We all want to live in a perfect society. Who wouldn’t? That desire drives us to be better, to make better decisions, to elect better leaders. Political campaigns are often about promises to bring us closer to perfection. Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge in 1860 with the slogan, “Vote Yourself a Farm.” In 1928, Herbert Hoover won the presidential election with the campaign slogan “A Chicken in Every Pot and a Car in Every Garage.” In 1956, President Eisenhower promised “Peace and Prosperity.” George H.W. Bush ran on a platform of a “Kinder, Gentler Nation” in 1988.
Still, most would agree that we have yet to achieve genuine utopia - or perhaps anything even close to it.
Welcome to Utopia
Utopia is a real place. It’s in Ohio, about 40 miles outside of Cincinnati off Route 52. It’s a quiet town, home to around 150 people….and possibly a few ghosts (more about that later). To the casual observer, Utopia may not look like much; if not for the unassuming road sign across from the general store, you could easily drive straight through and never know it. But this little piece of land, nestled along the banks of the Ohio River, has borne witness to the rise of three utopian societies. And one by one, it’s watched them fall.
Fourierists
The birth of what became Utopia can be traced back to 1844. Historical context is important here; in 1844 the country was still working through the economic upheaval of the Industrial Revolution and a financial panic that had left many families without jobs and searching for a better way of life. Enter Charles Fourier, a French philosopher who believed that cooperation was the key to a successful society. His idea inspired many communities across the United States, including the one on the site of present day Utopia, Ohio..
Fourier’s followers created a communal society. Families could pay a fee of $25 dollars to join the community, and were then given a small parcel of land and a house.
In the end, this iteration of Utopia only lasted about two years. The desires of individuals proved a more powerful force than the Fourierists had anticipated. By 1846, many community members had grown disillusioned with the realities of the communalist system and moved on.
Spiritualists
This is where Utopia’s possible ghost population comes in. In 1847, a group of Spiritualists, led by a man named John Wattles, took up residence in Utopia. The Spiritualists believed that the dead could communicate with the living, and they put their faith in what those spirits told them.
Unfortunately the spirits didn’t tell them that they had built their town too close to the Ohio River, a mistake which proved to be their downfall. On a fateful night in December, 1847 the river flooded, essentially wiping the community off the map.
Many present day residents claim the town is still haunted by the ghosts of the Spiritualist community.
Anarchists
Credit for name “Utopia” belongs to Josiah Warren, who purchased the land after the demise of the Spiritualist community. Warren believed in individual rights and no hierarchy, which earned him a reputation as an early anarchist. His version of Utopia was a labor based economy, where property was owned by individuals, and goods were paid for in hours of work.
The only way to join the community was to be invited by someone who lived there. That invitation-only system was meant to protect the rights of individuals to choose who they associated with. However, it was the community’s exclusivity and the unwillingness of its neighbors to allow it to grow, that ultimately caused Warren’s Utopia to fail. By the mid-1850s, many of the community members, frustrated with their inability to expand, had packed up and moved away.
Utopia in Kentucky
Ok, so maybe none of those alternative societies achieved lasting success as a true utopia, but does that mean it can’t be achieved? It would seem that for as long as there has been civilization, there have been people seeking to perfect it - striving for harmony, equity, and prosperity, but never quite finding the right recipe. Today, you can see the remnants of many failed attempts at creating utopia in your own state.
If you travel about an hour outside of Louisville, you can spend a day exploring a centuries-old community that has been preserved and restored for tourists to enjoy. Pleasant Hill, Kentucky was once home to a thriving Shaker community of around 600 members. The Shakers, a religious group who believed in peace, communalism, gender equality, and celibacy, first came to Kentucky in 1805. Recruited members swelled its ranks when childbirths didn’t. The community quickly flourished, becoming known for their high-quality livestock, innovative farming techniques, and one of the first municipal water systems in Kentucky.
Then came the Civil War.
Not only were the Shakers pacifists, they were also abolitionists. This stance put them at odds with nearby confederate sympathizers – while angering their Union neighbors, who could not understand their refusal to take up arms in the war effort. The war took a heavy toll Pleasant Hill in many ways. Not only was the community targeted for attacks by extremists groups, the Shakers also expended resources feeding and caring for soldiers on both sides, putting the community in debt.
After the war, recruitment dwindled; the declining population combined with the Shaker’s adherence to celibacy resulted in a steep decline in population. The Pleasant Hill community was dissolved in 1910.
Can we ever achieve Utopia?
The founding documents of the United States promise a “more perfect union,” so perhaps it’s no wonder Americans are still striving for a utopian society. Every time there’s an election, voters head to the polls and cast votes for the people they believe will bring the country closer to perfection; people who promise to fix what is broken and heal what is divided.
But can we ever achieve utopia? And if we can, what will we have to give up in order to get there? Chief National Political Reporter Josh Robin visits Utopia, Ohio to find out in the second episode of Untangled. Watch it now in the video at the top of this article.
*Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS KY, 84-SHAKT, 4--10