elsewhere. A great deal of the work had to be done by hired help.
Under the leadership of the younger element it was decided in 1898 to
abandon communism. Appraisers and surveyors were set to work to parcel
out the property. Each of the 136 members received a cash dividend, a
home in the village, and a plot of land. The average value of each
share, which was in the neighborhood of $1500, was not a large return
for three generations of communistic experimentation. But these had
been, after all, years of moderate competence and quiet contentment,
and if they took their toll in the coin of hope, as their song set
forth, then these simple Württembergers were fully paid.

The Inspirationists were a sect that made many converts in Germany,
Holland, and Switzerland in the eighteenth century. They believed in
direct revelations from God through chosen "instruments." In 1817, a
new leader appeared among them in the person of Christian Metz, a man
of great personal charm, worldly shrewdness, and spiritual fervor.
Allied with him was Barbara Heynemann, a simple maid without
education, who learned to read the Scriptures after she was
twenty-three years of age. Endowed with the peculiar gift of
"translation," she was cherished by the sect as an instrument of God
for revealing His will.

To this pair came an inspiration to lead their harassed followers to
America. In 1842 they purchased the Seneca Indian Reservation near
Buffalo, New York. They called their new home Ebenezer, and in 1843
they organized the Ebenezer Society, under a constitution which
pledged them to communism. Over eight hundred peasants and artisans
joined the colony, and their industry soon had created a cluster of
five villages with mills, workshops, schools, and dwellings. But they
were continually annoyed by the Indians from whom they had purchased