Society of Separatists of Zoar

Religious society founded in Zoar, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, by a group of German immigrants.

From the description of Society of Separatists of Zoar records, 1817-1927 (1817-1873). (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 19795619

Society of Separatists of Zoar (1817-1898) was a religious community founded by German immigrants, who named their settlement overlooking the Tuscarawas River in Ohio after the Biblical Zoar. Zoar, according to the Bible, was the refuge of Lot after the destruction of Sodom, and to these immigrants their community in America was a sanctuary from the persecutions of the government and the established church of Wurttemberg, Germany. These Germans were called "separatists" for their separation from the established church and were scorned and punished for their opposition to baptism and confirmation, their pacifism, and their refusal to acknowledge secular and religious authority by removing their hats. In April 1817, three hundred impoverished separatists led by Joseph M. Bimeler (formerly Baumeler) sailed from Germany to Philadelphia, from whence they moved to what became Zoar.

The financial burden of emigration and the cost of establishing a new settlement in Ohio were partly carried by Quakers in Great Britain and Philadelphia who sympathized with the persecuted Germans and shared their simplicity of religious organization, their pacifism, and their pietism. When the Society bought 5,500 acres in Ohio from Godfrey Haga in 1817, Quakers loaned part of the money. Joseph Bimeler, as leader of the Society, promised to pay the remaining $15,000 in fifteen years.

Finances continued to be a pressing problem during the first years. In 1819, the community decided to pool the resources of all members into a common fund which was to be administered by the elected officials of the Society according to the Articles of Association of April 19, 1819. Joseph Bimeler was elected agent-general in charge of all the community's affairs, a post he held until his death in 1853. For financial as well as religious reasons, the community in those early years required celibacy and thereby limited the number of children unable to work. Thus, financial motives were largely responsible for the communism and chastity of the Society of Separatists at Zoar.

By the 1830s, the community was blessed with prosperity. The Zoarites had constructed part of the Ohio Canal and had received $21,000 from the state. More profits were gained from selling supplies to other canal workers. The Separatists had also developed a number of industries to make themselves self-sufficient, including wagon, copper, and tin shops as well as flour, woolen, and planing mills. In 1834, they constructed the Zoar Furnace, whose pig-iron products they sold to the outside world. From 1834 to 1836 the Zoar community attempted unsuccessfully to construct a railroad to Carrolton, Ohio called the Yellow Creek, Carrolton and Zoar Railroad. This financial failure was offset by successful investments into the stocks of Canton, Cleveland, and Massillon banks. In short, the community had become prosperous and economically diverse. A manifestation of this change in fortune was the end of celibacy in 1828 or 1830.

The Society remained prosperous until Joseph Bimeler's death in 1853, when Zoar was estimated to be worth more than five million dollars. By this time, the Zoarites had constructed the Fairfield Furnace, and sold improved Zoar's commercial position. The community hired outside laborers to supplement its work force and built a hotel to attract and accommodate tourists. Despite its interaction with the outside world, no native American ever became a member of the Society. Instead, the Society grew from the posterity of its original membership and expanded by admitting new members from the German Separatist immigrants, to whom the Zoarites had sent money for emigration.

The death of Joseph Bimeler marked the beginning of the Society's decline. Leadership of the Society passed on to Jacob Sylvan, then to Christian Weebel, who was succeeded by Jacob Ackerman, and finally to Simon Beuter, but no one adequately filled the place of Bimeler. The Society continued to invest in the outside world, and bought federal and Ohio government bonds, shares of stock in railroads, and involved itself in the imported hardware market in Philadelphia and the gold market in New York City. The Zoarites also made loans to private individuals, to companies such as the Tuscarawas Coal and Iron Company, and to the county of Tuscarawas. However, the industrial machinery of the Society itself was not improved and the products of Zoar suffered from competition. One by one, industries were closed because the Society found it less expensive to buy from outside the community than to be self-sufficient. Eventually, the financial status of the community suffered.

The failure of the economic leadership was matched by the inability of the new leaders to maintain the morale of the Society. Many of the sermons of Joseph Bimeler were published in 1856 and read before the membership in an unsuccessful effort to instill the spirit of the first generation into the second generation Zoarites. The Civil War induced some of the young Zoarites to abandon their traditional pacifism. The coming of the railroad to Zoar in 1884 exacerbated the tension between the old and the young by bringing more tourists who brought new ways of life into Zoar. Increasingly, the old ways and the old leaders were questioned in Zoar. Some Zoarites even accused the trustees of favoritism in handling the community's affairs.

Levi Bimeler, a great grandson of Joseph Bimeler, struck the blow that shook and ultimately toppled the Zoar Society. Levi Bimeler and many other Zoarites were hostile to Alexander Gunn, a retired Cleveland businessman whom the Zoarites had given a cabin, even though Gunn was not a member of the Society. Gunn and the trustees formed an exclusive coterie and entertained each other often. To Levi Bimeler, Gunn was an example of favoritism at the expense of the membership. In 1895, Levi Bimeler organized the first Zoarite periodical, The Nugitna, which spelled backward meant anti-Gunn. In four issues, he attacked the trustees and the principle of communal ownership until the leaders ordered him to stop or to leave the community and abandon his share of the Society's commonwealth. Although Bimeler ceased publication, discontent continued, and after three years, the declining wealth of the community and the arguments of Levi Bimeler convinced the majority of the Zoarites to divide their property. The Society's property was distributed among the members, and the power of the trustees ended. At the dissolution of the Society in 1898, there were 222 men, women and children living in Zoar, and the property of the Society was valued at $3,500,000.

From the guide to the Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, 1817-1927, (Western Reserve Historical Society)