Thomas Lake Harris

Thomas Lake Harris (born May 15, 1823 in Fenny Stratford , Borough of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire , † March 23, 1906 in the United States ) was an American preacher, entrepreneur, winemaker and member or founder of communities . He is attributed to the movement of the Swedenborgians and founded the sect-like community Brotherhood of New Life , which was mainly active in the states of New York and California .

Life

Born in England, Harris and his family moved to Utica , New York, United States as a child . His parents were strict Calvinists , the father worked as a grocer. The birth mother died early, the father remarried, and the relationship with the stepmother was cool.

As a young adult, Harris gave up belonging to Calvinism and first turned to missionary work within the framework of religious universalism ; he took on priestly functions in the Fourth Universalist Society of the Unitarian Universalist Association . In 1847 he became a follower of spiritualism . Around 1850 he joined the newly formed Mountain Cove community in Wythe County , Virginia , which was disbanded two years later due to internal disputes. For the next several years he preached and taught in the United States and England.

Activities in New York State

In 1861 Harris and some supporters bought farmland in Wassaic ( Amenia ) in Dutchess County, New York, where he founded a first community which he called the Amenia or Brotherhood of New Life . Here Harris opened a bank, a flour mill and a winery. The Brotherhood of New Life was a socially utopian, religious community whose spiritual basis was mystical-Christian doctrines, communalization of property, group marriage with separation of the sexes and the belief in fairy beings. Breathing techniques were practiced. In addition to the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg , Harris had also incorporated elements of Fourierism according to Charles Fourier into the rules of the community . Members were required to surrender their worldly property to Harris and work in the various commercial enterprises of the community.

This community moved to Brocton, Chautauqua County, New York , in the mid-1860s , where they farmed around 2000 acres of farmland on Lake Erie . In addition to viticulture, a tree nursery ( Chautauqua Country Greenhouse and Nurseries ) was also operated. As a result, Harris traveled several times to England to find more financially strong followers. The number of Brotherhood members in the US and UK peaked in 2000, including the English politician Laurence Oliphant , who brought significant funds to the community. The Japanese Arai Ōsui also found interest in it and stayed there for 30 years. The wines produced by the Brotherhood were popular in the region. The winery on Lake Erie traded under the name Lake Erie and Missouri River Wine Company . Wine was produced here at least until 1881. The Brotherhood also ran a hotel and restaurant on the site.

The New York wine merchants Jesse and Edward Emerson blended the wine of the Brotherhood community with that of the Jaques winemaking family from Washingtonville in Orange County (New York). When the dealers later took over the Jaques' winery, they renamed the wine brand produced there in "Brotherhood". To this day, wine is still produced there under this brand.

Harris' first wife died in 1883.

Activities in California

Thomas Lake Harris home on Fountain Grove

In 1887 Harris moved with a few followers (including Kanaye Nagasawa ) to California, where he founded the Fountain Grove winery . After Harris went to California, Oliphant filed a lawsuit for his share of the assets brought into the Brotherhood in New York. The court awarded him 900 acres of land on Lake Erie. The rest of the property was sold, ending the activity of the community there.

Fountain Grove built Harris into a major wine producer; he lived a generous life in the Santa Rosa Ward . Well-known contemporaries such as Luther Burbank and the poet Edwin Markham (1852-1940) were regular guests at Harris on Fountain Grove . In 1892 he married a second time: Jane Lee Waring, his secretary.

After Margaret Oliphant, the sister of the late Oliphant, published a biography of her brother in 1891, in which she attacked Harris as a schemer and false prophet, Alzire Chevallier, an editor of the San Francisco Chronicle , decided to remain undetected for six months in the commune to live on Fountain Grove . She described her experiences in a critical series of articles in the Chronicle , in which she described Harris as a cheater. As a result of the allegations, Harris left Fountain Grove in 1892 .

End of life in New York

Harris moved back to New York; here he lived temporarily in Manhattan . Harris had already announced in 1891 that he had become immortal. His followers believed him and thought he was asleep after his death on March 23, 1906. His demise was not announced to the public until three months later.

Aftermath

Harris published many poetic and philosophical works throughout his life, at least 55 (including pamphlets ) are known. The eponymous Thomas Lake Haris Drive in Santa Rosa is a 2,500 meter long road from Fountain Grove Parkway starting the Nagasawa Park with lying therein Fountaingrove Lake and the Fountain Grove Golf & Athletic Club includes.

Works (selection)

A Lyric of the Morning Land , 1856
A Lyric of the Golden Age , 1856
An Epic of the Starry Heaven , 1855
Arcana of Christianity , 1857
God's Breath in Man , 1891
Modern Spiritualism , 1860
The Song of Theos: A Trilogy
Wisdom of Angels , 1856

Individual evidence

^ Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Herbert Steiner : Collected Works in Individual Editions, Prose, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, S. Fischer, 1956, p. 61
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d R. CS Trahair, Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary , Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN 978-0-31-32946-5-5 , pp. 171 f.
^ ^A ^b ^c Thomas Lake Harris, 1823-1906 , www.hymntime.com
↑ ^a ^b ^c Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr, Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism, Thomas Lake Harris , ISBN 978-0-19-99960-6-3 , Oxford University Press, 2012
^ Carlo De Vito, From ice age to a new age: Grapes, wine and the Hudson River Valley , Part 2, Hudson Valley Wine Magazine , 2014
^ Website of the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville
↑ Gaye LeBaron, Gaye LeBaron: New book explores Thomas Lake Harris , The Press Democrat, December 5, 2015
^ John E. Van Sant, Pacific Pioneers: Japanese Journeys to America and Hawaii, 1850-80 Asian American experience , ISBN 978-0-25-202560-0 , University of Illinois Press, 2000, pp. 90f. (in English)

Web links

Literature by and about Thomas Lake Harris in the catalog of the German National Library
Harris, Thomas Lake , in: The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)
Edward T. Kurtz, Brocton and Portland, Images of America , ISBN 978-0-73-85498-3-5 , Arcadia Publishing, 2007, pp. 63-68

personal data
SURNAME	Harris, Thomas Lake
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American preacher and community founder
DATE OF BIRTH	May 15, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fenny Stratford , Buckinghamshire , England
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 1906
Place of death	United States

[1] Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Herbert Steiner : Collected Works in Individual Editions, Prose, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, S. Fischer, 1956, p. 61

[rcs-2] R. CS Trahair, Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary , Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN 978-0-31-32946-5-5 , pp. 171 f.

[hymn-3] A ^b ^c Thomas Lake Harris, 1823-1906 , www.hymntime.com

[ac-4] Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr, Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism, Thomas Lake Harris , ISBN 978-0-19-99960-6-3 , Oxford University Press, 2012

[5] Carlo De Vito, From ice age to a new age: Grapes, wine and the Hudson River Valley , Part 2, Hudson Valley Wine Magazine , 2014

[6] Website of the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville

[7] Gaye LeBaron, Gaye LeBaron: New book explores Thomas Lake Harris , The Press Democrat, December 5, 2015

[jevs-8] John E. Van Sant, Pacific Pioneers: Japanese Journeys to America and Hawaii, 1850-80 Asian American experience , ISBN 978-0-25-202560-0 , University of Illinois Press, 2000, pp. 90f. (in English)