1814, 200 years ago this year.

Harmonists, or Rappites move from Harmony, Pennsylvania (home of Emma Smith) to Indiana.

In 1805 a group of approximately 400 persecuted German Lutheran Separatists formally organized the Harmony Society in Pennsylvania (Harmony, PA). They placed their goods in common under its founder and self proclaimed prophet, Johann Georg Rapp. They believed baptism was not necessary until children could decide for themselves, the U.S. was "the land of Israel," they should abstain from tobacco, that Napoleon was the anti-Christ, in a spirit virgin named Sophia, that God had created Adam as a dual being, having male and female sexual organs, but when the female portion of Adam separated to form Eve, disharmony followed (but one could attempt to regain harmony through celibacy) and an imminent 2nd coming. The Society existed for one hundred years in the U.S., roughly from 1805 until 1905. Members were known as Harmonists, Harmonites, or Rappites. Rapp became inspired by the philosophies of Jakob Bö, Philipp Jakob Spener, Johann Heinrich Jung, and Emanuel Swedenborg, among others and beliefs were founded in esoteric mysticism, probably including alchemy.

[Source: Brooke, John L. The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. p.282]

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