Ceresco, also known as the Wisconsin Phalanx, was a commune founded in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States in 1844 by followers of the communitarian socialist ideas of Charles Fourier. Approximately 180 people lived in the Association at its peak, farming nearly 2,000 acres. It was one of the three longest-lived Fourierist Associations in the United States, dissolving in 1850, and was unique for having assets which exceeded liabilities at the time of its termination.
Since the Fourierist Association had registered their community under state law, the village of Ceresco, Wisconsin survived the collapse of the utopian socialist experiment of the 1840s. Remaining members of the Wisconsin Phalanx later formed a living cooperative and study group called the Ceresco Union in 1855, espousing the doctrines of religious freethought and interpersonal free love until dispersed by a mob of outraged citizens.
In 1858 the remaining inhabitants of Ceresco were annexed by the nearby town of Ripon.
History
Background
In 1832 the son of a wealthy New York landowner, Albert Brisbane (1809–1890), a student of philosophy in search of ideas for the betterment of humanity, was introduced to a newly published short work by philosopher Charles Fourier (1772–1837) entitled Treatise on Domestic and Agricultural Association.Henry E. Hoagland, "Humanitarianism (1840-1860)" in John R. Commons, et al., History of Labour in the United States: Volume 1. New York: Macmillan, 1918; pp. 496-497. Brisbane was an immediate convert to the French thinker's ideas, which Fourier somewhat grandiosely ascribed to universal laws governing the development of society, the understanding of which allowed productive enterprise to be reorganized on a rational basis, production expanded, and human needs more readily fulfilled.
In 1832 Brisbane left for Paris to spend two years studying Fourier's system, taking personal tutelage from the 60-year-old theorist himself.Morris Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States. Revised 5th Edition. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1910; pg. 80. Brisbane would make the acquaintance of other devotees of Fourier's ideas during this initial phase of the Fourierist movement, returning to the United States a committed believer and proselytizer of the Fourier's idea of "Association." Brisbane would soon begin work translating and expounding upon the ideas of Fourier for an American audience, with his first and most famous book, Social Destiny of Man, seeing print in 1840.
Brisbane's book was well-received and it enjoyed immediate success, gaining a broad readership among those concerned with the problems of society and helping to launch the Fourierist movement in the United States.Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States, pg. 81. Among those who read Brisbane's book and was thereby converted to the ideas of socialism was a young New York newspaper publisher, Horace Greeley, later elected to the US House of Representatives. Greeley would provide valuable service to the Fourierist movement by advancing its ideas in the pages of his newspaper of that day, The New Yorker, throughout 1840 and 1841, and offering Brisbane a column in his successor publication, the New York Tribune, from the time of its establishment in March 1842.Hoagland, "Humanitarianism," pg. 501.
A further book by Brisbane adapting Fourier's ideas to American conditions, entitled Association: Or, A Concise Exposition of the Practical Part of Fourier's Social Science, would be published in 1843.Hoagland, "Humanitarianism," pg. 498. A faddish boom seeking to test Fourier's ideas on "Association" in practice soon followed, and from 1843 to 1845 more than 30 Fourierian "phalanxes" were established in a number of northern and midwestern states.The word "phalanx" (plural: phalanstries) was Fourierist jargon for an organized and structured community, also known as an "association." The so-called Wisconsin Phalanx, known to its participants as Ceresco, was one of these practical experiments which attempted to put into practice the Fourierian ideas.
Establishment
The Upper Midwest was not immune to the Fourierist hubbub that had begun to percolate in the United States in 1843. In the fall of that year the Franklin Lyceum of Southport (today known as Kenosha) began taking up discussion of Fourier's ideas in a series of public discussions.* Samuel M. Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its 50th Annual Meeting held Dec. 11, 1902. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1903; pp. 191-192. On November 21 the society debated the proposition "Does the system of Fourier present a practicable plan for such a reorganization of society as will guard against our present social ills?"Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 192. After a week's pause, two more successive weekly meetings of the lyceum were dedicated to the Fourier program.
One of those Southport residents most interested in the Fourier system was a 30-year-old named Warren Chase, a future Wisconsin and California State Senator. Convinced of the applicability of Fourier's "Associationist" prescription, Chase committed himself to the emerging movement without reservation, organizing a series of preliminary meetings to draft a constitution for a local "phalanx."Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pp. 192-193.
On March 23, 1844, a formal meeting of phalanx supporters was held at the Southport village schoolhouse and officers were elected in accordance with the constitution previously drafted.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 193. Five hundred copies of the group's constitution and bylaws were printed for public distribution and a group of three, including Warren Chase, were tapped as trustees of the phalanx, to serve as legal title-holders to all the property of the nascent community. A bond sale of $10,000 was approved and stock in the new enterprise began to be sold. Shares of stock were sold for $25 each, payable in cash or property.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 195. By the end of May 1844, membership in the forthcoming phalanx stood at 71.
A domain for the phalanx had been located in the spring, and on May 8, 1844, the decision made to purchase 1.25 sections (800 acres) of attractive government land,Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pp. 193-194. located in a valley between two gentle hills. By that fall a total of 1.5 sections (960 acres) were purchased.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 194. Instructions were issued to participants to obtain a tent to provide temporary shelter until permanent housing could be constructed, and details for provisioning the settling party arranged.
The group arrived on the site on Saturday May 25, 1844 at 5 pm,Letter of George Stebbins to theSouthport Telegraph, May 27, 1844. Published in John Humphrey Noyes, History of American Socialisms. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1880; pp. 412-414. naming their community "Ceresco" after Ceres, Roman goddess of the harvest. A total of 19 men and a 7-year-old boy were on hand for the launch,Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 199. immediately dividing themselves into agricultural and mechanical series, with the former assigned the immediate task of beginning plowing while the latter began digging a cellar for the group's first frame building, intended as the central wing of a structure planned to be extended to 120 feet in length. Upon completion in 1845, the finished "long building" for collective housing would measure 208 feet long by 32 feet wide.Warren Chase, "Annual Statement on the Condition and progress of the Wisconsin Phalanx, for the Fiscal Year Ending December 1, 1845." Published in Noyes, History of American Socialisms, pp. 418-421.
Governance
According to the constitution of the Association, decisions were to be made by an elected group including four executive officers — a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer — as well as a nine-person board of managers. It was specified that these officers could be removed from their positions for neglect of duty, absence, or incompetence. Three trustees were to hold title to the organization's property. The board of managers and officers were prohibited from entering into any contract without the unanimous approval of the community's stockholders.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 196.
In accordance with the Fourierist joint-stock system, individuals could participate either as stockholders or as members or as both. No person could be admitted to membership without approval of the board of managers, however, with the board given latitude to set conditions of membership. Membership could be terminated upon two weeks' notice, with those withdrawing from the Association to receive their pro rated share of profits of the enterprise up to that date.
Stockholders were to meet twice yearly. Stockholders received one vote for their first share and an additional vote for each five shares thereafter, the total of votes per individual not to exceed ten.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pp. 195-196. Both men and women were allowed to hold stock and granted the voting rights associated with stock ownership.
Every December the cash value of the phalanx's real estate was to be estimated and any increase declared as payments for labor, divided according to hours worked, or shareholder profits, divided according to the number of shares held. Necessary products and board were to be furnished to the phalanx's members at cost and rent collected for living in the group's collective housing.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pp. 196-197. Individuals were permitted to keep their own horse and carriage on the association's land, with payment to be made to cover the actual cost of animal maintenance.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 197.
The elected board of managers was to make the business decisions of the phalanx and to differentiate and assess the various types of work. Whenever five or more individuals engaged in a similar branch of industry, these were to organize as a "group" and to elect a foreman, who would be charged with keeping an account of the work performed by each member of that unit.
Multiple groups in similar pursuits were to in turn organize themselves as a "series" and to elect a "superintendent," who would assess the productiveness of each group in the series. Under the theoretical Fourierist scheme once a community grew to sufficient scale, these superintendents were to constitute themselves as a "council of industry." This elaborate bureaucratic apparatus above the level of groups and foremen remained in the distant mists of Fourierian fantasy due to the small scale of the Wisconsin experiment.
Disagreements were to be settled by arbitration, in which each involved party was to select an arbitrator, with the two arbitrators selecting a third.Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," pg. 198. Decisions of the arbitrators could be appealed to the board, whose decision would be final. This system seems to have been effective, as no lawsuits ever took place between members of the phalanx, or between departing parties and the organized association, for the entire time of Ceresco's existence.
Daily life
The "domain" of the Wisconsin Phalanx was obtained without incurring mortgage debt. A stream called Crystal Creek ran through the property, with sufficient elevation to allow for installment of a water-driven mill. Quantities of limestone were on hand for the needs of construction and the land selected included a suitable mix of tillable prairie and timber.