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Nordhoff, Charles, 1830-1901

"The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation"

This they were able to do by hard
work and pinching economy; and they own at present one thousand nine
hundred and thirty-six acres, part of which is in timber, and valuable
on that account.
There are in all sixty-five members, and eleven families. The families
are not large, for there are twenty children and only twenty-three
voters in the community.
They possess a saw-mill and grist-mill, built out of their savings
within five years, and now a source of income. They cultivate three
hundred and fifty acres of land, and have one hundred and twenty head of
cattle, five hundred head of sheep, two hundred and fifty hogs, and
thirty horses. Until within three years the settlement contained only
log-cabins, and these very small, and not commodiously arranged. Since
then they have got entirely out of debt, and have begun to build frame
houses. The most conspicuous of these is a two-story building, sixty by
twenty-four feet in dimensions, which contains the common dining-room,
kitchen, a provision cellar, and up stairs a room for a library, and
apartments for a family. In the spring of 1874 they had nearly a dozen
frame houses, which included the dining-hall, a wash-house, dairy, and
school-house. All the dwellings are small and very cheaply built.


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