Communitarians

Click here for a longer (but older) list of communitarians. | Click here for monuments related to 8 communitarians.
Click here for return to worldwide list of notable peacemakers (& for meaning of symbols).
= Quaker or Friend
= Bryn Gweled Homesteads, Upper Southampton, Penslyvania
= School of Living (SOL), Various locations in NY, OH, MD, PA & VA
= Highlander Research & Education Center, New Market, Tennessee
= Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC)
= Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)

1691-1768 - Conrad Beissel - Founder of Ephrata Cloister in Pennsylvania (USA) in 1732.

1757-1847 - George Rapp - Founder religious sect called Harmonists, Harmonites, Rappites or the Harmony Society. Communities in Pennsylvania & Indiana.

1763-1840 - William Maclure - Geologist. Followed Robert Owen (qv) to New Harmony, Indiana. President of Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

1771-1858 - Robert Owen - Reformer. Helped found New Lanark (Scotland) in 1786. Founded New Harmony, Indiana (USA) c.1824.

1795-1852 - Frances Wright - Freethinker & abolitionist. Founded interracial commune of Nashoba in Tennessee (USA) in 1825.

1798-1874 - Josiah Warren - Inventor, musician & author. "First American anarchist."

1801-1877 - Robert Dale Owen - Son of Robert Owen (qv). Editor of Free Enquirer, a socialistic & anti-Christian weekly, which he ran with Frances Wright 1828-1832.

1803-1880 - Adin Ballou - Minister, pacifist & socialist. Founded the Hopedale Community in 1842.

1822-1896 - Thomas Hughes - Lawyer & author. Wrote "Tom Brown's School Days" (1857). Founded Rugby, Tennessee, as a UtoWill Price [1861-1916]pian community in 1880.

1839-1897 - Henry George - Economist & "single tax" theorist. Inspired communities lke Arden, Delaware, & Fairhope, Alabama.

1847-1916 - Albert Kimsey Owen - Engineer. Organized Topolobampo Cooperative Colony (Mexico). Promoted railroad from there to Kansas City.

1850-1898 - Edward Bellamy - Author & socialist. Most famous for his futuristic utopian novel "Looking Backward: 2000-1887" & the formation of over 160 "Nationalist Clubs."

1854-1938 - Bolton Hall - Originated the back-to-the-land movement. Founded Free Acres Community in New Jersey in 19010.

1859-1935 - Frank Stephens - Sculptor, political activist & co-founder of a utopian single-tax community in Arden, Delaware.

1861-1916 - Will Price - Architect, pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete & co-founder of utopian communities in Arden, Delaware, & Rose Valley, Pennsylvania.

1864-1938 - Marietta Johnson - Leader in the Progressive Education movement. Founded School of Organic Education in Fairhope, Alabama.

1878-1975 - Arthur Ernest Morgan - Civil engineer. Headed Antioch College 1920-36, TVA 1933-38 & intentional communities 1948. Recruited CO's for Celo Community. P

1883-1935 - Eberhard Arnold - Anabaptist. "A modern-day Saint Francis" Founded Bruderhof Communities 1920. Visited Hutterites in USA 1930. Nazis expelled Bruderhof 1937.

1883-1983 - Scott Nearing - Grew up in Arden, Delaware. Husband of Helen Knothe Nearing with whom he co-authored "Living the Good Life" in 1954.

1884-1965 - Clarence E. Pickett - Directed American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) which received Nobel Peace Prize. Lived at Pendle Hill. 1947

c1885-19?? - Homer Morris - Worked for AFSC. Lived at Pendle Hill. Founded Cumberland Homesteads. Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) created Homer Morris Loan Fund in 1952.

1885-1967 - A. J. Muste - Clergyman & political activist. Best remembered for work in labor, pacifist & US civil rights movements.

1886-1977 - Ralph Borsodi - Decentralist & communitarian. Wrote "This Ugly Civilization" in 1929. Founded School of Living. Helped found Bryn Gweled Homesteads in 1940.

1888-1968 - John Andrew Rice - Educator. Left Rollins College after clashing with Hamilton Holt (qv). Founded Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1933.

1888-1969 - William Macy Stanton - Architect in Philadelphia. Asked by Arthur Morgan (qv) to design TVA houses in Norris, Tennesse. Then designed houses in nearly Cumberland Homesteads.

1896-1984 - Ralph T. Templin - Missionary & teacher. Acquainted with Gandhi in India, Ralph Borsodi in New York & Arthur Morgan in Ohio. P

1896-1987 - E. Raymond Wilson - Peace Section, Amer Friends Service Cte 1931-43. Co-founded Bryn Gweled Homesteads in 1940. Exec Sec Friends Cte on Nat Legislation (FCNL) 1943-62.

c1900-1985 - Georgia Snyder Bergstrom - Studied public housing in Europe in 1938. Co-founded Bryn Gweled Homesteads in 1940.

1900-1992 - Mildred Jansen Loomis - Decentralist. Successor to Ralph Borsodi (qv). Operated School of Living (SOL) in OH, MD & PA.

1905-1990 - Myles Horton - Founded Highlander Research & Education Center in 1932. Husband of Zilphia Horton (qv).

1905-2001 - Ernest Morgan - Eldest son of Arthur Ernest Morgan. Communitarian at Celo Community in North Carolina. Wrote "Dealing Creatively With Death." P

1908-2000 - Marian Siddall Dockhorn - Activist for women, justice & peace.Co-founded Bryn Gweled Homesteads 1940. Founded Bucks Cty Peace Fair 1958. Mother of Robert Dockhorn (qv).

1910-1956 - Zilphia Horton - Civil rights activist & folklorist. Modified hymns into songs of the Civil Rights movement. Wife of Myles Horton (qv). See Guy Carawan.

1910-2005 - Paul Keene - Acquainted with Gandhi in India & Ralph Borsodi in New York. Started Walnut Acres in Pennsylvania just after World War II.

c1910-Alive - Con Browne - At Koinonia Farm in Georgia 1949-63. Hard time forced move to Highlander Research & Education Center in Tennessee. P

1911-1977 - E. F. Schumacher - Economic thinker, statistician & economist. Wrote "Small in Beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered" in 1973.

1912-1969 - Clarence Jordan - Founded Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia (USA), in 1942. Helped found Habitat for Humanity. 2008

1913-1982 - J. Heinrich (Heini) Arnold - Son of Eberhard Arnold (qv). Moved to England in 1938, South America in 1941 & Woodcrest Bruderhof in Rifton, New York, in 1954.

c1914-Alive - Marjorie Ewbank - Clerk of Tract Association of Friends. World federalist. Communitarian at Bryn Gweled Homesteads. Wife of John Ewbank (qv).

1916-2012 - John R. Ewbank - Lawyer. World federalist. Communitarian at Bryn Gweled Homesteads in Pennsylvania. Wrote "A History of the World Government Movement" c2001.

1918-2003 - Robert Swann - Anti-nuclear communitarian. Created EF Schumacher Soc & Voluntown Peace Trust. See autobio & wife Marjorie Swann Edwin. CO

1921-Alive - Melvin Norris (Mel) Leasure - Teacher. Communitarian at Cooperative Homesteads near Detroit & Common Ground near Lexington, VA. Pres of School of Living (SOL). CO

c1925-Alive - Maria Dehn Peters - Resident of Bryn Gweled Homesteads. Daughter of Max Dehn (buried Black Mtn College, NC). Widow of Ted Peters (Friendsville, TN).

1927-Alive - Guy Carawan - Folk musician, Highlander Center. Popularized "We Shall Overcome." Wife is Candie Carawan. Honored at Nat Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.

1929-Alive - Staughton Lynd - Radical, author & labor lawyer. Subject of "The Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd & Cold War Dissent, 1945-1970." CO

c1930-Alive - Donald E. Pitzer - Director, Center for Communal Studies, University of Southern Indiana (USI), Evansville, Indiana.

1935-Alive - Stephen Gaskin - Counterculture hippie icon best known for Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960's & for co-founding The Farm in Tennessee.

1937-Alive - Kirkpatrick Sale - Scholar. Writes about environmentalism, luddism, technology & decentralism. Called "Leader of the Neo-Luddites."

1944-Alive - Timothy S. Miller - Professor of religious studies, University of Kansas. Writes about history of communitarianism.

1945-2010 - Glen Evan Leasure - Son of Mel Leasure (qv). Communitarian at Cooperative Homesteads near Detroit & Common Ground near Lexington, VA. Built houses in Sierra Leone.

c1945-Alive - Robert Dockhorn - Senior Editor of Friends Journal in Philadelphia. Resident of Bryn Gweled Homesteads. Son of Marian Dockhorn (qv).

c1950-Alive - Hans Peters - Home inspector. Resident of Bryn Gweled Homesteads. Board Sec of Fund for an Open Society. Son of socialist Hans Peters. Husband of Laurie Lynch.

c1950-Alive - Laird Schaub - Executive Secretary of Fellowship of Intentional Community (FIC). Lives at Sandhill Farm in Missouri.