ON TOUR FOR THE CAUSE 183
colony known as Bethel, founded by Wilhelm Keil. Keil had been
a ladies' tailor in Darmstadt. He came to the United States in 1838,
worked at his trade in Pittsburgh, and then became a Methodist
preacher of the shouting revivalist type, in Kentucky. Bethel was
located about forty miles from Hannibal, and the eager Weitling
made the journey to the settlement on foot. Again he hoped to
annex the colony to the Arbeiterbund. He found a group of four
villages about six years old, Bethel, Elim, Hebron, and Nineveh.
They were inhabited by some 600 people, who lived in 150 brick
houses. The first blockhouse, a reminder of the hardships en
countered by the pioneers, was preserved as a memorial. With
typical German thrift and practicality, it was used as a barn. The
colony owned 3,000 acres, operated small mills and factories and
a distillery, and sold its surplus products to St. Louis. Life followed
a strict communal pattern, and houses, herds, food, and clothing
were held in common. The colony supported a band of thirty
musicians directed by a former music dealer from Cincinnati, and
occasionally staged great feasts, such as a Pentecostal celebration
at which they entertained and fed several thousand invited guests
from the neighborhood.^3
Weitling had great difficulty "fathoming the mysteries of Keil
and Company." He learned that Keil had sent out agents in 1844
to find this garden spot and finally had made the selection because
of his acquaintance with a Swiss widow who lived near Hannibal.
He had undertaken the venture in 1845 with a capital of $40,000
and a membership of 1,100, but his followers now had dwindled
to about half that number. Every member who withdrew had had
his original investment returned to him in full. The colony seemed
prosperous enough. Among other things, it produced $8,000
worth of kid gloves a year, operated several steam-driven plants
and sawmills, and had an abundance of livestock.
That "equality" for which the colony had been established(^3) For other accounts, see W. G. Bek, "The Community at Bethel, Missouri,
and Its Offspring at Aurora, Oregon," German-American Annals, New Series
(Philadelphia, 1909 and 1910), VII, 257-76, 306-28; VIII, 15-44, 76-81; "A Ger
man Communistic Society in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review (Columbia),
III (1908), 51-74,99-125.