Series III. NHC v. 12: Proceedings of the Preliminary Society and Minutes of the Convention for Forming a Constitution for the Society at New Harmony

Series: Series III  

1825-1826 1 folder

Scope Note: When Arthur E. Bestor, Jr. catalogued the Institute's manuscripts in 1950, he designated twelve bound volumes as records of the New Harmony Community. Ten of the volumes consist of the financial accounts: journals of the transactions of the Preliminary Society, ledgers of the business of the Community of Equality, ledger and Day Book of the Education Society ― all covering the years 1825-1827. The eleventh volume, entitles "Community Dances," carries the name Robert Fauntleroy. Volume 12 was in the possession of the Pears family of Pittsburgh from the time Thomas C. and Sarah Pears and their children left New Harmony for Pittsburgh in the spring of 1826 until 1980 when it was donated to the Working Men's . Volume 12 contains two sets of minutes: the Proceedings of the Preliminary Society, and the Minutes of the Convention for Forming a Constitution for the Society at New Harmony. The Preliminary Society minutes covered the period November 2, 1825, to February 28, 1826, and are written on fourteen pages. They record actions taken on various affairs of the Community. An important document, the Valuation of Labor, February 8, 1826, appears both within the minute book and as a separate loose item written in another hand. When the Convention was held, the volume was reversed and the minutes of its sessions, January 25, 1826-February 6, 1826, written from the other end and cover twenty-seven pages. This Convention adopted the Constitution for the Community of Equality which brought the Preliminary Society to an end. The minutes include the full text of several drafts and proposals: that of the committee appointed for the purpose, those offered by Robert Owen and Robert Dale Owen, and the revision of the committee's draft. The final text finally adopted appeared in the New Harmony Gazette on February 15, 1826. Thomas Pears, who kept the minutes of proceedings in New Harmony from November 1825 to February 1826, had come from England to New York in 1801 at about age 16, and went to work for Benjamin Bakewell. Both he and John James Audubon, the famous naturalist and artist, were employed as clerks for this firm from 1804 to 1806, and were associated by marriage as well. When Bakewell left New York in 1808 for Pittsburgh, where he founded the glassworks of Bakewell & Ensell, Pears was employed by the new firm, and went on several missions to Europe to procure workers and clay. In 1815-1816 he and his wife Sarah Palmer (who had come to New York in 1794 with her mother and maternal aunt, the wife of Benjamin Bakewell, and had married Pears in 1806) were in partnership in a gristmill at Henderson, Kentucky, with Audubon and his wife, Lucy Bakewell (also Benjamin's niece), and her brother, Thomas Woodhouse Bakewell. When this partnership failed, the Pearses returned to Pittsburgh. By 1825 Thomas and Sarah had become so strongly attracted by the promises of Robert Owen's New Social System that they joined the Community that spring. The letters they wrote to Bakewell and his wife about developments and events constitute one of the most important sources available for information about this period. From November 1825 to February 1826 Thomas Pears served as recorder and secretary of the constitutional convention, and wrote up their proceedings. On their departure from New Harmony a year later, the volume left with them on their return to Pittsburgh. They again associated themselves with the Bakewell firm, but shortly thereafter lost their lives in the flood of 1832. Their oldest son, John Palmer Pears, and his son Thomas Clinton Pears, continued with the glass business which became Bakewell, Pears & Company in 1842, until it ceased operations in 1882. Thomas C. Pears, Jr. edited the Pears papers for the Indiana Historical Society in 1933 under the title, New Harmony: an Adventure in Happiness, making available this storehouse of information. Thomas C. Pears, III, has written articles and given lectures about his family and the Bakewell, Pears glassworks. He has also edited and published a beautiful reproduction of the Company's1875 catalogue. On February 5, 1980 Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Pears III generously presented Volume 12 to the Workingmen's Institute because they felt that such an important document should join the other records of the New Harmony Community. Josephine Elliott, who had been in correspondence with Mr. Pears for a number of years, effected the gift and brought the precious volume back from Pittsburgh.

Series III Subjects:

Pears, Thomas

Pears, Sarah

Catalogued by Josephine M. Elliott, July 1980.

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Proceedings of the Preliminary Society and Minutes of the Convention for Forming a Constitution for the Society at New Harmony 1825-1826