Brook Farm

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Tiffany Vergon, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

BROOK FARM

HISTORIC AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS

BY

JOHN THOMAS CODMAN

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BROOK FARM MOVEMENT

Transcendentalism; Explained by Mr. Ripley,--The Proposition,--Members
of the Transcendental Club--The first Persons at the Community--
Constitution and Laws; Articles of Agreement--Description of Mr.
Ripley, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Dwight, Mrs. Ripley, Mr. Dana, Mr. Bradford,
Hawthorne and Others.

CHAPTER II.

THE SECOND DEVELOPMENT

Thoughts on Reorganization--Fourier on Social Code--Mr. Ripley's
Action--Progress of Society--Theories by Fourier, etc.--Closing of the
Transcendental Period--Reorganization, and the Industrial Period.

CHAPTER III.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND DESCRIPTIONS

Departure from Boston, and Arrival at the Farm--Description of the
Place--Attica--Personal Occupations, etc.--The Wild Flowers.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INDUSTRIAL PERIOD

Descriptions of Members: The "General,"; Ryckman, Blake, Drew, Orvis,
Cheevers--William H. Charming, and Albert Brisbane,--S. Margaret
Fuller--Ralph W. Emerson--Theodore Parker and Mr. Ripley's Joke.

CHAPTER V.

THE RUSH AND HUM OF LIFE AND WORK

Many Visitors--An Odd Visitor--The Groups and Series, etc.--The
Workshop--My first Spring--Death and Funeral--The Amusement Group,
Dances, Walks and first Summer.

CHAPTER VI.

THE "HARBINGER," AND VARIOUS SUBJECTS

The _Harbinger_ Published; Editors and Contributors, Its
Characteristics and Effect--The Industrial Phalanx--The Phalanstery--A
Financial Report--The Grahamites, and their Table--John Allen and Boy--
The Visitation of Small-pox.

CHAPTER VII.

MY SECOND SPRING

Resumption of Building--The Crowded Conditions--Gardener's Department--
Prince Albert--Jumping the Brook--Retrenchment--The Doves--The
Gardener--The Position of Woman in Association--The Right to Vote--The
Wedding--Lizzie Curson--Our Young Folks.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DRAMA AND IMPORTANT LETTERS

The Play in the Shop--The Associative Movement--Rev. Adin Ballou's
Letter--Mr. Brisbane's, and Mr. Ripley's Letters--Mr. Pratt's
Departure--The Great Party--Cyclops.

CHAPTER IX.

SOCIAL, AND PARLOR LIFE

Meetings in Boston, etc.--Two Lady Friends--Music at the Eyry--
Consciousness of Self--The Great Snow Storm--C. P. Cranch's Imitations.

CHAPTER X.

FUN ALIVE

Fun at the Phalanx--Ripley's Quotation--On Punning--The Robbery, and
the Waiting Group.

CHAPTER XI.

THE GREAT CATASTROPHE

The Last Dance, and the Fire--The _Harbinger's_ Account of It--
Feeding the Firemen--The Morning after the Fire.

CHAPTER XII.

SUMMING UP AND REVERIES

The Bearings of the Association and its Occupations--Slanders of the
New York Press--Definition of the Associationists Position toward
Fourier--Forebodings at the Farm--Personal Reveries.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FIRST BREAK

Peter's Departure--Mr. Dwight at the Association Meeting--Practical
Christians--The Solidarity of the Race--Mr. Ripley's _Harbinger_
Article.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DEPARTURES AND AFTER LIVES OF THE MEMBERS

Breaking up--Ripley's Poverty, after Life and Death--Mr. Pratt; Mr.
Dana; Mr. Dwight, and various Persons--William H. Charming--A.
Brisbane--C. Fourier--Letters of Approval.

APPENDIX.

PART I.

STUDENTS' AND INQUIRERS' LETTERS

Student Life--Explanations and Answers to Objections--Letter on Social
Equality--Religious Views.

INTRODUCTION.

There were two distinct phases in the Associated life at Brook Farm.
The first was inaugurated by the pioneers, who introduced a school, and
combined it with farm and household labors. The second phase began with
an attempt to introduce methods of social science and to add mechanical
and other industries to those already commenced. These different phases
have been called the Transcendental and the Industrial periods.

Each individual had his special experiences of the life. The writer
chronicles it from his standpoint. None, perhaps, was more interested
in it than he, young as he was, but many were more able to elaborate it
and write it in details, and did he not feel that it was an important
duty neglected by all, these memoirs would have remained unwritten.

The record books of the institution are missing, and are doubtless long
ago destroyed. These chapters have been compiled and written from few
memoranda, at various times, very often after the arduous duties of
days of professional life, and with a desire only to present the
subject truthfully, faithfully and simply; and also, not wholly to
gratify curiosity, or to record the doings of the noble men and women
who were wise before their time, but to whisper courage to those who,
like their predecessors, are seeking some solution of the social
problems that involves neither the too sudden surrender of acquired
rights, the reckless abandon of old ideas to untried and crude
radicalism, or the more to-be-dreaded feuds between classes, that mean
desperation on one side and war on the other; but to aid, if possible,
in inspiring a belief that a peaceful adjustment of our surroundings
will, in time, bring order out of chaos and harmony out of discord.

The reader will have observed long before he lays down this book, that
the Brook Farm life and ideals were purely coöperative and
philosophical, that all the elements of true society were recognized,
and that the attempt was for the better adjustment of them to the
changing and changed relations of their fellow-men, brought about by
the pervading moral, scientific and social growth of the past and
present centuries.

The nation is older, richer and wiser, since the Brook Farm experiment
began. It is more tolerant of one another's opinions, more
enterprising, progressive and liberal, and surely a few weak trials
made half a century ago, are not enough to solve the majestic problem
of right living and how to shape the outward forms of society, so that
within their environments all interests may be harmonized, and the
golden rule begin to be, in a practical way, the measure of all human
lives.

The author, in closing, will confide to his readers the wish of his
heart, that this sketch of his early days may inspire some who can
command influence and means with an interest to continue the
experiments in social science, along lines laid out with more or less
clearness by the Brook Farmers.

J. T. C.

CHAPTER I.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BROOK FARM MOVEMENT.

Early in the present century, New England was the centre of progressive
religious thought in America. A morbid theology had reigned supreme,
but its forms were too cold, harsh and forbidding to attract or even
retain the liberal-minded, educated and philosophic students of the
rising generation, or hold in check the ardent humanitarian spirit,
that embodied itself in ideals that were greater than the existing
creeds.

Yet nowhere prevailed a more religious spirit. It showed itself in
tender care of masses of the people, in public schools and seminaries,
in lectures, sermons, libraries and in acts of general benevolence.

From these conditions developed the idea of greater freedom from social
trammels; from African slavery, which had not then been abolished; from
domestic slavery, which still exists; from the exploitations of trade
and commerce; from the vicious round of unpaid labor, vice and
brutality. Protestations were heard against all of these evils, not
always coming from the poor and unlearned, but oftener from the
educated and refined, who had pride that the republic should stand
foremost among the nations for justice, culture and righteousness.

The old theology was crumbling. A new church was springing from its
vitals based on freer thought, in which the intellect and heart had
more share in determining righteousness. The fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man became the themes of discourse, oftener than those
of the vengeance of an offended Deity; and pity and forgiveness,
oftener than those on everlasting punishment.

In truth, the new departure which had begun, soon attracted to itself
the most cultivated persons of the time, some of whom, Sept. 19, 1836,
formed a club that met at one another's houses and discussed all the
important social and religious topics of the day. They were mostly
young people, college-bred, learned, artistic and thoughtful, and of
high ideals in intellectual acquirement, religion and social life. They
were all agreed that there were many evils to be eradicated from
society; in what way--individualistic, governmental or socialistic, or
by a combination of ways--few were agreed.

The problem was an open one. The theories proposed and the discussions
were extremely interesting, but no record of them is at hand, except a
few essays published in the _Dial_, a quarterly magazine which was
edited by members of the organization, which finally took the name of
"The Transcendental Club." One of the _Dial_ editors, as well as
one of the founders of the Club, and at whose house it had its first
meeting, was Rev. George Ripley, a Unitarian minister who was born at
Greenfield, Mass., in the beautiful valley of the Connecticut River. He
was of good farmer stock and had a fine physical presence, though of
medium stature. He was a lover of books, a graduate of Harvard college,
and a well trained and religious scholar. He was then settled over a
Unitarian church worshipping on Purchase Street, in Boston, and
faithfully fulfilled his duties. Above all things his head and heart
sought righteousness for all men. He believed in the justice of God and
the divine nature of man His best creation. He believed man to be
involved in an intricate and un-Christian social labyrinth, and with
deep earnestness of purpose and thorough convictions of his personal
duty in the case, set himself at work to evolve a way to extricate at
least some of humanity from their vicious surroundings; and finally
proposed to the Club a plan which he urged with his customary vigor and
eloquence.

This plan was, in short, to locate on a farm where agriculture and
education should be made the foundation of a new system of social life.
Labor should be honored. All would take part in it. There should be no
religious creeds adopted. The old, feeble and sick were to be cared
for, the strong and able bearing the greater burden of the labor. There
would be no rank, to entitle the owner of it to superior considerations
because of the rank; and truth, justice and order were to be the
governing principles of the society.

The theologians and philosophers of Europe, with whose writings and
logic Mr. Ripley was well acquainted, had impressed him with the truth
of the divinity of man's nature, or had convinced him more thoroughly
that his own ideas of it were right. He had wrestled with progressively
conservative giants, professors of colleges--notably Andrews Norton--
and had won well-earned laurels. Norton was professor of sacred
literature at Harvard, one of his own professors, sixteen years his
senior, and made a point that the miracles of Christ and the writings
of the gospel were the only sure proofs existing of spiritual truths.

The Transcendental philosophy to which Mr. Ripley had become a convert,
claimed that there was in human nature an intuitive faculty which
clearly discerned spiritual truths, which idea was in contradistinction
to the beliefs of the day, which declared that spiritual knowledge came
by special grace, and was proven by the divine miracles; this latter
belief being largely joined to the doctrine of the innate depravity of
man. Mr. Ripley's own words to his church on Purchase Street, declared
that

"There is a class of persons who desire a reform in the prevailing
philosophy of the day. These are called Transcendentalists, because
they believe in an order of truth that transcends the sphere of the
external senses. Their leading idea is the supremacy of mind over
matter. Hence they maintain that the truth of religion does not depend
on tradition nor historical facts, but has an unswerving witness in the
soul. There is a light, they believe, which enlighteneth every man who
cometh into the world. There is a faculty in all--the most degraded,
the most ignorant, the most obscure--to perceive spiritual truth when
distinctly presented; and the ultimate appeal on all moral questions is
not to a jury of scholars, a hierarchy of divines or the prescriptions
of a creed, but to the common sense of the human race.

"There is another class of persons who are devoted to the removal of
the abuses that prevail in modern society. They witness the oppressions
done under the sun and they cannot keep silence. They have faith that
God governs man; they believe in a better future than the past; their
daily prayer is for the coming of the kingdom of righteousness, truth
and love; they look forward to a more pure, more lovely, more divine
state of society than was ever realized on earth. With these views I
rejoice to say I strongly and entirely sympathize."

The prevailing tone of New England life was Calvinistic. Its doctrines
may be said to have entered every household, penetrated every sanctuary
and influenced all the leaders of society. The new departure was not a
going away from religious thought, but it joined intellect and heart.
It ignored unreasonable extravagances of statement wherever found. It
ignored faith alone. It did not believe that faith stood above works.
It pointed always towards action. It summed up the lesson and meaning
of all good doctrines, that man should _lead a better life here_,
where the duties to our fellows should not be passed by as now, but
fulfilled. It was a newer way of thinking, to be logical with religion
and put it to the test of every-day life. If the new departure meant
anything then, if it means anything to-day, its object is to accomplish
a better life here on this earth. In his soul, penetrated by divine
aspirations, Mr. Ripley heard these words ringing out: "A truer life, a
more honest life, a juster life--accomplish it!"

It was at the Club that he again urged the realization of his plan.
There gathered together were the brightest intellects, the highest
minded, the most sympathetic, thoughtful and talented young men that
New England contained. Preaching was good, but more than preaching was
wanted--the Christian life; could it not be commenced? Could they not
educate the young in practical duties as well as in books, and by their
own good example so surround them that the interior life could be
awakened--the soul's inward goodness and the power to discern the true
destiny of man?

Encouraged by the sympathy of his wife, sister and a few earnest
spirits, Mr. Ripley started on his project. He was in his fortieth
year. He was neither too young nor too old. A few years of life he
could possibly spare for the experiment. He would then be only in his
prime. He had no children to embarrass his movements. He could give all
his strength of body and mind to it. He loved the country life. It was
to be the fulfilling of what he had preached so long and what is, alas,
still preached to-day with not much attempt to realize it--the
Christian life. People would laugh at him! I doubt if that gave him one
disturbing thought. It _was right_; as it was right he would do
it. But maybe in his secret heart he thought that more of those who
seemed to have been awakened, as he had been, to the divine call, would
follow and join with him than did; for, singularly enough, not one of
the members of the Transcendental Club, who first met together, joined
Mr. Ripley's movement. They were all radical to the prevailing
theology, stiff, rigid as it was, and never, in America, was there a
group assembled who aimed higher, or did more, first and last, to
elevate humanity; for the Club contained a galaxy of mental talent.

Mr. Ripley led them all in practical endeavor to form the Christian
commonwealth that many of them had preached.

William Ellery Channing, in whose veins ran the blood of one of the
signers of the Declaration of American Independence, a beloved
preacher, was there, full of earnestness, tenderness, faith and love.
With vigor he poured out his eloquence to awaken thoughts for an
enlarged theology, and with a sympathizing heart criticised chattel
slavery, social slavery and domestic servitude, and afterward became
one of the acknowledged leaders of liberal Christendom.

Young Ralph Waldo Emerson was there, very late from the ministry, known
better as poet, philosopher and essayist; and James Freeman Clarke,
talented writer and preacher; and faithful and independent Rev. Cyrus
A. Bartol. Rev. Theodore Parker, son of a Lexington hero, doughty, bold
and brave, on whose head fell the anathemas of the orthodox and the
curses of the slaveholders at a later day, showed his ever calm,
pleasant and earnest face at the board.

Rev. F. H. Hedge, Convers Francis, Thomas H. Stone, Samuel D. Robbins,
Samuel J. May and another Channing--William Henry--were there;
Christopher P. Cranch, divinity graduate, but now well known as
painter, poet and story teller; and beloved John S. Dwight, famed
mostly as writer on music, and musical critic; and Orestes A. Brownson,
prominent essayist, who was, by turns, a Radical, Unitarian,
Universalist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic.

All these above named persons were attached to the clergy. There were
others who, like A. Bronson Alcott, were teachers, and sometimes
lecturers. There was Henry D. Thoreau, a charming writer who spent two
years in a hut in Walden woods; and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the writer of
many familiar romances; also George Bancroft, the historian, Dr.
Charles T. Follen, Samuel G. Ward, Caleb Stetson, William Russell,
Jones Very, Robert Bartlett and S. V. Clevenger, sculptor. As an
innovation in clubs there were lady members, among whom were Elizabeth
P. Peabody, and her sister Sophia, who became the wife of Hawthorne;
Miss S. Margaret Fuller, remarkable for her intellectual capacity, and
who became the wife of Count D'Ossoli, of Italy; Miss Marianne Ripley,
sister, and Mrs. Sophia Ripley, wife, of Rev. George Ripley.

Or if those persons were not all members of the Club, of which there
seems to be no list extant, nearly every one was, and they can all be
classed as belonging to the coterie or Transcendental circle; all at
times attended the meetings, participated in the discussions, and wrote
articles for the _Dial_ and for what in those days were called the
radical journals and magazines.

The winter of 1840 had been the time of talk. Early in the spring of
the year 1841 it was announced that a location was chosen at Brook
Farm, West Roxbury, nine miles from Boston, Mass. Mr. Ripley selected
it. He and his wife had boarded there the former summer. It was retired
and pretty. Mr. Ellis owned it; Mr. Parker, Mr. Russell and Mr. Shaw
lived not far away, and a small amount of cash paid down would secure
the place for an immediate commencement of the effort. The party who
went earliest to settle at Brook Farm consisted of Mr. George Ripley;
Sophia Willard Ripley, his wife; Miss Marianne Ripley, his elder
sister; Mr. George P. Bradford, Mr. Warren Burton, Mrs. Minot Pratt
with three children, Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne and several others. Mr.
William Allen acted as head farmer. There were in all about twenty
persons. Doubtless there were blisters on the palms and aching bones,
in the first raw days of labor, and the poetry of life was often lost
in the fatigue of the body.

Of the men of the Transcendental Club only Hawthorne and Dwight joined
what was called "Mr. Ripley's community"; and though Mr. Emerson talked
favorably of it he finally declined to join when asked to do so by Mr.
Ripley.

The farmhouse, the only dwelling there was on the place, must have
resounded with remarkable echoes as the pioneers of the new social
order alighted on its threshold. They were of cultivated families, and
were nearly all from the city and neighborhood of Boston. Their hearts
were open to the tender influence of buds and blossoms, the fresh
springing grass and the bubbling brook. They watched the birds of
various plumage; the oriole, who hung his basket nest from the pendant
branches of the elm, the robin redbreast who built close in the thick
branches of the firs, and the sparrow who was contented with a less
prominent nest, as he picked up hairs from the stable or from
underneath the windows.

They were fond of cows, pigs and poultry. There was a flower garden to
work in. There was a plenty of wild flowers in the fields and in the
woods near by. There was delightful solitude and delightful society,
and there was a wonderful novelty in all. There were contrasts of
character, deep, strong natures to reason with, cheerful hearts to talk
with, and great hopes everywhere. What wonder that they laughed,
frolicked and sang, and got up little parties and masquerades to
entertain the wonderful, wonderstruck and remarkable visitors who came
to see them? The place was a "milk farm" when the "Transcendentalists,"
as they were often called, entered on it. The surroundings were
picturesque. Some one of the party started at an early hour in the
morning with the milk for Boston, nine miles away.

All was new and had to be done by many for the first time. There was
much hard work for the women, as it was not a well-proportioned family;
pupils and visitors added to the labor, but poetry and enthusiasm
changed plain names into elegance, as Deborah into "Ora," and
beautified the laundry and kitchen with hopes and glories.

Immediately the school was set in operation. There were some promising
pupils. The young and talented Dwight, whose heart was too full to
preach what he might better practise in this ideal society, soon left
his pastorate in Northampton, Mass., and joined as instructor, and was
shortly followed by the capable Dana, who gained power for himself as
well as gave it to the Association.

The following persons were nominated for positions in the Brook Farm
School, fall term, 1842:--

George Ripley, Instructor in Intellectual and Natural Philosophy and
Mathematics.
George P. Bradford, Instructor in Belles Lettres.
John S. Dwight, Instructor in Latin and Music.
Charles A. Dana, Instructor in Greek and German.
John S. Brown, Instructor in Theosophical and Practical Agriculture.
Sophia W. Ripley, Instructor in History and Modern Languages.
Marianne Ripley, Teacher of Primary School.
Abigail Morton, Teacher of Infant School.
Georgiana Bruce, Teacher of Infant School.
Hannah B. Ripley, Instructor in Drawing.

The infant school was for children under six years of age; the primary
school, for children under ten; the preparatory school for pupils over
ten years of age, intending to pursue the higher branches of study in
the institution.

A six years' course prepared a young man to enter college. A three
years' course in theoretical and practical agriculture was also laid
out. The studies were elective, and pupils could enter any department
for which they were qualified.

There were various other details, the most striking of which was that
every pupil was expected to spend from one to two hours daily in manual
labor.

Before the Association started from Boston, a constitution was drawn
up. The following is a copy of the original:--

_Articles of Agreement and Association between the members of the
Institute for Agriculture and Education._

In order more effectually to promote the great purposes of human
culture; to establish the external relations of life on a basis of
wisdom and purity; to apply the principles of justice and love to our
social organization in accordance with the laws of Divine Providence;
to substitute a system of brotherly cooperation for one of selfish
competition; to secure to our children, and to those who may be
entrusted to our care, the benefits of the highest physical,
intellectual and moral education in the present state of human
knowledge, the resources at our command will permit; to institute an
attractive, efficient and productive system of industry; to prevent the
exercise of worldly anxiety by the competent supply of our necessary
wants; to diminish the desire of excessive accumulation by making the
acquisition of individual property subservient to upright and
disinterested uses; to guarantee to each other the means of physical
support and of spiritual progress, and thus to impart a greater
freedom, simplicity, truthfulness, refinement and moral dignity to our
mode of life,--

We, the undersigned, do unite in a Voluntary Association, to wit:--

ARTICLE 1. The name and style of the Association shall be "(The Brook
Farm) Institute of Agriculture and Education." All persons who shall
hold one or more shares in the stock of the Association, and shall sign
the articles of agreement, or who shall hereafter be admitted by the
pleasure of the Association, shall be members thereof.

ART. 2. No religious test shall ever be required of any member of the
Association; no authority assumed over individual freedom of opinion by
the Association, nor by any member over another; nor shall anyone be
held accountable to the Association except for such acts as violate
rights of the members, and the essential principles on which the
Association is founded; and in such cases the relation of any member
may be suspended, or discontinued, at the pleasure of the Association.

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