{"id":1586,"date":"2012-09-04T23:29:56","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T23:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2013-03-04T23:43:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T23:43:49","slug":"john-b-ellis-on-the-free-love-community-at-berlin-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/1586\/john-b-ellis-on-the-free-love-community-at-berlin-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"John B. Ellis on the Free Love Community at Berlin Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I include the below as James Allen Noyes and Caroline Atwell were connected with the free love community at Berlin Heights, and it&#8217;s known that some early residents of the free-thought community of Liberal came to there from Berlin Heights. It is shortly obvious that the writer had little sympathy for the group, but then he was even derisive about &#8220;emancipated females&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?pg=PA360-IA1&#038;dq=%22Francis+Barry%22+%22berlin+heights%22&#038;id=OkQZAAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&#038;q=%22Francis%20Barry%22%20%22berlin%20heights%22&#038;f=false\"><em>Free Love and its Votaries<\/em><\/a> by John B. Ellis, 1870<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=OkQZAAAAYAAJ&#038;dq=%22Francis%20Barry%22%20%22berlin%20heights%22&#038;pg=PA360-IA1&#038;ci=0%2C46%2C985%2C1520&#038;source=bookclip\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=OkQZAAAAYAAJ&#038;pg=PA360-IA1&#038;img=1&#038;zoom=3&#038;hl=en&#038;sig=ACfU3U1IRtb89T4ZStRH0XBI0-JOaNWSlw&#038;ci=0%2C46%2C985%2C1520&#038;edge=0\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>CHAPTER XXII.<\/p>\n<p>BERLIN HEIGHTS.<\/p>\n<p>Position of the Village.\u2014Lake Erie.\u2014Magnificent Prospect.\u2014Reputation of the Village.\u2014Story of an Old Citizen.\u2014Arrival of Reformers \u2014The First FreeLove Colony.\u2014A New Experiment Organizing.\u2014First Efforts at Berlin Heights.\u2014Early Disadvantages.\u2014Alarm of the Villagers.\u2014Abominable Doctrines Advocated.\u2014Marriage Dispensed with.\u2014Evil Rumors.\u2014Imprudent Course of the Free Lovers.\u2014Suspicious Indications.\u2014Action of the villagers. \u2014The Newspaper War.\u2014Tactics of the Free Lovers.\u2014Their Success.\u2014The First Indignation Meeting.\u2014Its Failure.\u2014Exultation of the Free Lovers.\u2014The Social Revolutionist.\u2014An Outrageous Publication.\u2014Indignation of the Villagers.\u2014The Second Indignation Meeting.\u2014Division of Sentiment.\u2014The Free Lovers are Requested to Leave the Place.\u2014They Refuse.\u2014Demand for Mob Law.\u2014Arrest of the Leaders of the Free-Lore Tarty.\u2014Their Trial.\u2014Defeat of the Villagers.\u2014Mob Violence Inaugurated. \u2014Attack on Frank Barry.\u2014Destruction of his Documents.\u2014Effects of this Outrage.\u2014The Political Canvass.\u2014The Election of the Free-Love Ticket.\u2014 The &#8220;Eden Group.&#8221;\u2014Strange Rumors.\u2014Adventure of a Man in Search of a Lost Cow.\u2014A Picture of Eden Innocence.\u2014The Secret Out.\u2014General Indignation.\u2014Action of the Villagers.\u2014The Free Lovers Refuse to withdraw.\u2014Dr. Overton&#8217;s Reply.\u2014Settlement of the Matter.\u2014Failure of Berlin Heights as a Free-Love Colony.\u2014Departure of the Leaders.\u2014The Sequel.<\/p>\n<p>Taking the Cleveland and Sandusky Railway (which is a branch of the Lake Shore Line) from the former terminus, the traveller, in about two hours, reaches an unimportant way-station called Berlin, forty-five miles west of Cleveland, and fifteen miles east of Sandusky, Ohio. The place, in spite of its, proud name, boasts but one edifice, a large frame building, which serves as the residence of the stationmaster, a country store, and, if I mistake not, a mill. From this point a conveyance may be had to the village of Berlin Heights, which lies three miles back from the railway, and to the south of it. Here, passable accommodations can be procured at an indifferent hotel.<\/p>\n<p>The village has a population of from fifteen hundred to two thousand souls, and differs from the average Western town in nothing that I could discover. The houses are of wood, and are not very tasteful, and the entire place is dull and stupid.<\/p>\n<p>The location is magnificent. The village covers a considerable area, the houses having ample grounds, and is built on the highest point of the range of highlands that extends from the eastern halfway to the western boundary of the State, and at a distance of from one to three miles south of Lake Erie. The country is attractive, and the view from the highest point, which is called the Pinnacle, is very fine. To the southward, eastward, and westward, the land is rolling and thickly wooded. Here and there a capital farm appears, with its cleanly-cultivated land and its neat buildings. To the northward the blue expanse of the lake stretches away for miles until it seems to meet the sky. The eye ranges over the group of islands known as Gibraltar, Ballast, <fec., on the former of which stands Jay Cooke's palatial villa. Close' by is Put-in Bay, where Perry's victorious fleet anchored after its hard-won victory, to repair its damages and bury its dead. When the wind is from the north, it brings with it the sound of the thunder of the surf as it breaks upon the shore, and the heat of the summer is tempered by the cool breeze, as it sweeps in from the lake. A better location for a settlement, or a more beautiful view, cannot be found in the West.\n\nBut it was not the beauty of the scenery, the delicious coolness of the lake breeze, or the fertility of the land, that took me to Berlin Heights. It was the fact that this place was the scene of the most important (excepting the Oneida Community) Free-Love experiment ever tried in America, and I went there in search of the information upon the subject which I hope to embody in these pages, and which I shall endeavor to convey to the reader as told by an old resident of the place. My attention had been drawn to the village by allusions to it in the newspaper press of the country, and by the following remarks of an English writer:\n\n\"The Free Lovers, who have their headquarters in New York, have various settlements throughout the country, in which their principles are said to reign supreme. The most famous, perhaps, of these settlements, are the villages called Berlin Heights and Modern Times. \n\n\"Berlin Heights is a village in the State of Ohio, in which bands of Free Lovers have settled so as to be a comfort and protection to each other; also for the conveniences offered to hapless pairs by a large matrimonial exchange. Many people come and go, and the population of Berlin Heights, I am told, is always changing. No one likes to stay there long; the odor of the place being rather rank, even in the nostrils of an emancipated female. But the Free Lovers tell you that a great many persons sympathize with the free life on Berlin Heights, who in their social cowardice shrink from writing their names in the visitors' books.\"\n\nNearly every reader is familiar with Artemas Ward's account.of his visit to the place, but few understand what a mass of corruption the humorist sought to satirize in his amusing letter.\n\n\"It was in the year 1854,\" said the old man in whose words I wish to tell this story,\" that the first of the Free-Love set made his appearance at Berlin Heights. The village was a small, pleasant little place, and, better still, it was thoroughly respectable. The inhabitants were decent people, and we had never done any thing to forfeit the good opinion of the rest of the country. The land about here was very fair, and prices were much lower than they are now. A great many strangers were coming and going, some of them being pleased with the country, and some thinking they could do better elsewhere. A few bought land and settled down here, and we began to grow slowly but steadily in population. In the year that I speak of, a number of these long-haired, sleek-looking fellows came out here to buy land and form a settlement.\n\n\"The leader of the gang was Francis Barry, an oily, plausible fellow, who had some good points about him, and who was even liked by our people until his doctrines made him unpopular. Barry was followed by a lot of his friends, men and women, and as soon as they got here they commenced what they called their warfare against marriage. Barry was a good hand at lecturing, so they sent him around the country to speak in behalf of their cause. He and his friends started two or three newspapers in various parts of the country, in which they advocated their Free-Love doctrines, and announced Berlin Heights as the centre of their movement. This continued for three years, during which time they continued to increase rapidly. Every week some new member would come in.\"\n\n\"Where is Barry at present?\"\n\n\"In New York. He is the leader of a 'Reform Club,' or a 'New Protectorate,' or something of the kind, and I am told that it is his intention to attempt another experiment on the Berlin Heights plan. Let me say, at the outset, that I don't think Barry directly encouraged the excesses of his followers here; but as these were the direct results of his pernicious teachings, all the people here who do not sympathize with him hold him responsible for them, and, I think, justly.\n\n\"But to go back to my story. The Free Lovers increased here very rapidly. They bought a farm adjoining the village, and commenced to cultivate it. These heights offer very great inducements to agriculture. The lake breeze which sweeps over them keeps them almost entirely free from frost, and we raise some of the finest fruits here that are to be found in the Union. The farm purchased by the Free Lovers was an excellent piece of land, and they worked it faithfully. They encouraged no idlers. They managed to get possession of the only hotel in the place, which, we thought, gave them a decided advantage in their efforts to increase their numbers. We had no occasion to complain of them in their dealings with us, for I am bound to confess they were honest in their business relations and faithful to their contracts. They labored under a very great disadvantage in being short of money, but endeavored to make up their deficiency by hard work. Some of them were men of ability. The most of them were Spiritualists; for Spiritualism and Free Love go hand in hand, and the leaders are now amongst the most prominent Spiritualists of the day.\"\n\n\"How did the old residents of the village regard the rapid increase of this strange sect?\"\n\n\"At first we paid but little attention to them. We were glad to see the land in the hands of industrious and energetic workers, and had no idea of the real character of these people. As we began to understand their ideas, we were indignant, but thought it best to laugh at them. Some of our young men may even have appeared to sympathize with them; but if they did, it was only because they wanted a lark with the women. It was not long, however, be- fore the differences between us became so great and so bitter that no decent person could uphold the Free Lovers, even for the fun of it. We began to be alarmed, sir, at having in our midst a class of people, already numerous, and growing faster than we, who had the shamelessness to advocate the entire overthrow of the marriage relation. They declared, in their newspapers and their public speeches, that it was a sin for a man and woman to live together as husband and wife, if they could not do so without quarrelling and in absolute peace. They said it was not necessary for people to be married by a preacher or squire, but that, when men and women fancied each other, they had a perfect right to live together until they got tired of each other, when they ought to separate, and find other and more congenial companions. They didn't hesitate to tell us, sir, that a man and woman living together in open adultery were as pure and virtuous as we who had been married in church. Marriage, they said, was a fraud, and the cause of all the unhappiness in the world, and we were great fools for clinging to it. This we considered a dangerous doctrine, and we naturally looked down upon those who professed it as a dirty set. \"We did not regard it as liable to do us old people any harm, for we thought we had discretion enough to prefer morality to vice; but we had- children, sons and daughters, in whose hearing these infernal principles were enunciated, and we wished to save them from pollution until they were old enough to think for themselves. Besides\u2014for I must own it\u2014it did anger us to be told that our wives and daughters, our mothers and sisters, whose goodness, modesty, and purity we valued more than our own lives, were no better than a parcel of common women.\n\n\"Perhaps, if they had confined themselves to principles, we should have let them alone, and trusted to time to cure the evil. But they were not satisfied to hold their own opinions about matters of this kind. They kept trying to force them upon us, and kept up such a noise in the world, that the people of the entire Union began to look upon Berlin Heights as the hotbed of immorality, and to regard every man and woman in the village as devoted to the practise of Free Love. Why, sir, we couldn't go to Sandusky or Cleveland, or anywhere in the country\u2014we, who were decent men and women, and totally opposed to the vile doctrine\u2014without being stared at as Free Lovers. It was outrageous. \"We didn't deserve it, and we were not willing to submit to it.\n\n\"In a little while matters came to a crisis. There are always in this country a plenty of men and women who, being unhappily married, are anxious to escape from their claims, and others who think that the destruction of marriage will give them greater license than is possible in the present state of affairs. Such people were in active sympathy with the Free Lovers -of our.village, and many of them came here to attend the conventions held here. These people seemed to regard the village as their own property. They paid no more attention to Sunday than to any other day. They gave balls on the Lord's day at the hotel, had public dinners, speech-makings, and merrymakings there on that day, and, in short, did every thing they could to outrage our feelings. When some of us undertook to remonstrate with them, they said it was a free country, and that they would do as they pleased. They had as much right to the village as we, and they would permit no interference.\n\n\"This was not all, however. We had every reason to suspect them of immoral practices. We had heard their teachings\u2014that men and women were justified in living together in the most intimate relations without the sanction of a marriage; we knew they held adultery to be no crime; we knew they taught that any man and woman wishing to indulge in sexual intercourse were justified in the act; and we were not silly enough to believe that people holding such views could be innocent in their practices. We observed many signs of unlawful intimacy between the men and women, such as caresses, kisses, tender glances, and long walks towards the woods about nightfall. Besides, there were some discontented fellows among them, who thought their wives too free with other men. We had no actual proof that we could put in evidence in a court of justice, but we were all satisfied that the hotel was a vast den of immorality.\n\n\"Matters now came to such a pass that the best men in the village and vicinity came to the conclusion that something must be done to rid us of this nuisance. We were convinced that to use brute force against them would be to do them more good than harm. In such a case, they would at once raise the cry of 'Persecution,' and draw to themselves a certain amount of sympathy, and our policy was to expose their doctrines and practices, and hold them up to public scorn. So we determined to attack them through the press, which we felt sure would not dare to defend them.\n\n\"The leading man in the village was Mr. , a prominent member of the Baptist church. He had represented us once in the Legislature, and had held several County offices, and, as he was regarded as the ablest writer in the place, we considered him the proper man to head the movement against the Free Lovers. He was ready enough for this, for he despised them and their doctrines, and he wrote a number of very able articles against them, which he published in the Sandusky Register, the principal paper in the County. These articles were well written, and their object was to arouse the public sentiment against the Free Lovers, and in this they were successful . They fell like a bombshell into the Free-Love camp, and the leaders of that movement undertook to reply to them, but none of the papers would publish their articles. They then put their heads together to determine upon a course of action, and it seems that they came to the conclusion that our course would benefit them more than it would injure them. They seemed to have full faith in their doctrines, and openly avowed that all that was needed to spread them over the country was to make them known. They consulted the spirits as to the course they should pursue, and asserted that they were ordered to aid us in our efforts to expose them, for the reason that such a course would attract universal attention to them, and react overwhelmingly in their favor. They and their friends wrote sensational articles for the papers, ridiculing and denouncing themselves. These articles came from various parts of the country, and were copied by most of the papers of the day. It was some time before we could discover the authors of these communications, for they kept their secret very well for a while; but at last they thought the joke too good to be kept quiet, and were loud in their boasts of getting gratuitous advertising out of the papers which opposed their doctrines. They victimized the New York * Herald and Tribune badly in this way. The articles in the latter paper were so ingeniously written, that, while they appeared to denounce Free Love, they were really a defence of it. It was a shrewd trick upon their part, and it must be confessed that they succeeded in neutralizing our plan of operations to a very great extent.\n\n\"We now resorted to another plan. We called an indignation-meeting at the Presbyterian church, and enjoined it as a duty upon every lover of morality to attend. When the time for the meeting came, the house was full, and we congratulated ourselves that we should now have a plain, outspoken denunciation of the Free-Love business by the best men in the County. In point of attendance the meeting was a success. We had the best men of the County present, and a plenty of them; but the Free Lovers were there in force also, and, when our speakers commenced to denounce them, they asked leave to reply. We foolishly gave them permission, because we wanted to see fair play, and were unwilling to take any unfair advantage of them. We paid a good price for our generosity, however. The meeting was a failure\u2014a fizzle, as we say here. It lasted for three hours, and degenerated into a spiteful discussion of the FreeLove question. We were completely outwitted by the tactics of our opponents, and accomplished nothing. Our adversaries, on the other hand, gained a certain sort of triumph, and I assure you they crowed loudly over us. They declared we had tried to find grounds for a denunciation of them, and had failed, and they published this statement all over the country. After this they threw off all restraint, and made it a point to desecrate Sunday in every way they could, in order to show their contempt for us. At the same time, the reports of their immorality became more frequent and more circumstantial. Matters were dreadfully suspicious, but we had no positive proofs against them. They kept their own counsel, and never betrayed each other. When we questioned them as to the truth of the reports concerning them, they either denied them outright, or laughed, shrugged their shoulders, and said nothing.\n\n\"About this time they took steps for the establishment of a Free-Love newspaper in the village. One John Patterson, a writer of ability and force, was publishing a paper called the Social Revolutionist at Greenville, in Darke County, in this State. The FreeLove party here began to negotiate with him for the removal of his office to this place, and he, being in full sympathy with the movement, agreed to do so. In a. short while he was established and at work here.\n\n\nHis paper was regarded as the organ of the Free-Love party in the West. I use the term 'party' as embracing all who sympathized with the movement. The war against marriage and domestic life was now continued with greater fury. The Free Lovers, encouraged by their successes, threw off restraint. Their paper was filled with denunciations of the marriage system, and advanced the most abominable ideas. For a while we had to endure it, because they clothed their attacks in reasonably decent language, but at . length they threw off the mask. Men corrupt at heart cannot always act with decency. Their real natures will sometimes show themselves. One morning the Social Revolutionist published an article which put an end to our patience. The article was grossly indecent, and stated the doctrines of the party in their lowest and most revolting form. All restraint was thrown aside, and it was plainly stated that the object of the movement was the gratification of the animal passions of the members. The language of the article was utterly unfit for a brothel, and was such as I do not care to repeat to you literally.\n\n\"Up to this time our people had been divided as to the best means of getting rid of the Free Lovers. Some of us were for driving them out by force, others for letting them alone and allowing the movement to die out of its own accord. This article disgusted even the friends of toleration, and, after this, not a voice was heard in opposition to our resolve to compel the wretches to quit the place. We made no secret of our determination, and it at once became known to the opposite party. They tried to smooth matters over by saying that the article was false in its statements, and was written by an opponent for the purpose of injuring them. We didn't believe them, and we told them so. It was not likely that an adversary could succeed in deceiving the shrewd men who controlled the paper, and secure in it the publication of an article calculated to injure them. No; we were satisfied that the article was a genuine expression of their sentiments, and we were not to be turned form our purpose by their explanations. Men who were lost to decency would not hesitate to lie, Falsehood, indeed, would be their first resort upon finding themselves in trouble.\n\n\"We called another indignation-meeting in the village, which was attended by large numbers of persons from all parts of the surrounding country. We had learned a lesson from our first meeting, and this time refused to allow any of the Free-Love party to say any thing at the meeting. Barry tried very hard to get a hearing, but we hissed and hooted him down. We wanted no explanations. The offences of these people admitted of none, and we wanted no more of their talk. We adopted a preamble and set of resolutions setting forth our grievances and the infamous course pursued by our opponents, and requesting them to leave the County. Some of us were in favor of driving them out at once, but others\u2014and they had the majority\u2014wished to endeavor to get rid of them by peaceful means. A committee was appointed, who waited upon the leaders of the other party, and informed them that it was the desire of all decent people in the County that they should leave it. Some of us (I was among the number) who favored force accompanied the request of the committee with the warning that we would drive them out if they did not go peaceably. In return, they notified us that they would not leave willingly, and would meet force with force. At the same time, it was known that they were putting their printing-office and hotel in a state of defence, and purchasing fire-arms.\n\nThere was now every prospect of a serious collision in the village; for, though the friends of peaceful measures were in the majority, there were quite a number of us who were anxious to strike such a blow as would rid us of the nuisance at once and forever. In this state of feeling, it required all the influence of our friends to restrain us. It was well that they did so; for, had the blow been struck, we should have shown the wretches no mercy.\n\n\"We now resorted to the law. Several of our people went up to Sandusky and had warrants taken out for the arrest of the most prominent of the Free Lovers. These warrants were based on charges of immoral proceedings in violation of the laws of the State, which we brought against them. They were entrusted to the police of Sandusky for execution, and we stood ready to put down any resistance to the officers of the law. The constables came down to the village quietly, and, before our adversaries were fairly aware of their purpose, they had arrested some twentyfive or thirty men and women. They put them on the cars and took them to Sandusky, a number of us following to see the result of the affair. We expected they would be confined in jail; but the Mayor, before whom they were taken, admitted them to bail, and had them lodged at the hotel at the expense of the city. The trial lasted a week, and was a complete farce. We had no witnesses to support our charges, and had relied upon compelling Frank Barry and others to testify to the truth of the facts we wished to establish; but we were badly beaten. Of course, we could not compel any one to admit any thing damaging to himself or herself, and all professed to be totally ignorant of the conduct of the others. They declared that if such irregularities as were charged upon them existed, it was without their knowledge. Their principles, they said, required them to refrain from meddling with other people's affairs. Each one found it as much as he or she could do to attend to his or her individual concerns. They had no time for gossip or eavesdropping. They baffled us in this way at every point. We were fully persuaded that they were acting in accordance with a preconcerted plan, and that they were not telling the truth; but we could bring forward nothing in evidence, nor could we extort a single admission from them. They beat us badly, and, at the close of a week, the case was dismissed, and they were allowed to return to their homes. You may be sure they exulted over us. The truth is, we had damaged our side badly by our foolishness. They had nothing to lose, and every thing to gain, by such a ventilation of their doctrines as this trial brought about. We had failed to establish our charges. A court of justice had acquitted them, and they had gained a moral advantage over us. They were jubilant, and we very sore, over our defeat\n\n\"The friends of peaceful measures were now at their wits' ends. They had exhausted all the means at their disposal, and those of us who favored force resolved to do a little on our own account towards ridding the place of the wretches. Mob violence is always wrong, and that to which we hotheads resorted was no exception to the rule. We damaged our cause by it, and created a certain amount of sympathy for the Free Lovers. We annoyed them in every conceivable way, and did all in our power to make the place too hot to hold them. The Free Lovers kept on in their old habits, and sent their newspaper and printed documents to all parts of the country.\n\n\"One day, Frank Barry was driving along in his wagon to the Post-Office with a load of his Free-Love documents for the mails. He was totally unapprehensive of harm, and was driving at a moderate pace. We knew his habit of sending his documents off in this way, and we were determined to put a stop to it. Upon this occasion about twenty of us, men and women\u2014for our women were by far the bitterest enemies the Free Lovers had\u2014waylaid him, and, stopping his horse, made him get out of his wagon and surrender his documents. There must have been about four bushels of them. We had matches and shavings on hand, and we piled the latter in the road and emptied the documents on top of them. Then we set fire to them, and in a few minutes they were in a bright blaze. Barry stood by without moving a muscle or uttering a word, and saw his precious documents reduced to ashes. We gave him to understand that we would serve him in the same way if he did not alter his course, and then let him go home. I could hardly recall all the annoyances we heaped upon these people if I were to try. Let it be sufficient to say, that we persecuted them in every possible way short of inflicting bodily injury upon them.\n\n\"We overshot our mark, sir, and made friends instead of enemies for them. As I have told you, a large number of our people were opposed to violence. They now began to condemn us as severely as they did the party we opposed. When the next township election came on, the Free-Love question was made the principal issue. Those of us who favored energetic means were able to control the regular ticket, and we secured the nomination of men pledged to expel our opponents from the County. The Free Lovers and the friends of toleration joined hands in this canvass, and succeeded in electing their ticket Their candidates were pledged to protect the Free Lovers as long as they could not be convicted of violating any law. The fact is, we had disgusted our own friends by our violence, and they turned against us and supported Free Love. This was a hard blow to us, and we confessed ourselves beaten, and gave up the struggle.\n\n\"The Free Lovers had learned wisdom from their past experience. They were now endorsed by a very strong party which had once endeavored to drive them out, and they had every cause for exultation; but, to our surprise, they exhibited very great moderation. They relinquished none of their doctrines and abandoned none of their ways of living, but conducted themselves with more discretion than they had ever done, well knowing, I suppose, that those who had gone so far in their opposition to them, would leave no effort untried to detect their secret practices.\n\n\"Just about this time, when they were exerting themselves to ward off public censure by showing a life outwardly correct, and closing all the means by which outsiders could obtain an insight into their inner workings, a circumstance happened which once more turned the tide of public opinion' against them. They did not live in one family, like the Oneida Community, or in a phalanx, like the Fourierites, but were scattered about in small fruit-farms along one side of the village, and for some distance back into the country. In the summer of 1858, a small group of the most advanced members of the sect took a farm about a mile beyond the village, and lived there together. They were about equally divided as to sex, and were regarded by us as the most honest of their set. Their friends in the village did not look upon them with much favor, declaring that their conduct, which was simply in accordance with their principles, was calculated to bring the sect into disrepute. Hard stories were told of this set of Free Lovers, but they were indignantly denied; and as we had no proof against them, we could do no more than express our disbelief of their denials.\n\n\"One day a neighbor of mine, having missed his cow, set off in search of her. His route led him through the farm of the people I am speaking of, and close by a pretty stream which ran through the place. Not far from the dwelling, this creek was so completely enclosed and shaded by the trees and bushes as to be as private and secluded as a bath-room. The shade was so thick that it was delightfully cool even on the hottest day; and as the water was clear and tolerably deep, no better place for bathing could be found in the country. My neighbor passed within fifty yards of it, and, as he went by, was attracted by the sound of voices and the splashing of water. It was evident that a party of bathers were enjoying the sport and the place. My neighbor listened again, and this time.heard the voices of women as well as of men. Matters were getting interesting, he thought, and he crept cautiously and noiselessly through the bushes till he reached a spot from which he could look down upon the bathers, himself unseen by them. The sight that met his eyes astonished him, bad as he had believed these people to be. About a dozen or more men and women\u2014all that lived on the farm\u2014 were in the water together, and all as naked as when they came into the world. How long they had been in the water before my neighbor saw them, he could not say, but he declared that they were there for nearly an hour after his arrival, as he remained in his hiding-place, watching them until the last one left the spot. You can easily imagine the motive which led a dozen men and women to make such a shameless exhibition of themselves; and you can also understand what took place before they left the spot. It was a scene of the grossest indecency, and, as you may suppose, my neighbor was thoroughly disgusted.\n\n\"After he got home, he came to me and told me of all he had seen, and we agreed to go back the next day, and take two other persons with us, in the hope of getting four witnesses against them. If my friend had held his tongue, the plan might have been successful, and we might have made a case for the courts; but the secret was too heavy for him. He took the whole village into his confidence, and, by the next day, every Free Lover in the place was fully informed of his adventure, and of the trap we had laid for them. All of them, and many of our own people, pitched into my poor friend with a vigor that startled him, and declared that, in seeking to see what he regarded as impure and indecent, he was even more to blame than the guilty actors in the affair. Still, the whole village was indignant at the performance of the bathers. The majority of the Free-Love party professed the greatest disgust at the affair. They held all indignation-meeting, and denounced the 'bad taste' and I bad policy' of the bathers; who, by the way, did not deny the affair, but claimed that it was intended as a practical demonstration of the state of 'Eden innocence' in which they lived.\n\n\"Although the majority of the Free Lovers professed great indignation at the performances of the 'Eden Group,' as they came to be called, they did so in such a manner as to satisfy us that they were at heart in sympathy with them, and were really one with them in all things save discretion. They deceived no one, however, and the indignation which my friend's discovery aroused made the village more of a unit upon this question than it had ever been before. For a while it seemed that we were at length on the eve of getting rid of these troublesome people. Time, however, had taught us wisdom, and we were now all unanimously of the opinion that a resort to violence would not do; so we united in an address or petition to the Free Lovers, requesting them to leave. This request was couched in mild and persuasive terms\u2014 entirely too mild, I thought\u2014and was as ineffectual as our other efforts. We not only requested the 'Eden Group' to leave, but extended the invitation to the entire Society. We wanted none of them to remain behind. They peremptorily refused to do as we desired them. If we wanted to separate from them, they said, we could leave the village ourselves, and they were perfectly willing that we should go; but, having bought their lands and made themselves homes here, they intended to remain. No petitions, addresses, or resolutions on our part could shake their determination. If we tried force, they would resist us. They informed us that they were armed and prepared for war, if it must come, but would only resort to violence in case we began the struggle. They knew very well that they were safe in making this assertion, as only a very small number of us were now willing to resort to force. C. M. Overton, who was one of their best writers, published a pamphlet in reply to our address to them. It was well written and plausible in its statements, and was scattered broadcast through the County. It had the effect of quieting the active opposition of the respectable people of Erie County.\n\n\"This was eleven years ago, and since then we have made no effort to get rid of our disagreeable neighbors. The fact is, they tired us out by their perseverance. We have contented ourselves with art expression of our unqualified dissent from their views, and a denunciation of them whenever opportunity offered, but have done no more. Gradually all open hostility between us died out, and we agreed to accept the situation, and endure what we could not cure. We fell into trading with them, and a stranger would have taken us for one people. But we have never ceased to protest against their presence here, and would be glad to see the last one of them go away.\n\n\"Our policy of non-interference was more successful than our other efforts. Soon after its adoption on our part had taken from the Free Lovers that community of interests which a present danger always imparts, quarrels and dissensions broke out amongst them. Their Spiritualist doctrine of the sovereignty of each individual over his own acts, prevented them from acknowledging a common authority in any thing. Each man was his own master, each woman her own mistress. Each had an entirely distinct doctrine which he wished to see adopted by all the others. The amount of confusion and discord which prevailed in a few years almost passes belief. Barry left the place in sorrow, as he said, his authority and influence as prophet of the new dispensation entirely gone. His visions of promiscuity came to nought, and he shook off the dust of the place-from his feet. Overton became disgusted with the movement, and abandoned it. He is living in Vineland, New Jersey, I believe; but what he is doing, I cannot say. I notice his contributions occasionally in the New York Universe, and judge from them that he has not lost his old grudge against Barry. One by one the best of them went away, despairing of ever seeing their social millennium, and disgusted with their own doctrines. The majority of them have sought refuge in Spiritualism pure and simple, and some of them have married. A few of them\u2014perhaps fifty in all\u2014still live in the neighborhood, but they are very quiet and inoffensive. They hold to their old doctrines, but I believe their lives are correct. Of late years they have made little or no effort to propagate their doctrines; but what they will do now that the woman suffrage and antimarriage parties are acquiring such strength, is, of course, impossible to say.\"\n\n\"Then you regard their experiment here as a failure?\"\n\n\"Unquestionably. As long as our hostility to them threatened them with danger, they were united and harmonious; but as soon as we left them to themselves, they got to quarrelling, and came to grief. As I have told you, all the prominent members of the party have left the place.\"\n\nSuch is the story of the Berlin Heights Free-Love Movement, as the reader may hear it told should his curiosity lead him to seek information concerning it on the spot. The few professors of the doctrine that remain to-day in the village conduct their advocacy of it through the Spiritualist Free-Love journals published in other parts of the country. They still cherish the hope that they will one day see their abominable ideas prevail throughout the land, but, being few in number, are compelled, by the pressure of public opinion on every side of them, to lead lives of outward decency, and to be very moderate and reserved in the expression of their real sentiments. Outwardly their lives are correct, but their influence is pernicious, and is rendered all the more so by the difference which exists between their lives and their doctrines. In common with all the other professors of Free Love, they hail the woman-suffrage movement as the dawning of that socialist millennium for which they have been waiting so long. Marriage stands as a great barrier between that longed-for reign of \"passional attraction \" and the present. Break down that, they say, and the kingdom of Free Love will come. Those who toiled hardest for the \"movement\" are gone from Berlin Heights; but they are more dangerous to society than if they were all still at that place. Scattered over the country and operating from different bases, yet all working for one common end\u2014the inauguration of a state of society in which nothing shall stand between them and the gratification of their lusts\u2014they command larger audiences and have more extended fields of operations. Force cannot be used against them, but there is a species of moral resistance, within the reach of every one, which should be most vigorously and unceasingly directed against them.\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I include the below as James Allen Noyes and Caroline Atwell were connected with the free love community at Berlin Heights, and it&#8217;s known that some early residents of the free-thought community of Liberal came to there from Berlin Heights. It is shortly obvious that the writer had little sympathy for the group, but then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,1],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberal-missouri","category-noyes-line","category-uncategorized","tag-berlin-heights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evermore.imagedjinn.com\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}