Saturday, December 21, 2013

Rapp, Harmony and Smith

The town of Harmony, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1804 by the Harmonists movement, whose acknowledged leader was Georg Rapp. 

The Harmonists were celibate, disavowed all tobacco, lived as a commune, and were preparing for the 2nd coming of Christ. Rapp was taken to be in constant communication with the Divine. 

The Harmonists stayed in Pennsylvania until the lack of space for expansion and the bad climate for growing wine made them decide to head for Indiana; they sold their community to a Mennonite by 1814 or 1815. 

In 1825, Joseph Smith Jr met his future wife Emma Hale there, when he boarded with her father Isaac. In December 1827 they moved from Manchester, New York, to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to claim some of Emma's possession and work a farm near their in-laws.

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