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
the site and were distracted by the rapidly growing city of Buffalo,
which was only five miles away!

This threat of worldliness brought a revelation that they must seek
greater seclusion. A large tract on the Iowa River was purchased, and
to this new site the population was gradually transferred. There they
built Amana. Within a radius of six miles, five subsidiary villages
sprang up, each one laid out like a German _dorf_, with its cluster of
shops and mills, and the cottages scattered informally on the main
road. When the railway tapped the neighborhood, the community in
self-defense purchased the town that contained the railway station. So
when the good Christian Metz died in 1867, at the age of seventy-two,
his pious followers, thanks to his sagacity, were possessed of some
twenty-six thousand acres of rich Iowa land and seven thriving
villages, comfortably housing about 1400 of the faithful. Barbara
Heynemann died in 1883, and since her death no "instrument" has been
found to disclose the will of God. But many ponderous tomes of
"revelations" have survived and these are faithfully read and their
naive personal directions and inhibitions are still generally obeyed.
The Bible, however, remains the main guide of these people, and they
follow its instructions with childish literalism. Until quite recently
they clung to the simple dress and the austere life of their earlier
years. The solidarity of the community has been maintained with rare
skill. The "Great Council of the Brethren" upon whom is laid the
burden of directing all the affairs, has avoided government by mass
meeting, discouraged irresponsible talk and criticism, and, as an
aristocracy of elders, has shrewdly controlled the material and
spiritual life of the community.

The society has received many new members. There have been accessions
from Zoar and Economy and o