter Jane Nichelson, who also wrote to Milo about the relationship between Mary Robison and Andrew Jackson Davis [see chapter 6] wrote to Milo from Harveysburgh, Ohio, mentioning the Texas Colony of which D.H. Jacques had spoken and said that she and her husband had been involved in the failed Prairie Home experiment, in spite of which she was still interested in Association.
The letter is undated.
I have known thee for years by reputation & letters. I have read in many of the papers, first in the antislavery cause which is one that should never be forgotten till the last chain is broken from the slave. My husband & I have been engaged for the slave for many years-- have always kept the Depot on the Under-Ground Rail-road & we kept an open house for all those that chose to come & tarry with us. Will thee & thy wife come & see us some time in the future. I have been attracted to thee by reading thy communications on reformatory subjects & I read a letter of thine to Mary F. Robison who has been an inmate of our house for the last 4 weeks & I observed in it (thy letter) an account of a movement of Brisbane and others & they had located in Texas which interested me some to know something of the character of the movement & thy opinion of the social life when & how far it can be lived out in peace, harmony & the best economy to individuals & the world at large. Valentine Nicholson (my husband) & myself have been interested for many years on the subject.
No doubt thee will remember the community that was started some 10 years since at Prairie Home got up partly by John O. Wattles, beautiful Magnetic speaker-- Our souls were in it to do good. We spent much time, $4000 in the experiment-- though that failure does not destroy all faith in believing there may yet be those that feel a congeniality & wish to live in some closer combination both in temporal & spiritual to make labor more productive for ourselves & do the world more good.
From the foregoing letters it is obvious that Milo has been thinking seriously about Association. In 1860 Hammonton, New Jersey, appears to have become his goal, as some letters written to him indicate.
Hammonton, New Jersey, was opened to settlement by Richard J. Byrnes and Charles K. Landis. The town was granted its charter on March 5, 1866, and became an important center for fruit-growing (McManon. The Story of Hammonton 85; Hammonton News 8).
Writing to Milo from Philadelphia on July 16, 1860, a friend, William McDonald, presented a glowing and fanciful account of Hammonton, but pessimistically declared that neither of them would ever live there. An excerpt from his letter follows.
In the first place I will say--that Hammonton, since we were there, has been dwelling in my memory with a green & delightful spell. Somehow this I felt when there that it was a place where the angels of peace & hope might be tempted to dwell & for a while fold their rainbow dyed wings and forget for a space their beautiful world of unrefracted glory and undying flowers, and I still turn toward it hoping some day to be there. But neither you nor I will be there as dwellers forever-- for at least I have no means & the fashion of the world, in the meantime, is passing away & our strength is wasting & our eyes growing dim & death stands waiting at the door and the roar of the dashing of the mighty sea of eternity is growing louder and louder as it rolls against the walls of life with its waves of mighty mystery and playing with its murmuring shells that lie upon its wondering shores. We shall never live there.
As though to belie his predictions, less than a month later McDonald is expecting Milo to go to Hammonton. Writing from Philadelphia on August 3, 1860, he says, "When you come to Hammonton, give us two weeks notice-- that is all I ask."
But on December 28, 1860, Milo was still in New Brighton when a frequent correspondent, A.E. Newton, a Spiritualist (mentioned earlier in this chapter), wrote of Hammonton and warned him of the need for practicality, as follows:
I cannot advise you on going to Hammonton. I know some parties who have located or intend to, there, but none who seem to me to have any true idea of the essential requisites of a social state much better than the present. Possibly you will find more congenial surroundings at H.; and if you can be sure of some remunerative employment, the change may be admirable. But don't expect too much-- don't think you are going right into Paradise because you go among professed Spiritualists! Unless they have died to self and been born again in the Spirit, the old devil of selfishness will be just as rampant there as elsewhere-- only under new forms and disguises. Such is my experience....
Milo did not leave New Brighton for a cooperative association until 1866, by which time Vineland, New Jersey, had become his goal. Before the move William McDonald wrote again to Milo on the subject of Association. The first page having been lost, there is no date; but the letter was evidently written no earlier than 1865 and before Milo's 1866 move to Vineland.
Do you really intend to cultivate a home in Vineland? It may grow into a place of great importance & beauty, & when the Old Folks at Home are gathered to their Fathers, you may feel at liberty to pull up stakes & seek a new establishment with your blue-eyed lady. Yet I think her heart is wedded to New Brighton & the Sweet Quakers "that there do congregate " -- whether her affections bear transplanting to another clime is doubtful-- they might wither & die & exhaust their fragrance on the lonely airs of a land of strangers-- These things are worth thinking about, but I hope your mind will incline to the East. In that case we might see each other occasionally & talk of times "long ago betid...."
We have conquered rebellion & slavery & God Almighty will henceforth stretch over us the wings of Mercy & Peace. We stand without that great national sin of Slavery on our backs to crush us to the Earth.... Give the blue-eyed a kiss for me.
An undated item in one of Milo's scrapbooks reports a musical soiree at his home in which "Auld Lang Syne" and "Farewell to Mister Townsend" were sung. The writer expressed his opinion that "Milo's next party" would "probably be given in Vineland" (Scrapbook V 53).
In July of 1861 Charles K. Landis purchased from Richard P. Wood at $7 an acre a tract of barren wilderness, flat and desolate, on which to build Vineland as a center for the cultivation of orchards and vineyards (hence the name Vineland ). Even Landis could see no beauty in the land at that time. Fires had swept through this area that supported only scrub oak, pine, and brush. There were swamps to be drained. The first house was built in 1862. Still by 1865 two hundred buildings had been erected, and by the end of the next year there were twelve hundred more. The town was laid out carefully with streets a hundred feet wide and land set aside for the railroad that was soon to go through the settlement (Vineland N.J. Centennial 1961 n.p.).
On July 2, 1866, the Rev."Sylvanius" Jones of Pittsburgh wrote hoping that Milo would be happy in his new home and new surroundings and supposing that he was "ever experiencing the sweet refreshment of a new and more congenial life." He added, "I cannot but feel very anxious for the success of your experiment, for such to a considerable extent it is." He hoped that Elizabeth was "not overwhelmed by the sad loneliness of a strange land" and would find a few choice friends and be happy.
Writing on October 21, 1866, Ellen Angier , a close friend of the family, who was now teaching in Cleveland, Ohio, spoke of Vineland as a "region of desolation" and indicated that Milo had moved to Spring Garden very soon after arriving. Portions of her letter follow:
How do you do, my dear friends Milo and Lizzie? It is nearly two months since I bade you good-bye in Boston, isn't it, Milo? I wonder if you haven't both had some hard work and more heart ache since then. I don't mind it for you, Milo, because I think it will do you good. But for your merry little wife I do think it is too bad. Wasn't I sorry for you, Mrs. Laughing Blue eyes, when your husband described to me your sensations upon looking out upon the sandy tract of Vineland the morning after your arrival in that delectable country. I think Lemmy [Lemuel, the older of Milo and Elizabeth's two sons] must have packed his wits away at home before purchasing that bit of sandy earth, the unlucky ownership of which caused you to leave the fair and beauteous land of Brighton for that region of desolation. I am glad enough you didn't get stuck there. Spring Garden ought to be a land overflowing with milk and honey to compensate you for those few days of misery. But alas for the tasteful little cottage, the noble hills, dark ravines, and flowing rivers of dear old Brighton! I fear you will not find their place made good unto you. How are you now, if you please? I am very anxious to hear, though you might not believe it from my long silence...
I really must hear from you very soon, Milo. Don't you dare to send me a short letter, nor one that contains anything about "golden Oct." or the "state of the Nation." I want to hear about your home life and doings at Spring Garden, and remember, you are to give it me in your most voluminous and emphatic style.
(For more on Ellen Angier see chapter 9.)
Spring Garden was another village in New Jersey and was near Blue Anchor. No further mention is made of it either in Milo's correspondence or in his scrapbooks.
After the Vineland fiasco, probably in 1865, Milo became enthusiastic about a proposed Spiritualist community at Blue Anchor, New Jersey.
The original Blue Anchor Tract was bought from Indians on September 10, 1672 (Chalmers 68).
Blue Anchor, which was on the Egg Harbor Road (Dorwart and Mackey 13), had once been at the center of major Indian trails leading to the Atlantic shore (Heston 173,178). It derived its name, according to legend, from the complaints of a group of sailors who had come up the Great Egg Harbor River and visited the spot in very early times. After a disgusted look at the deserted area, they declared it "a damned dry and blue anchorage" (McMahon. South Jersey Towns 284). More commonly the name is assumed to have come from the sign of the Blue Anchor Tavern, which was on the Egg Harbor Road (283). This tavern, according to George R. Prowell in his History of Camden County, New Jersey , was built on land located by a Philadelphia distiller, Abraham Bickley, in 1737. By 1740 John Hider was landlord of the tavern, which was then but a cedar log cabin (697). In time a large stone house replaced the cabin; and the inn became a stagecoach stop and a favorite accommodation for travelers, who appreciated its bountiful meals, clean beds, and quite nights undisturbed by the noise of drinking. Later in the nineteenth century Dr. John Haskell and his associates chose this site for a Spiritualist community which was to be like that at Vineland. About twenty-five families took over small tracts, and a number of houses were built (697).
However, when Haskell died and disagreement over the true policy of the community arose among the members, many left. Those who remained did not carry out the original purpose, but Prowell noted that by the time of his writing in 1886, a number of improvements had been made. He felt that a thriving settlement might be established at Blue Anchor, as the land was rich and favorably located (697).
There are still several large farms in the area as well as a produce company and a tavern (McMahon 284).
Milo's scrapbooks contain three newspaper clippings advertising and outlining the Blue Anchor project. His own description of the community is quoted in full below, while excerpts are taken from the other articles.
A Progressive Settlement is now forming on that superior tract of land long known as Blue Anchor, twenty-five miles from Philadelphia, fronting on the Camden and Atlantic Railroad in Camden Co., New Jersey.
It is the purpose of the founders of this village and settlement, and of those thus far cooperating, not to repeat the old system of things that exists in the towns and cities of the world based on antagonism, speculation and fraud, whence result poverty, want and misery on the one side and monopoly, affluence and extravagance on the other with happiness on neither ; but as soon as practicable to institute Attractive Cooperative Industry in all the various branches of Agriculture, Horticulture, Manufacturing, Mechanics and the Arts. Here then is a golden opportunity for Philanthropists and the Friends of Progress to realize--in the proper development of this splendid domain of four thousand acres-- a higher, a nobler and a more harmonious state of society and to found institutions worthy of the age and in response to the deep yearnings and aspirations of universal humanity.
One of the specific objects sought by the projectors of this movement is the establishment of a self-sustaining Industrial College, incorporating therein, on a large scale, the essential elements of the Children's Progressive Lyceum as inaugurated by Andrew Jackson Davis. For this purpose three hundred acres of land are held in reserve. A unitary Palace, Model Homes, a Cooperative Store, a Hygienic Institute, a Lecturers' Retreat, and Children's Play Grounds are also contemplated. These are some of the features distinguishing this Settlement from Hammonton, Vineland and other places.
Persons could now engage to advantage upon the grounds in such branches of industry as manufacturing Shoes, Baskets, Kegs, Barrels, Boxes, Clothing, Earthen Ware, Brick, Pocket Books, &c, &c. A large Steam Mill is now in successful operation; also an extensive Greenhouse and several private residences of unique design are being erected on Central Avenue.
The lands are furnished at lower rates than any of similar quality and eligibility in the State. Those wishing further information are earnestly requested to visit the place rather than rely upon the meagre knowledge to be obtained through correspondence. Those to whom this is,at the present impracticable, may address the undersigned at Blue Anchor, Camden Co., New Jersey. The route from Philadelphia is from the foot of Vine street to Winslow Station, which is two miles from Blue Anchor village.
March 29, 1867 Milo A. Townsend (Scrapbook I 13)
The second article includes the names of the community officers.
Our esteemed friend and former agent at New Brighton, Milo A. Townsend, has favored us with a copy of "Circular No. 2" in which is set forth the desirability of investing in a home on the lands of the Blue Anchor Land Improvement Company of New Jersey....
Any information may be obtained by applying by letter or in person to either of the following officers at Blue Anchor, Camden County, New Jersey: George Haskell, President; Thomas Taylor, Vice President; Josiah W. Spaulding, Secretary; Milo A. Townsend, Treasurer (Scrapbook 1 19)
The last article presents a further picture of Blue Anchor, while giving also more insight into the success of the communities at Hammonton and Vineland.
It is astonishing how those supposed desert lands of New Jersey are, by industry and cultivation, made to blossom as the rose and bear fruit abundantly. Vineland is already quite a city. It has a Spiritualist organization and a flourishing Progressive Lyceum.
Hammonton has proved a grand success. Its peach-orchards, vineyards, neat cottages, fine residences bespeak at once a present prosperity, and a prophecy of a still brighter future.
This "Blue Anchor Trust" is yet in the flush of infancy. It has some four thousand acres; the soil is excellent, water pure, and the climate mild, at the same time healthy and exhilarating owing to the ocean-breezes.
What particularly interests us is the expressed purpose of Messrs. Milo A. Townsend, Dr. Geo. Haskell, W.A. Baldwin and others connected therewith to bring into operation soon as possible an Industrial College, a Unitary Home, Health Institute and a Lecturers' Retreat. The college is designed to educate the young in harmony with natural law, making them true men and women. The unitary home will show the economy and labor-saving advantages of group-families without infringing in any way upon the purity and sacredness of the marriage relation. The lecturers' retreat will say to the worn and weary: come, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, come and rest; this is our home; your home; the home of all sore-footed pilgrims; come and renew your strength for fresh efforts and the attainment of still higher altitudes in the vast fields of reform. The purpose is broad; we think the plan feasible. It is work that will benefit humanity now.... (Scrapbook I 14).
Milo and his family moved to Blue Anchor some time after October 21, 1866, and built a house. Letters to Milo that will later be quoted seem to indicate that Anchora was the name of the section of the Blue Anchor tract on which the Townsends and their associates settled. Anchora was within
the Blue Anchor Tract (Cities, Towns and Post Offices of New Jersey in 1880 n.p.). The Townsends left the community before Thanksgiving Day in 1867. The reason for their departure and to some extent the character of the community may be deduced only from the following letters, some of which, unfortunately, are undated.
A letter from Mrs. Caroline (Carrie) H. Spear, though lacking a date, is almost certainly from the period during which Milo and Elizabeth Townsend with their two sons, Lemuel and Charles, were living at Blue Anchor. The Spears, also living there at the time, were Spiritualists, who, as another writer stated, made their living by "mediumship."
Letter 168
From Mrs. Caroline (Carrie) H. Spear
Friday Morning
My dear Mrs. Townsend,
Seeing your pieces of old flannel last evening has tempted me to write and ask if you can spare me a little to repair some drawers for Mr. Spear, which I find must be done before he goes to-day-- I am entirely without pieces and don't want to use cotton if I can help it. Had I known my need last night I might have selected and you might have better told if you could spare it. However, you will be quite as free to deny as I to ask if you have use for it.
With best wishes for success in your present undertakings, I remain
Truly,
Mrs. Townsend
C.H. Spear
On February 25, 1867, Milo wrote from Blue Anchor to Jacob Henrici, a trustee for the Economites, inquiring on behalf of some friends about the purchase of land in Western Pennsylvania. For the reply to this letter, see chapter 15 on Jacob Henrici.
Milo had left a letter from Jacob Henrici, probably the one still extant, with John Orvis, agent for Blue Anchor, who wrote,
In looking over my papers some days ago, I found a meaningful note pertaining to my Agency for Blue Anchor, the enclosed letter from Mr. Henrici, your esteemed friend, the man whom I highly respect and remember with a pleasing emotion. I know you must prize it, and therefore I am very happy to have found it & to be able to send it to you.
Orvis also offered to buy property belonging to Milo. This would appear to be his Blue Anchor holdings. Excerpts from the letter follow:
My dear friend. Will you give me the price at which you will sell your lot of 12 acres (I think) lying on the highette of the lowslow road-- beyond Mr. Beal's lot; and (if I rightly remember, extending to the line next-- Col Hayes land). I don't know, but I have a friend who might pay you the money for it, provided you would sell it at or near the price you gave for it, on the appraisal. Please write me in receipt of this and state your lowest terms for each. I will frankly tell you in the outset that the fact that a warrantee deed cannot be had for the land may be an objection to the purchase which cannot be removed, and any inflation of the price added to the other one mentioned would certainly defeat a sale. I don't know that I could make a sale but have been asked to write you for a price.
Orvis, who was living in Philadelphia at the time of writing, added,
I have heard from you once or twice since you left the Anchor through our mutual friends the Robbinses. I hope that you feel that your new turn was the right move to make and that you are quite content and happy thereby.
This could indicate that the letter was written in late 1867 or perhaps in 1868, after Milo had left Blue Anchor but before any disposal had been made of his property in that settlement.
Orvis had been a resident at Blue Anchor. He was also at the time of writing very poor. Whether his poverty was a result of that experiment or from some other cause is, of course, not known; but his financially difficult circumstances are made clear in the following excerpt from the same letter:
I have lived in solitude in this great city since I left Blue Anchor, and have been thankful that I have been able to get bread & cheese with apples. These have been my constant fare for more than four months. Why should I complain? I am a preacher to the poor & in their behalf, & I have no right to fare much better than they-- but then how much better has been my lot than that of thousands who are dependent on the public soup-kettles, and many of whom had well nigh perished before that slow & grudging charity was doled to them.
The following undated letter from Carrie Spear was written after the Townsends had left Blue Anchor. It was probably written in November of 1867, since the Spears' proposed winter voyage to England mentioned therein took place before April 20, 1868, the date of a letter sent to Milo by Mrs Spear from Liverpool, England. Also, the convention and Dr. Phillips mentioned in Sallie Spaulding's December 10, 1867, letter below appear to indicate that Mrs. Spear and Sallie attended the same convention on Thanksgiving weekend.
This Thanksgiving Eve letter from Blue Anchor pictures to a certain extent the life of the community as well as providing perhaps some oblique light on the reason for Milo's departure.
Letter 165
From Mrs. Caroline (Carrie) H. Spear
Thanksgiving Eve--
I must beg pardon, my dear brother, for responding to your very welcome letter at a moment when I feel so hurried and weary; but I fear if I postpone it, it will have to be for a much longer time than I shall wish; so I improve the hour before bedtime & after a day of packing for Boston & with reference to sending for such things as we may want should we go to England.
Then you are gone to your 'native glen'! This I did not know. I feel that you are probably living over again that youth which knew of sweets that often years rub us in a measure of, but which return to us in larger fullness at the advent of our real manhood. (Of course I include man male & man female in the term
manhood .) This is often a delightful experience.... How well I would like to be with you I can't write. Mr. Spear I know would enjoy it too beyond words to tell. We have had a beautiful Indian summer here until this morning it began to rain & is a little colder.
Blue Anchor remains outwardly much the same as when you left. I believe a sweet loving spirit is at work inwardly which your going away seemed to initiate. God grant it may be full grown & that you will come & bask in the warm up. Dr. Haskell has returned and says that J. Madison Allyn will come here about Christmas and open a school Jan. 1. He does not seem in so good spirits as his letter to Mr. Taylor might indicate, but his health has decidedly improved.
Mr. Spear wrote me from New York that Mr. Nichols & wife will be here next Monday. I will give him your word then. I expect to go to Vineland tomorrow to a Convention for Woman Suffrage. Mr. Baldwin has kindly invited me to ride over with him & it being Mr. Spear's wish that I go, I do so, altho' I have not so much interest as formerly-- I mean I don't feel to do so much in the advocacy, but am very glad that there are women who do, for it is an essential to our well-being, I believe. The Phillipses, Garners, Gateses, Mrs. Gardner & Miss Crowe will represent this place there, I understand.
I dined with the good friends Spaulding to-day on Turkey and you and yours were spoken of many times. We miss you every day and at every turn. Our hearts are indeed close to yours & we pray it may be in the providence of God to cast our lot in the same place during our mortal pilgrimage even while we feel its exceeding transitoriness. Our minds instinctively light upon you whenever we think of setting afoot any project for individual or collective welfare here, & then we have a sinking at heart that you are gone, though we feel it will eventuate in best good. I sincerely hope that the Economists may deem it wise & good to invest some of their means in manufacturies here. I feel a strong & unexplainable attachment to this people & would enjoy the winter quiet here; but Mr. Spear feels since he has got away, more as if we should go to England during the winter. He is now in Boston living over in recollection & speculation some of his past trials there. Heaven help him to strength.
I go to him early next week after my return from Vineland. I should hope to hear from you then. Our address is 13 La Grange St. Boston &c.
I am all alone tonight. Mr. Baldwin came for Tadie to stay with his children while we are gone. I have been filled with thanksgiving all the day at the result among other things of our stay at B.A. We go away rich in that friendship which time and place cannot affect. Both Mr. Spear & I feel that our gain in your love & friendship is one of Heaven's best gifts to us. Accept my sincere affection & believe me truly yrs.
C.H.S.
Sallie Spaulding, a young girl and probably the daughter of the Spauldings with whom Carrie Spear dined on Thanksgiving Eve, wrote the following letter expressing her grief over the Townsends' recent departure from Blue Anchor:
Letter 152
From Sallie Spaulding
Anchora1, Dec 10th/67
My dear friends.
We received your letter about a week ago-- and Mother would have answered before had she not been so very busy . Mr. and Mrs. Nichols2 are here but intend to get moved into their house as soon as to-morrow.
I need not say that we were delighted to hear from you for you already know that -- and it would be but commonplace.
We all miss you-- oh so much -- and I think more and more every day.
Whenever I go down to D. T. I look over and imagine I can see you at the window and it seems as though I must go over and find you there.
I called in at Mr. Lawson a few days after you went away and went into the library & it was just as you left it-- and your little rocking chair looked so lonesome that I had to sit down in it and relieve my feelings in a good cry. Father received a note from Mr. Townsend last evening saying that you were going to rent a house at Beaver Falls.
Nettie has gone into the city to do some shopping. Your kitty is nicely but-- I think she missed you at first-- She would go all over the house-- crying-- and it seemed in search of something. She boxed "Old Jim" occasionally and I think he is afraid of her--
Mr. Townsend-- I thank you very much for your kind offer-- but I hardly think-- if I am very careful-- that I shall be troubled much with neuralgia. If I am--will write-- and let you know--and would like very much to have you send me a prescription.
I went to Vineland Thanksgiving day with Dr. Phillips and Lizzie [?]-- staid until Sunday; had a very peasant time-- Attended the Convention Friday and Saturday and the Children's Lyceum Sunday
By the way-- Mr. Townsend's papers are brought here. Father says that he did not say anything about having them sent-- but I will send the last Vineland paper in which is an account of the Convention, and will send the others that come if you would like them. We have dances here every Tuesday evening. Have two musicians from Waterford engaged for four evenings and will probably continue having the dances once a week all winter-- Mr. Nichols will commence his singing class in a few weeks. I think we will have quite lively times here this winter.... I do hope we will have a good school. I do wish Mr. Townsend were here to dance with me tonight. With much love to all I remain
Your friend
Sallie
1Anchora on the Blue Anchor Tract was a village very near the village of Blue Anchor (Cities, Towns and Post Offices of New Jersey in 1880 n.p.). The above letter from Sallie Spaulding and a letter from Edward Nichols seem to indicate that the Blue Anchor community of which the Townsends had been a part was called Anchora, as mentioned earlier, while the name Blue Anchor applied to the tract as a whole.
2 The effect that the Nichols family's stay at Blue Anchor had on Mr. and Mrs. Nichols may be seen in Mrs. Nichols' October 20, 1870, letter to Milo, which appears later in this chapter.
Writing to Milo from Boston on February 26, 1868, Carrie Spear expressed her happiness in learning that Milo was doing well in Beaver Falls. She added, "I suppose you know much more of Blue Anchor than we. Our hearts go out toward the people there & I pray they may be blessed in basket and store. Can you tell me the plans of the Nichols?"
Milo, once settled in Beaver Falls, was busily building a house. Ellen Angier, in a letter of April, 1868, expressed her disapproval of the house Milo had built at Blue Anchor, comparing it to the plans for the new house as follows:
At any rate being gothic in style, it must be a great improvement upon that eight-sided box which you set up in the Jersey woods. I tried to think it was pretty when I was there for your sakes, but now that I think of it at this distance, I like it no better than the experiment of your living there at all. I wonder after all what demon ever possessed you to go there.... But never mind; that is all over.
The following letters from Edward Nichols and his wife sum up their experiences at Blue Anchor and their attitude toward Spiritualism.
Letter 178
From Edward W. Nichols
Peekskill, N.Y. Oct 19 '70
My dear Friend
I have just returned from a Sketching Excursion to New England which absence must be my excuse for not sooner acknowledging your letter with the enclosed photographs.
The views are very pleasant and combined with the handsome house and familiar groups on Piazzas and Balconies, and the memory of pleasant friends who compose those groups make a very strong attraction for me to accept your kind invitation to visit you in your new home1.
But the season for sketching is nearly past and the season for work is at hand-- so I fear I shall have to put off the pleasure of a visit to you till another season-- And tho' I can make no promises so far in the future, I can assure you to be able to spend a few days with you will give me great pleasure, and I do not doubt I would find much in the scenery of your vicinity to interest me.
We are living with a sister of Mrs. N.-- who has a beautiful place on the banks of the Hudson near this town. The scenery is very picturesque and the nearness of New York makes it very convenient for a residence--
I think there is no point on the Hudson more beautiful than this, and we shall be glad to welcome you and Mrs. Townsend to our home whenever you will favor us with a visit.
We have very little communication with Anchora, tho' we still keep our place there. The Hunters occupy and care for it with, I hope, advantage to themselves-- I see very little to encourage me in regard to the future of that unfortunate place--
With thanks for your pictures and your remembrance-- with regards to Mrs. Townsend and the Boys & Miss Angier if still with you--
I remain as always
Your friend E.W. Nichols
1The new Townsend house, named Sunny Bank, also became the subject of a stereographic picture, part of a series, "Beaver Valley Scenery," then available from H. Noss, Photographer, New Brighton, Pa.
Letter 177
From Mrs. M. W. Nichols
Peekskill, New York
Oct. 20 '70
Dear Friends
If you are able to live in so fine a home as "Sunny Bank," it must be that you no longer hold open intercourse with disembodied spirits-- for all who do seem lured on by them to ruin. Poor Anchora! Strongly was I duped in supposing that the influence of which Harris1 was the medium was any more divine than any other. It seems to have this merit in being so simple as to secure the subjects to unitary action & therefore to form a stable, prosperous community. Of its interior life I have no present knowledge. Am resting on a basis of common sense; too late to retrieve our fortunes but not altogether perhaps for the recovery of reason & health-- my better half will tell you of our pleasant surroundings. We should be glad to see you here-- We shall hardly be able to get so far west. My only pleasant recollections of Anchora are your pleasant faces. How are the boys? I still believe in Industrial Schools, & the next generation will see them. Eddy is hoping to enter Cornell Inst. next year. Do you ever hear from the Spears? Does mediumship support them yet? Are the sluices still open from above? Let us know what you are doing & thinking.
Yours truly,
M.W. Nichols
Peekskill
Oct. 20 '70
1If this is a reference to Thomas Lake Harris, it is incredible that Milo, who knew Harris' reputation, would have entered into any experiment inspired by that man. Perhaps the reference in Mrs. Nichols' letter is to another Harris. For Thomas Lake Harris see chapter 14.
Milo and some of his friends left Blue Anchor, some obviously disillusioned by the experience. Others of those who had participated in that experiment and in similar communities held on to the ideal for a few more years. Fourierism and its system of Association had failed or had never been tested by a group capable of carrying it out. The entirely unrelated but extremely successful Economites, represented in this book by Jacob Henrici, still had but a short time to survive, albeit the reason for the demise of their community was the impractical rule against marriage.
Milo A.Townsend died in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, on August 14, 1877. His illness was reported in the August 15, 1877, weekly newspaper, the Argus & Radical of Beaver, as follows:
We regret to learn that Milo A. Townsend, Esq., of Beaver Falls is quite ill,-- suffering from neuralgia of the stomach, stated The Courier, there is but little hope of his recovery. [The Courier was a Beaver Falls newspaper.]
A longer notice by a friend was found in a family scrapbook. Excerpts follow:
It is our sad duty to record the death of our mutual friend, Milo A. Townsend, at his residence in Beaver Falls on the evening of Tuesday, August 14th, in his sixty-first year, having been born in Fallston June 20, 1816.
Milo quietly passed away as though in sleep, near the close sending many goodbys to those he was leaving on earth. On the morning of Tuesday, about eleven o'clock, feeling that the spirit was soon to take its light, he requested all his friends who were present to come while he was yet conscious and bid him good by. He affectionately embraced each and bade them a long farewell, promising that he would greet them on the other shore. After all had been called to his bedside and taken the last good-by, he requested that all should withdraw but one, it being in accordance with his views that the spirit was retarded in its separation from the body by the presence and grief of friends.
During his sickness of three weeks he showed the keenest enjoyment for the beautiful flowers which were brought in from time to time by friends, and he desired his heartfelt thanks expressed to all who sent them. On several occasions his emotions gave way at the sight of these beautiful emblems of immortality, and he wept tears of joy and stated they were fresh from angels' hands.
Milo was always on the alert for new truths and made prompt investigation of any subjects that bid fair to benefit himself or others. During the anti-slavery struggle he was very prominently before the people in opposition to that terrible evil.
During his entire sickness he showed perfect faith in his convictions and stated that harmony and happiness could never reign upon the earth until simple justice was shown one to the other and the Golden Rule practically observed in every day life. He also seemed impelled to state that unless this course was observed between man and man, that still greater upheavels in the social and political world would certainly come.... In regard to religion we state in his own words the following: "Whatever else may be useful or important in faith or doctrine, to help each other in every way as members of one great loving family is the only salvation for man, on earth or in the Heavens."
In the death of Milo Townsend we lose a genial companion and true friend, and those who need a friend the most will find the vacancy the more complete, as he was always particularly kind to this class of people.
A Friend.
An "In Memorium" by Arthur Bullus Bradford1 was published in the Argus and Radical on August 29, 1877:
In Memorium
The following were the concluding remarks of the Rev. A.B. Bradford of Enon Valley at the funeral of the late Milo A. Townsend, Esq. of Beaver Falls.
Our departed friend during the first half of his life belonged, as his fellow citizens of Beaver County all knew, to that branch of the Society of Friends which was characterized by a total denial of the orthodox theology. This theology did not commend itself, either to his reason or his heart, for he thought it ascribed to God, the Universal Father, attributes of character which would be disgraceful in man. These opinions he held unchanged to his dying day.
During the last twenty-five years of his life he was a Spiritualist. That is to say, he believed that the soul survived the death of the body and can, and often does, return and hold converse with mortals in the flesh. He believed he found those ideas taught in the Christian Scriptures--Old Testament and New: In the Old where the Prophet Samuel, who had long been dead, appeared to Saul through the mediumship of the woman of Endor and announced to him the issue of the battle that was to be fought the next day. In the New, where Moses and Elias, ages after their bodies had returned to dust, came back and held an interview with Jesus and His Apostles, on the Mount of Transfiguration. He fully believed that after Christ's resurrection from the dead, His spiritual body--not His natural--appeared to his Disciples on a certain occasion, the doors of the house being closely shut, and gave them satisfactory evidence that it was he. He had no sympathy for that cold and stupid infidelity, found in most of the pulpits and pews of the church, which explains away and rejects those clear teachings of the Bible on this important subject and actually charges with infidelity those who believe them. He claimed that he himself in numerous instances received communications from departed friends, thus banishing all doubt from his mind, concerning the question of immortal life. He took great comfort and satisfaction, especially on his dying bed, in this part of the theory of the universe; and I must say that if my experience were like his, I, too, would be a Spiritualist, and what is now only a hope and belief in a future life would amount to an expectation as certain and sure as the rising of tomorrow's sun. Our departed friend had no fear of death at all, but conversed on the subject as calelfy [sic.; calmly] and made the programme for his funeral services as coolly as he would if he were going to visit a friend;
Apprehensive that he might suddenly pass away in one of those severe attacks of disease to which he had been subject all his life, he engaged me long ago to speak what I am now saying, so that his opinions on religious subjects might not be misunderstood by his survivors. He bade me pronounce an affectionate farewell, as I now do, to all his friends and co-laborers in the works of reform and to assure them that he would die in peace with all the world, with his own conscience, and with God. If his expectation and my belief are not doomed to disappointment, then, in the name of all his friends, of whom he had many far and near who were warm-hearted and true, "I bid them affectionate farewell until we all meet again in the land of the blest."
1For more on Arthur Bullus Bradford, see chapter 3.
In the family scrapbook also appears the following poem, which was published by request of the family:
(Composed in memory of Teaberry Hill near Beaver Falls a short time previous to his departure to the World above, and being his last poem.}
How bright are the skies from Teaberry Hill,
Whose summit I've sought this sweet summer day;
To list to the sounds from the musical rill,
And be charmed by the notes of the dear robin's lay.
In an ideal world I live of my own,
When thus to the wildwood of nature I flee,
And here in these solitudes when musing alone,
My spirit from earth seems nearly set free.
And here do I learn how false and how vain
Are the scramble of men for pelf and for power--
I would not exchange for their gold and their gain
The joy I here find in one precious hour.
To leave all they have worshiped in the earth-life below--
And no treasure laid up in the regions above--
What else can come to them but darkness and woe?
What else can bring peace but wisdom and love?
The immortal in man can never be blest
In aught that is mortal that soon fades away--
And nothing but Truth can bring permanent rest,
Or lead to the realms of the Heavenly Day.
When weary of earth and its burdens of cares,
There's peace in thy shades, Oh! Teaberry Hill!
And oft when I"m distant my spirit repairs
To thy evergreen bowers so lovely and still.
Through Nature the Infinite speaks to the soul,
Inspiring with truth that ever makes free,
And echoes of harmonies through its recesses roll,
Like music of angels afloat on the sea.
Milo A. Townsend _________________________________
Milo Adams Townsend was a product of the times in which he lived, but his own inclinations contributed to his involvement in many of the social movements of his day.
He was a man of feeling and in many ways a romanticist. He wrote prolifically and was very active for the causes that he supported; but had he not saved the letters he received and the newspaper clippings that he pasted into his scrapbooks, he would surely have been forgotten.
Charles Walker Townsend III
Peggy Jean Townsend