356:’s "Freeland" concept. He returned next year with more of his followers and soon the colony's population grew by 30%. By the summer of 1905 Horr was able to change the BCCs constitution drastically to adhere to the Freeland concept. A new "local union" was established in New York, and five others in the near vicinity. The changes were not appreciated by the colony's older residents who started to resist the conversion of the colony to the new scheme in late 1905 and the colony became bitterly divided between the two factions, sometimes resulting in violence.
28:
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eight elected trustees would head a department of the organization. The president would theoretically head an executive department to generally supervise the group, but the most important position was secretary, which would head the colonization department charged with planting socialistic colonies. There were also departments for education (headed by the dean), organization, which would create new local unions, exchange, industry (headed by the Master
Workman) and finance.
266:. By the time that the national board, their families and others arrived in March, the first building, Fort Bellamy, was finished and several others were in progress. However most members of the BCC board stayed in nearby Edison, where they leased a "national headquarters" for the brotherhood. By that summer membership had reached 3,000 members and 18 states had organizers. Through the organization department and the group's newspaper,
292:
emphasis on the creation of a national organization and other colonies, feeling that the more immediate goal should be the completion of
Equality. In early April, at a contentious meeting of the two factions, a plan to start an additional colony at Edison of the administrators was defeated and the Equality colonists proposed an amendment giving the colony complete independence in internal affairs, which passed by a vote of 298 to 176.
232:
218:, but the BCC did not join the new organization, rejecting its "class struggle" thesis with a vision of a colony that would include middle-class professionals and "everybody who believes in cooperation" and not just "the laboring classes so called". Weakened by the loss of Debs and the defection of some of its membership to the new SDA, the BCC set out to start its first colony.
274:
295:
August
Lermond resigned from the BCC and returned to Maine, where he founded a new group, the Industrial Brotherhood. By the end of the year, most of the board members had left. In January 1899, a new slate of officers favored by the colonists was elected, and that February BCC headquarters was moved
205:
was elected president and an attempt made to draft Eugene V. Debs by electing him national organizer. However, Debs was at the time a fledgling socialist preoccupied with miners' union strikes in the
Mountain West and never served in an active capacity as the BCC's organizer. Debs nevertheless warmed
197:
The constitution's preamble committed the organization to three broad goals: "1. To educate the people in the principles of
Socialism; 2. To unite all socialists in one fraternal association; 3. To establish cooperative colonies and industries in one state until that state is socialized." Each of the
291:
However, dissension developed between the colonists at
Equality and the BCC leaders at Edison. The colonists resented that their money was being used to keep the administration in town, while they lived in the crude, unfinished buildings at the colony site. They also objected to the administration's
359:
The final factor in the demise of the colony occurred on
February 6, 1906, when an unknown person or group of people set fire to several buildings at night. The worst loss was the barn, which burned completely to the ground, killing most of the colony's cattle. The perpetrator was never identified,
300:
circulation plummeted. The
Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth as an organization was subsumed by Equality. While lip service was given to the idea of planting new colonies and socializing Washington for the next few years little was actually done toward those objectives and were eventually
243:
On
September 1, 1897 G.E. "Ed" Pelton left Maine for the Pacific Northwest to secure land for the colony. After visiting several sites, on October 15 he made a down payment of $ 100 to Mathias Decker, a conservative Skagit County farmer, for 280 acres (1.1 km) of land in Blanchard, Washington
239:
By mid-1897 the BCC had about 2200 members in 130 local unions. After short tours in
Tennessee and Arkansas, Lermond announced that August that Washington would be the most likely state for colonization. The southern states were already well settled and faced the "Negro question", while Washington
101:
advocating the plan and suggesting that the socialist colonists would be able to initiate the collective ownership of the means of production in the state by voting in a socialist government. Lermond envisioned an organization of many local unions ("L.U.s") that would provide the colonists with
153:
This convention, however, did not materialize. Lermond could not get away from the Populist convention, and Imogene Fales attended a National Cooperative Congress that created a new American Cooperative union with her as secretary. The Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth was officially
206:
up to the idea of colonizing a relatively unpopulated western state and making use of the ballot box to win control of state government and maintained close contact with the organization, meeting with Lermond in Terre Haute on May 24 to discuss possible unification of his
121:. In the spring of that year he announced he was setting up an "organizational meeting" to create a "National Union of the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth" scheduled to be held in St. Louis on July 24–26, 1896, congruent with that year's
66:
213:
Meanwhile, Victor Berger and his group were urging him to create a new socialist organization committed to political action and not colonization. Lermond, Parsons and Reed attended the June 1897 convention of the ARU which created the
304:
The colony flourished for a few years, building two large apartments, a barn, a dining room and kitchen, a school house, a public hall, a store room, a printing office, a saw mill, a root house, a blacksmith and copper shop, an
240:
had a small, sparse population with liberal inclinations and a Populist governor who was rumored to be sympathetic to the BCC. There were also a number of local unions already in the state, seven of which had sites available.
201:
Not all of these positions were filled, however. Lloyd and Hunter declined their positions, and the post of distributor was apparently unfilled. In new elections held in January 1897, radical minister
360:
but each faction blamed the other for the arson. A suit was filed in Skagit County to dissolve the colony and the BCC went into receivership; its history ended when its land was sold for $ 12,500 to
862:
946:
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106:, which colonized Kansas with abolitionists prior to the U.S. Civil War in order to make the territory a free state. Lloyd gave the plan modest financial backing.
309:, a bakery, a cereal and coffee house, and a milk house. Its population fluctuated, but was about 100 by the spring of 1903, when only the "die hards" remained.
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926:
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financial, material, and moral support, coordinated by a national "center or union" controlled by seven trustees. His immediate model was the
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to Equality. From that point membership in the BCC fell to nearly 300, material support and new members from the outside dried up and
248:. Additional purchases and contributions were made until the colony reached an area of 600 acres (2.4 km) by the summer of 1898.
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122:
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in 1897. It was meant to serve as a model which would convert the rest of Washington and later the entire continent to socialism.
134:
103:
340:. This colony should not be confused with Equality in its later stages which was sometimes referred to as Freeland Colony.
503:"Equality Colony: A Brief History Showing Our Objects and Present Condition — Cooperative Colonies Are Not All Failures"
279:
113:
that winter. In December 1895, Lermond issued a call for the creation of more local unions in the pages of the New York
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announced the adoption of a constitution and the election of seven officers: Lloyd as president, Lermond as secretary,
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Logo of the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth, the entity behind Equality Colony in Washington state
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A page describing the collection that links to the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.
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Lermond started the first local union in Warren on October 18, 1895, and Pelton established the second in
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arrived with his family at age 14 in April 1898 and began to learn journalism and printing by working on
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that a series of socialist colonies be established in a single western state (Gordan suggested Texas.)
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national convention, to which he was a delegate. A formal "call" for this convention was published in
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on June 1, 1907. A few families stayed in the area on plots of land that they owned individually.
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325:. He eventually became its editor, until the publication folded in December 1902. He also started
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Lermond and Pelton started a vigorous letter-writing campaign to notable reformers such as
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newspaper of the Equality Colony published at Edison, Washington from 1898 through 1902
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Fabian anarchism : a fragmentary exposition of mutualism, communism and Freeland
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The first fifteen settlers arrived on November 1, 1897 and named the colony after
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692:"E. G. Pelton and other socialists found Equality Colony on November 1, 1897"
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The colony's origins lay in ideas of New England reformers in the mid-1890s.
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270:(which began in May), the Brotherhood maintained its "national character".
729:
LeWarne, Charles P., "Equality Colony: The Plan to Socialize Washington,"
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In 1900 and 1901 some colonists left Equality to found a new community on
734:
691:
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86:, and Ed Pelton had been intrigued by an idea originally suggested by
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272:
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646:. San Francisco, CA, US: Freeland Ptg. & Pub. Co. p. 3.
509:. New Series (9). Brotherhood Co-operative Commonwealth: 1, 4.
531:– via Chronicling America « Library of Congress.
837:– via Chronicling America « Library of Congress
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writer George Boomer (1862-1915) was among the editors of
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organized through a mail referendum conducted through the
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July 11 and 18, and was endorsed by Henry Demarest Lloyd,
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with the BCC at convention scheduled three weeks later.
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University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections
8:
843:"Peter L. Hegg Equality Colony photographs"
801:Smith, Frederick E., and Lowe, Florence M.
744:. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
244:located 2 miles northeast of the hamlet of
61:Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth
55:Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth
18:Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth
947:1897 establishments in Washington (state)
821:, Brotherhood Co-operative Commonwealth,
733:vol. 59, no. 3 (July 1968), pp. 137-146.
348:In autumn 1904 the colony was visited by
53:by a political organization known as the
942:Utopian communities in the United States
287:the weekly newspaper of Equality Colony.
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336:called the Free Land Association, or
313:, who would later play a role in the
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937:Populated places established in 1897
927:History of Skagit County, Washington
768:"Equality's Struggle for Existence,"
773:whole no. 55 (May 27, 1899), pg. 2.
329:in 1899 for the colony's children.
166:as treasurer, Frank Parsons dean,
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779:The Forging of American Socialism
742:Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885-1915
932:Politically motivated migrations
104:New England Emigrant Aid Company
863:"Photos of the Equality Colony"
69:The Equality Colony, circa 1900
1:
501:Halladay, H.W. (1901-11-01).
235:Logo of Equality Colony, 1898
82:, a journalist and farmer in
731:Pacific Northwest Quarterly,
374:The Cooperative Brotherhood
216:Social Democracy of America
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781:. Columbia, SC: Howard H.
740:LeWarne, Charles (1995).
317:of 1919 as editor as the
111:Damariscotta Mills, Maine
849:. Orbis Cascade Alliance
777:Quint, Howard H (1953).
638:Horr, Alexander (1911).
652:2027/uc1.31175035182222
463:"Plan to Redeem Toil,"
315:Seattle general strike
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208:American Railway Union
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80:Norman Wallace Lermond
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319:Seattle Union Record,
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88:Socialist Labor Party
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99:Henry Demarest Lloyd
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771:Industrial Freedom,
717:, pp. 109–111.
696:www.historylink.org
681:, pp. 105–107.
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604:, pp. 102–103.
479:, pp. 285–291.
285:Industrial Freedom,
191:Industrial Freedom,
174:master workman and
139:William D. P. Bliss
818:Industrial Freedom
507:Industrial Freedom
323:Industrial Freedom
298:Industrial Freedom
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268:Industrial Freedom
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164:B. Franklin Hunter
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45:colony founded in
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616:, pp. 88–89.
592:, pp. 71–72.
580:, pp. 68–70.
568:, pp. 66–68.
556:, pp. 63–66.
544:, pp. 61–63.
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352:, a proponent of
168:Morrison I. Swift
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301:forgotten.
170:organizer,
131:Eugene Debs
922:Bellamyism
916:Categories
898:49°N 122°W
872:2021-07-24
853:2021-07-24
787:B000GJHY72
701:2019-11-02
665:2021-07-24
528:2021-07-24
477:Quint 1953
452:Quint 1953
416:Quint 1953
380:References
311:Harry Ault
252:Settlement
172:I. E. Dean
51:Washington
827:2333-8466
805:. , 1988.
795:988670668
660:867716052
640:"Preface"
515:2333-8466
178:, of the
43:socialist
903:49; -122
760:47010928
735:In JSTOR
368:See also
344:Freeland
338:Freeland
263:Equality
182:editor.
117:and the
835:7500268
724:Sources
523:7500268
277:Former
90:member
74:Origins
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307:apiary
246:Edison
38:was a
889:122°W
227:Plans
886:49°N
831:OCLC
823:ISSN
791:OCLC
783:ASIN
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