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The Harmonists and the Mormons
By KARL J. ARNDT
At first glance it may seem surprising to see these two groups associated so closely, for George Rapp's Harmony
movement, as we see from Byron's Don Juan and other works of that time, connoted celibacy, while the Mormon movement
connoted polygamy. Closer investigation shows, however, that under actual conditions within the two groups these
apparent extremes did not exist without modification. On the other hand, both held the view that
they were Israelites in the spiritual sense, a view still marked in the case of the Mormons by one of the
Webster definitions of gentile, "a person not a Mormon." The beginnings of the two religious movements and their
various well-managed migrations also offer many similarities. And when we consider that Sidney
Rigdon, a man who had a great deal to do with the founding of the Mormon Church, was a Baptist preacher in Pittsburgh
until after the time that the Harmonists returned to that vicinity after a ten-year flight into the wilderness,
there is good reason to advance the theory that the living model of the Mormon Church was the
Harmony Society of George Rapp. It must be kept in mind that the Harmony Society, at that time was greatly
admired and envied throughout America and Europe for its amazing economic success. Many Americans of English descent
wanted to join the Society but were prevented from doing so by the exclusive character of the Society which, while most
loyal in its support of American interests, adhered with determination and love to its German cultural roots. Unable
to join the Harmony Society, many Americans of English descent founded their own societies or churches, and the Harmony
Society archives provide ample unpublished evidence to prove that these communicated with the Harmonists before their
own groups were formed.
Documentary proof of the spiritual and ideological influence of the Harmonists on the founders of the Mormon Church is
not yet within my reach but circumstantial evidence for this view is very strong. In support of my theory I will
present evidence of the Harmonist-Mormon relationship dating shortly after the founding of the Mormon Church and
during its exodus to the West. I take this evidence from the letters and papers of the Harmonist Jacob Zundel, who took
part in the great march west after leaving the Harmony Society. The original letters are in the Harmony Society
archives and some of his personal papers are in the possession of his descendant, George Zundel of State College,
Pennsylvania. Before presenting this material it is necessary to outline the Zundel pre-Mormon history.
The Zundels were a large and influential family in the Harmony Society. John Eberhard Zundel had already been
associated with George Rapp in Wurttemberg and had brought his entire family into the Society. For the purpose of this
discussion we are interested primarily in (Johann) Jacob Zundel (1796-188o), the second son of John Eberhard Zundel.
As a member of the Harmony Society from its very beginning Jacob Zundel helped build the first Harmonist community on
the Conoguenessing Creek near Pittsburgh, joined in the move to the Wabash and helped build New Harmony in Indiana,
where his father died, then moved back to Pennsylvania with the body of the Harmonists and helped build their third
town, Economy. Through all this hardship and through all these years Zundel and his father's entire family were faithful
and loyal Harmonists. They loved the life of the Christian community and contributed all their strength to it. With the
establishment of the third Harmonist town, Economy, near Pittsburgh, George Rapp insisted with more severity than
before upon celibacy in the Society. Among various theological authorities there was a rather close
agreement that Christ's second coming was very near. In the Harmony Society that event was expected in the year
1829, so marriage and giving in marriage seemed entirely too worldly to George Rapp, then 72 years old, but
somewhat too spiritual to Jacob Zundel, then 33. At the very time that the faith, particularly of the younger
Harmonists, was near breaking George Rapp's preaching was given potent support from a source which so far had been
unknown to the Harmonists. One Count Leon, whose calculations of Christ's return agreed with Rapp's, announced his
existence as the Lion of Judah and promised that the glory of the Lord would soon be revealed at Economy as at one time
it had been revealed in Bethlehem.
Count Leon's dramatic announcement was effective enough to suppress the urge to marry. Rapp himself firmly believed in
the divine messenger and like John the Baptist pointed to Leon
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as the one who was to lead them to greater perfection. As the Lion of Judah, Count Leon believed that he was sent to
open the book of seven seals. The song of the four and twenty elders in Revelation applied to him: "Thou art worthy to
take the Book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." Through
Rapp's preaching the Harmonists were prepared to witness the greatest event that had taken place in this world since
the time of Christ's birth. But Count Leon's arrival in Economy brought results quite different from those expected.
With all his spirituality Count Leon was not averse to marriage. He knew theology and the fine manners of the world. He
traced his lineage straight back to the House of David. He was the Lion of Judah, but before he
opened the seven seals and ushered in the Millennium it was imperative that the elect be gathered into a safe place to
assure them the protection they deserved according to the prophecy in Revelation. Count Leon had expected
Economy to be the ordained place, but a period of residence there changed his mind.
When their manifest destiny became clear to them, the Jews departed from Egypt under divine guidance; when Rapp and his
people discovered their truth they departed from Wurttemberg under divine guidance. The truth proclaimed by the Lion
of Judah within the very city built by the Harmonists resulted in another divinely guided exodus in which the Zundel
family took a leading part. Together with several hundred Harmonists they left George Rapp and under Count Leon's
leadership began to build a fourth town, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. In less than a year, however, many believers left
the likeable, kind and generous Lion of Judah, who found his own faith severely tested at the very time he was about to
proclaim the Millennium officially opened. On July 25, 1833, less than three years after the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) had been organized, Count Leon proclaimed the laws of the Millennium, including
himself as "God's anointed of the tribe of Judah of the root of David." Only fifty-four signed this proclamation and
accepted him for what he proclaimed himself to be. Among these were five Zundels, including Jacob, who was loyal to his
new prophet until certain lawsuits growing out of "religious persecution" by those unbelievers who drove him from
Germany also drove him from Pennsylvania. When the Lion of Judah called for the next declaration of faith in his
mission at Natchez, Mississippi, the Zundels were not
[graphic -- under construction]
Jacob Zundel
Harmonist and Mormon
among those signing. Deeply shaken in his quest for final truth Jacob Zundel had remained at Philipsburg while his
brother went to Ohio.
We recall that until the time that the Harmonists returned to Pennsylvania to build Economy near Pittsburgh, Sidney
Rigdon, John Smith's indispensable aid in founding the Mormon Church, had been a Baptist preacher in Pittsburgh, where
he had ample opportunity to observe the activity of the Harmony Society as it underwent the severe test of a third
migration. While an advance group of Harmonists was at work at Economy under the prophet George Rapp, and while Rigdon
was still in Pittsburgh, there was considerable discussion as to whether the Society would survive the third move.
When the Harmonists finally moved from Wabash to Economy, Rigdon announced his withdrawal from his
church and then preached in Ohio as an undenominational exhorter advising his hearers to reject their creeds and rest
their belief solely on the Bible. Rapp had preached this same message in these regions himself and was still
preaching it to his Society. As in Rapp's case, this preaching also led Rigdon to put conderable emphasis on the
practice of communism. The probable connection between Rapp, Rigdon and Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter-day Saints is further
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supported when we note that in the same year that Smith announced a revival of the "gift of tongues" the Lion of Judah
announced the legal code of the Millennium. Whiie the Lion of Judah was on his way South, the Mormon Church was making
many converts in Ohio. A number of Harmonists who had differed with Rapp on the question of celibacy had earlier
settled in Ohio and it was here also that Jacob Zundel's older brother heard the new preaching. Although the
disappointments resulting from experiences with Rapp and Count Leon had made the Zundels decide they would never join
any other religion, John Zundel became a Mormon.
John Zundel next tried to persuade Jacob Zundel of the truth of his new-found gospel but Jacob Zundel told him "he had
been duped so much with the rest that he did not want to join any religion" and he almost persuaded his brother to let
Mormonism alone. Unfettered by any religious leaders Jacob Zundel lived on at Philipsburg, where he was a butcher and
"prospered in business exceedingly until the year 1836 when a Mormon elder named Evert came there. As soon as he heard
him preach he said he knew it was the truth, and he went forth and was baptized in the Ohio river in the presence of a
large concourse of people which turned out to see their butcher baptized." Jacob Zundel then visited the Mormon Church
[graphic -- under construction]
Church Tower at Economy
which Jacob Zundel helped build
at Kirtland, returned to Philipsburg, closed his business, sold his home, and moved to Missouri to join the Saints in
that section of the country. From then on he shared all the sufferings and the full fate of the Mormons, but all his
trials only served to confirm him in his new faith. So convinced was he of the truth of the new gospel that he became
a zealous missionary for the cause, and made various missionary journeys at considerable hardship. He even renewed his
relation to the Harmonists at Economy and tried to convert all of them to Mormonism. Although Rapp had strictly
forbidden all association and communication with those who had left Economy with Count Leon, he seems to have made an
exception in the case of Zundel. He was probably moved to do this because of the importance of the Mormon movement and
because this connection brought him first-hand news of their progress. It even seems probable that Rapp sent financial
aid to the Mormons in the early days through his former followers, the Zundels. This probability rises from the letters
of Jacob Zundel to R. L. Baker, a senior trustee of the Harmony Society.
The first of Jacob Zundel's letters still preserved is dated April 3, 1846, from Nauvoo. In it he refers to Baker's
request of 1844 for information about their fate and then presents a strong defense of Mormonism. Jacob Zundel, who
with George Rapp's followers had left Wurttemberg to escape "religious persecution." then paints a vivid picture of the
merciless persecution which his fellow Mormons have been suffering, a bloody persecution more fanatic than they had
ever experienced in Wurttemberg. I translate the following from the German original:
"Believe me, my friends, Mormonism is no child's play, as many seem to believe. just consider what this congregation
has already endured. Joseph Smith from his first appearance to his death was persecuted and hunted and driven about
until they murdered him and his brother shamefully. This is not enough; the coiagregation also is to be annihilated
and rooted out without mercy toward the aged or suckling, widows or orphans, rich or poor. Oh, my friends. my friends,
if it were possible to give a picture of all the suffering which we have endured and suffered this spring only to this
point, it would seem unendurable to you, and many of you would exclaim perhaps as Daniel did: 'How long is it to last
and when are these things to cease!' Oh, my friends, if you could overlook the camp of Israel and see how many, yes,
many,
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there are barefoot, sick, under God's open sky, or who have only a bad tent, and your government as it were even laughs
at this. We are going away to the West, not out of pleasure or fanaticism, for we are being driven out and we must go;
and so we go with joy and no one would be able to hold us back, neither with gold or silver; not that we would not
accept your gold or silver; however only what we need for the moment according to our need, for depend on it that the
time is at hand when gold and silver will be of no use but only a burden."
As an old friend Jacob Zundel urges the Harmonists to join the Mormons. He is one of the temple guards at Nauvoo at the
time and expects to stay there until the temple has been sold. It cost them about $1,100,000 and they were offering it
for sale at $200,000. A lot of his which was worth $1000 the previous year he had to sell for $75. He complains about
the "hole Sale Rauberei" committed against the Mormons.
On September 28, 1847, Zundel again wrote Baker from Council Bluffs, Iowa, telling of his arrival in that exile in
October of the previous year. A city had been laid out and he had helped build it in order to provide some shelter from
the approaching winter. There was much suffering and sickness during that winter, perhaps because of the want of
vegetable foods. In this letter he tells of the pioneers who had been sent West to find a new place for them and
reports as he is about to close the letter that word has come back that a very fine location has been found "between
two lakes about 25 miles from each, one a salt lake with such strong salt water that they so far had discovered nothing
living in it."
Zundel here again pleads with the Harmonists to accept the new gospel. "If only I could impress the Truth on you I
would count myself happy. I am now happy already, of course, but without you this happiness is not so complete. I am
your best friend, the best you have ever had, whether you can now believe it or not, for I am concerned about the
welfare of your soul, for I know exactly where you are still lacking, if only I could tell you."
Jacob Zundel's deep attachment to the Harmonists, among whom he had grown up and with whom he had shared many good and
hard days, remained throughout his life, likewise his faith in Mormonism. Again and again he pointed out similarities
between the preaching of Father Rapp and that in the Mormon Church. As late as 1865, when he was well settled in
Willard City, Boxelder County, Utah, he urged the Harmonists to send men out West to see what they have accomplished
and to convince themselves that Zion was there. In 1870 Jacob Zundel even made a trip to Pennsvlvania and attempted to
convince the Harmonists of the truth of Mormonism, but was not successful in arranging satisfactory meetings. The
Harmonists by that time had ceased to function as a Society and any change of preaching or organization would have been
dangerous.
In 1872 Zundel wrote to the Harmonists again, giving an interesting account of the locust plague which they had to
fight and of the unhappy arrival of foreign "civilization," "with their drinking and gambling and other houses which
they are now filling with hundreds of their fine women from New York and other places. We are not accustomed to such
civilization and are now fighting it." With this news he reports the discovery of rich mines in the neighboring
mountains, but his chief concern is still that he may have the opportunity of imparting the truth to his former
associates, the truth as revealed to him and his fellow Israelites through the medium of God's special messengers and
by direct communication with God as in the days of old. Jacob Zundel died in this firm faith in 1880 and was buried in
the territory he had helped win and settle. In his active life he had pioneered in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois,
Missouri, and Utah.
There is, then, very tangible evidence of Harmonist-Mormon relationship in the earliest days. Further study of the
entire question very likely will bring valuable results. It is very probable that other Harmonists than the Zundels
became Mormons, for the Harmonists liked to move and settle in groups even after leaving the Society. Christian Palmer
in his Die Gemeinschaften und Sekten Wurttembergs, 1877, tells of a Mormon missionary named Raiser, who visited
his birthplace Kornwestheim, Wurttemberg, in 1851, preaching the Mormon gospel. Palmer says that Raiser had been a
member of the Harmony Society but had become a Mormon. It is natural that any Mormon missionary work carried on in
Wurttemberg at that time would be carried on by former Harmonists, but so far I have not been able to verify Palmer's
statement, nor have I found any other than the Zundel material in the Harmonist archives which would shed light on the
Harmonist-Mormon relationship. In themselves the Zundel letters are a valuable contribution to our German pioneer
literature of Utah.
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