there were two Icarias, the “young party” retaining the old site and the “old party” moving on and founding New Icaria, a few miles from the old.  But Old Icaria was soon split:  one faction removed to California, where the Icaria-Speranza community was founded; and the other remained at Old Icaria.  Both came to grief in 1888.  Finally in 1895 New Icaria, then reduced to a few veterans, was dissolved by a unanimous vote of the community.

* * * * *

In 1854 Victor Considerant, the French socialist, planted a Fourieristic phalanx in Texas, under the liberal patronage of J.B.A.  Godin, the godfather of Fourierism in France who founded at Guise the only really successful phalanx.  A French communistic colony was also attempted at Silkville, Kansas.  But both ventures lasted only a few years.  Since the subsidence of these French communistic experiments, there have been many sporadic attempts at founding idealistic communities in the United States.  Over fifty have been tried since the Civil War.  Nearly all were established under American auspices and did not lure many foreigners.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 15:  As is usual among people who pride themselves on their peculiarities there were variations of opinion among these sects which led to schisms.  The Mennonites contained at one time no less than eleven distinct branches, among them the Amish, Old and New, whose ridiculous singularity of dress, in which they discarded all ornaments and even buttons, earned them the nickname “Hooks and Eyes.”  But no matter how aloof these sects held themselves from the world, or what asceticism they practiced upon themselves, or what spiritual and economic fraternity they displayed to each other, they possessed a remarkable native cunning in bargaining over a bushel of wheat or a shoat, and for a time most of their communities prospered.]

[Footnote 16:  Under the communal contract, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States, members agreed to merge their properties and to renounce all claims for services; and the community, on its part, agreed to support the members and to repay without interest, to any one desiring to withdraw, the amount he had put into the common fund.]

[Footnote 17:  Communistic Societies of the United States, by Charles Nordhoff, p. 73.]

[Footnote 18:  The largest membership was attained in 1827, when 522 were enrolled.  There were 391 in 1836; 321 in 1846; 170 in 1864; 146 in 1866; 70 in 1879; 34 in 1888; 37 in 1892; 10 in 1897; 8 in 1902, only two of whom were men; and in 1903, three women and one man.  The population of Economy, however, was always much larger than the communal membership.]

[Footnote 19:  The New Harmony Movement, by G.B.  Lockwood, p. 83.]

[Footnote 20:  Icaria, A Chapter in the History of Communism, by Albert Shaw, p. 58.]