Iowa TV Schooltime: Landmarks in Iowa History- Corning

it's TV school-time double-wide TV an association with Iowa State Teachers College presents another program in the eye of our TVs full time series landmarks in Iowa history today's topic is corny your teachers are fake and the leland sage of Iowa State Teachers College hello boys and girls have you ever seen a building like this of course you have that's a country school there are thousands of buildings like this all over Iowa this one has been brought it up it's no longer being used just as there are other rural schools country schools which are boarded up now but in appearance this is very much like thousands of other country schools all over the state there is one important difference though this school at one time was used by children of Communists assert the parents of these children were communists they didn't call themselves communists they were called icarians and they weren't the kind of communists that live in Russia today but they were communists in the true sense of the word and we're going to hear the story of the icarians who had this colony near Corning and I'm sure you'll find the story very interesting the story about how I Karia was formed how the icarian colony was settled and how the I carry an idea got started in the first place is going to be told by my good friend dr. Leland sage who the professor of history at the Iowa State Teachers College and who has learned a great deal about the I carry in his studies and he has talked about the icarians in his classes well he's going to tell you how the icarians started and how they came to this country and why they came to Iowa would you do that dr. sage hey gladly Icaria existed or rather originated in the mind of a French author very interesting French philosopher named Asian or we would say Stephen today's c a.b ET who way back in the 1800 40s was very much concerned over the problem of making a living and the distribution of property and who felt that the economic system that was then in existence which had been brought in pretty much by the Industrial Revolution was very unfair and that it worked hardships on a very large number of people and kebaya was only one man back at that time who thought a great deal about this problem many of them wrote different books on the subject today is one of the most famous of these men his book was called voyage on ekari or travels to a carrier a purely imaginary land in which a sort of idealistic economic and social system was imagined by cab a and this was a system in which the state would control everything every man would work according to his ability and goods would be distributed according to need this meant that the state had to give all the orders somebody would have to and then in this plan the state would give the orders the state in this case was represented by a dictator named a car who gave the orders to the icarians now strange as it may seem a great many Frenchmen read this book and they decided that they would like to carry out an experiment they would like to prove that people could live according to this plan and that life would be better under such a plan they were looking for a utopia very much of the sort that Sir Thomas Moore had written about back in the 16th century and which Plato wrote about in the 4th century BC so these people calling themselves icarians then raised some money came over from France to America hoping to find some isolated place in which they would be free to start from scratch and work out this this experiment in communal or communistic living in which all property was held in common and they came first all the way across the Atlantic all the ways to New Orleans and from New Orleans they came up the red river first in the cipa course then the red river to Shreveport then from there they disembarked and came by ox wagons Hawkstone wagons out here about three hundred miles in the northeast Texas and there they lived for nearly a year trying to plow the land so and cultivate crops and building houses and in general trying to make this experiment work out there were so many things against them though the weather the diseases of this area the climate was really ferocious from their point of view and after some 10 or 11 months of this they gave up and came back 3/4 and back down to New Orleans and there they were joined by the founder of this experiment this the originator cab a himself who had come across from France and now they came all the way up to Mississippi to Nauvoo Illinois remember this is 1848 that we're talking about and this was just two years after the Mormons had vacated Nauru and had come across into Ireland on across Nebraska and out to Utah well these people live at Norview for a while and on this new map now we'll call this point Nauru just a little above chiesa across the river though and then they came across the Mississippi and across southern Iowa out here to Corning Iowa and here they arranged to get they thought about 3,000 acres of land actually turned out to be a thousand acres which they later increased to 1,700 and here they were undertook to carry out this experiment again the same one they had tried and which had failed in Texas and so for something like well this was a 1860 when they came here actually and although they're advanced agents had come in 1853 in 54 and so that's something of the story mr. hate as to how these people got here thank you dr. sage let's remove this map and I want to show you something of the arrangement of the colony which was established here near Corning as dr. sage told you these people believed in owning everything in common they believed in having common property no individual could have money of his own when he joined the icarians he had to give up all his possessions and he had to wear a special uniform in the case of the women that was blue calico dresses the case of the man that was blue jeans and perhaps that's how the idea of blue jeans got started in Iowa but all of the personal possessions had to be turned in to the treasurer of the Icarian colony and then they had their meals together and this treasurer would buy the food and the members of the colony had no personal possessions at all they owned everything in company and in the first colony the central building was a long log structure which was divided into eight room three four five six seven eight and of course each one of these had its own door this and room here was the laundry and the women did all the washing the next room was the bakery and the men did all of the baking and cooking because you remember these were French and the French have always prided themselves on their skill in cookery and men have usually been better cooks in France than women so when the icarians came to the new world and set up their own colony the men did the cooking the next room here was reserved for the water supply there was a big tank in there in which the water was stored next room was the kitchen and the men also took turns working in the kitchen the next room was a common dining room and all the icarians ate in this one room families would have their own tables but all the members of the colony ate their meals in this one big dining room this next room was a place for provisions groceries but this was not a grocery store and as the members of the community could not go to this room and buy groceries because they have no money the groceries were just stored in this room and the treasurer paid for them and then when the men in the kitchen needed something for preparing the meals they would go to this room and check out whatever food they needed that was then the grocery room the next one was used for drugs medicines were kept there in case people got sick and this last room was the library the icarians were all serious students and they had over a thousand books that they kept in this library because they had a regular reading program for the improvement of their minds up here in this corner there was a combination shawl and flour mill they made their lumber and their flour in the same place not with the same machinery of course but I imagine some sawdust got into the flour once in a while and there was another building up here for the chickens chickens still live in a state of communism all over the state of Iowa here was the horse barn and then the road ran past the colony in this direction and on the other side of the road there was a shed for sheep another one for cows and another one for geese around here there was the shop where wooden shoes were made because the early settlers in Icaria wore wooden shoes and here was the blacksmith shop and here was a sewing shop where the women did all the sewing of the uniforms for the members of the colony and then there were a smaller houses like this in which the families lived they could be fairly small because they didn't have to have a kitchen or a dining room these were the homes for the families and then there was an orchard in here well this worked fine and dandy for a time and then the younger members of the community said look we're getting a little bit away from the ideas of cafe you older folks all have gardens beside your home and the vegetables that you grow in these gardens are not being put in the common Treasury you're using those for yourself and the younger people said that isn't right those vegetables should all go into the common Treasury shouldn't be used by the individual families and the older people said well long ago when we lived in France we had our own little gardens where we raised our flowers and we raised some vegetables and they were for our own use but the younger people said no you can't do that all these things should go together but the older people would not give up their little gardens and so the younger people decided they would set up their own colony and some of the houses were moved a short distance away to another place and that became the new Icarian colony the older people still stayed in the place where they had originally settled but the newer people set up a new colony and the new colony was arranged a little bit differently than the was the road the main building was a big dining hall which had the colony printshop on the top this was the kitchen there was the dining hall and then writing back to the dining hall there was a planting of trees and this was a kind of a recreation park and right in the center of this recreation park they had a tall flagpole with an American flag on it because the icarians were very patriotic citizens and then the houses for the individual families were built on the sides of this park and in line with the front of the dining hall and some of these smaller buildings were used for blacksmith shops and harness shops and there was a horse barn back here and the cemetery was over in this direction off that way and there was a vegetable garden over here and these younger icarians believed in planting a vegetable garden and then all the vegetables would go into a common fund the schoolhouse in front of which we're standing today was located right here now let me show you how the two colonies look when we put them together you see the the old colony was toward the northwest and there was a bend in the road and the schoolhouse was almost halfway between the two colonies and the new colony was toward the southeast that's the way they were arranged well of course there is no icarian colony here in the corning area anymore and I think it would be interesting if dr. sage told you why the Icarian community is no longer here what happened to it and why it was discontinued did you do that dr. sage yes this colony went through a great deal of difficulty life is never as easy as it would seem under these arrangements because there's always dispute as to what belongs to whom and and so on well finally members of one of these colonies the old colony broke away entirely and decided to move out to California where they soon abandoned the entire experiment the other group stayed on here at Corning until 1895 at that time they had simply come to the end of the of their faith and the end of their belief rather in this whole idea and they decided to break it up and to go into the plan of individual ownership so they went to court they had a receiver appointed and the court ordered the dissolution of this whole colony and all the property was surveyed and each person in the colony received his proportionate share of the land and of the rest of the property and so from 1895 on the survivors simply lived there and live like any other ordinary American people well how did I carry out compared with Amana well a manner which was begun in Iowa at about the same time survived a full generation after the icarian dissolution the amount of colony did not privately incorporate until 1932 and at that time it was a rather interesting thing though the the young people in the amount of colony were the ones who wanted to break up they called me in the Icarian community that we've just been talking about it was a young people who wanted to go back to the pure idealism of the founder well the amount of colony went through the same experience exactly they had a receiver appointed that the court ordered the dissolution of the colony of the amount of colony and all of their property was surveyed and each individual received his share but why did a man who last longer than I well we think that this was because the amount of people had a different motivation from the very first there there's was a purely religious motivation they were they thought pleasing God by living according to this plan of common ownership where's the icarians were simply a more self-centered and materialistic people who had had simply abandoned capitalism in favor of this form of communism simply as a means of getting better distribution of property they had no thought about whether this please God or anybody else just so long as it gave them a better standard of living they thought through a better distribution of property and so we think that this illustrates the difference between the people who live by faith and those who simply live by a man-made philosophy all right thank you dr. page Oh last summer I took some pictures of the landmarks of Icaria that still remain in this area near Corning this old barn here is the only thing that is left of the old colony of Icaria this was at one time the dining hall and the only surviving member of the icarian colony who is still living near Corning told me that he could remember when they used to have dancers in this building in the evenings and on Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays this would be a recreation hall and he said one Saturday night they might have a dance there and the following Saturday night they would have the performance of an opera and I said you mean a real opera with singers and orchestra and he said yes sir remember we all spoke French and we brought to this country the things that we enjoyed in the old country and so there were performances of such operas as mental and house and other French operas right here in this old barn of course it's fallen into into decay now it's not as sturdy a building as it was in the old days but this is all that is left of old Icaria here is another view of the schoolhouse near which we are standing today I took this with a little greater distance because at the time I took this picture last summer there were a lot of bees around this schoolhouse I suppose they thought that sensitive children weren't using anymore they'd go to school here and be unmolested and when I came a little close they objected so I stayed way off this is the old schoolhouse and this is an interesting landmark because in this building there was the first electric telephone in the state of Iowa the teacher in this school had one telephone in here and the other one was in his house some distance away and I suppose the bee stayed in school grading papers a little longer than he should his wife could call him on the telephone and say why aren't you home suppers getting cold and he'd say all right there I'll come right home and he would that's the value of the California suit so the first electric telephone in Iowa was installed in this old Icarian schoolhouse here is the only building that is left of the new colony this was the dining hall two-story building this part here on the first floor was the dining hall the kitchen was here and upstairs here there was the colony print shop where the newspaper was printed this house is now occupied by mr. and mrs. Townsend and their family a thoroughly up-to-date and progressive farmer and he's remodeled this house so it is suitable as a home and here is the old cemetery where the pioneers of Icaria lie buried there is no road to this cemetery I haven't drive across a wheat field to get there and after I got there the bottom of the station wagon was covered with wheat straw and it was such a thick mat of it that I had to pull it out when I got back to the highway and the weeds here are quite tall and the man who showed me where the cemetery was is the only living member of the Icarian community who is still living in Iowa this is mr. Jules gentry or as it would be pronounced in French Jew John three he was the last director of agriculture for the new Icarian colony that is he told all the men what they would do in the way of farming how the vegetables would be raised how many beans would be planted how many potatoes and then he supervised Dahl this he was the last director of agriculture in the icarian colony and we broke down a lot of the weeds so that I could take this picture and here is a tombstone one of the pioneers in the icarian colony now dr. sage told you about the general plan of life in Icaria that all property was to be owned in common and that everyone would benefit according to his need that meant that no individual could go out and make some money on his own in case he decided he needed a new suit he couldn't earn the money for it he would just tell the head of the society the Icarian community my suit is getting thin I need a new suit and so the women of Icaria would prepare a new set of blue jeans for him and in a way that was very handy you never had to worry about clothes you never had to worry about food but of course you could save no money for yourself all your needs were met by the community at large you own nothing and you shared in common with everyone else and so the money all the resources on the community were put together in a commonly Treasury and I suppose we could let that represent the common Treasury a big bag of money as new converts came into Icaria they turned over their money their jewels their fine clothes if they had any any property they might have turned it all in to the head of the community and then they were given a costume just like every other costume it's almost like going into a monastery when you enter a monastery you must give up all your worldly possessions and then you get a role just like all the other monks have and you live a life of poverty well of course your needs are met you get their food you get your clothing and all of your physical needs are met by the society as a whole by the community in this case it was the icarian community but you remember also the dr. Sayed said that the community did not last very long because it was based only upon this political theory of sharing everything in common and the matter of religion was not very seriously considered by the members of the icarian community and religion as in the case of the people in amana was a very important thing to ensure stability and the continuing of the community and the tradition in which it had been founded so because the people in Icaria did not have religion to hold them together the community failed and finally it was dissolved and so we may think of the people of Icaria as people who were very sad they were disappointed because their great dream had not been fulfilled and we think of them as growing old and feeling a great deal of disappointment because the plan of cab a which seemed so fine had come to no final good so here is the old man a survivor of a wonderful dream which cab a had described in his book next week we are going to Guttenberg a German community on the Mississippi River which took its name from the inventor of movable type Guttenberg and the people who settled the community thought they were giving it that name but somebody misspelled it and it became dutt EMD ERG and it is known as Guttenberg that's a very interesting story and I hope you will be with me next week when we visit Guttenberg until then goodbye your teachers have been her bake and Leyland Said's of Iowa State Teachers College landmarks in Iowa history is produced for Iowa TV school time by w4y TV on Association level the State Teachers College TV school time is presented daily Monday through Friday at 1:30 p.m. by the eye of a joint committee for Educational Television you