The chaste and simple beauty of this village was due to the skill and good taste of Friedrich Reichert Rapp, an architect and stone cutter, the adopted son of Father Rapp.  The fine proportions of the plain buildings, with their vines festooned between the upper and lower windows, the quaint and charming gardens, the tantalizing labyrinth where visitors lost themselves in an attempt to reach the Summer House—­these were all of his creation.  Friedrich Rapp was also a poet, an artist, and a musician.  He gathered a worthy collection of paintings and a museum of Indian relics and objects of natural history.  He composed many of the fine hymns which impress every visitor to Economy.  He was likewise an energetic and skillful business man and represented the colony in its external affairs until his death in 1834.  He was elected a member of the convention that framed the first constitution of Indiana, and later he was made a member of the legislature.  Father Rapp, who possessed rare talents as an organizer, controlled the internal affairs of the colony.  Those who left the community because unwilling to abide its discipline often pronounced their leader a narrow autocrat.  But there can be no doubt that eminent good sense and gentleness tempered his judgments.  He personally led the community in industry, in prayers, and in faith, until 1847, when death removed him.  A council of nine elders elected by the members was then charged with the spiritual guidance of the community, and two trustees were appointed to administer its business affairs.

Economy was a German community where German was spoken and German customs were maintained, although every one also spoke English.  As there were but few accessions to the community and from time to time there were defections and withdrawals, the membership steadily declined[18]; but while the community was dwindling in membership it was rapidly increasing in wealth.  Oil and coal were found on some of its lands; the products of its mills and looms, of its wine presses and distilleries, were widely and favorably known; and its outside investments, chiefly in manufactories and railroads, yielded even greater returns.  These outside interests, indeed, became in time the sole support of the community for, as the membership fell away, the local industries had to be shut down.  Then it was that communistic methods of doing business became inadequate and the colony ran into difficulties.  An expert accountant in 1892 disclosed the debts of the community to be about one and a half million dollars.  But the outside industrial enterprises in which the community had invested were sound; and the vast debt was paid.  The society remained solvent, with a huge surplus, though out of prosperity not of its own making.  When the lands at Economy were eventually sold, about eight acres were reserved to the few survivors of the society, including the Great House of Father Rapp and its attractive garden, with the use of the church and dwellings, so that they might spend their last days in the peaceful surroundings that had brought them prosperity and happiness.