Description: Reverse reads: “Used by Joseph Bemeler, leader of the Separatists the first communistic experiment in America, located on Route #8 North from Dover, Ohio.” The Kings Palace, or the Number One House as it was later called, served as the home of Joseph Bimeler, leader of the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Built in 1835, the house was originally intended as a senior citizen home for Society members, but that purpose was rejected by the elders of Zoar. Instead, Bimeler occupied the home until his death in 1853. A group of separatists from Germany, eventually known as Zoarites, established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County in 1817. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they had separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole. In exchange for their work, the Society would provide for them. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the separatists experienced economic prosperity. Due in part to influences from the outside world and the death of original residents, the remaining members decided to dissolve the society in 1898, and its property was divided among the Zoarites. It was an end to the communal experience at Zoar. The Village is now an Ohio Historical Society site and is open to the public as Zoar Village State Memorial. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F03_028_001
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.; Society of Separatists of Zoar--History
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads: "New Zoar Meeting House." The brick meeting house was built by the Society of Separatists of Zoar in 1853. When the Society of Separatists of Zoar was dissolved in 1898 the former members of the Society formed an Evangelical church which held services in this building. A group of separatists from Germany, eventually known as Zoarites, established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County in 1817. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they had separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole. In exchange for their work, the society would provide for them. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the separatists experienced economic prosperity. Due in part to influences from the outside world and the death of original residents, in 1898, the remaining members decided to dissolve the society, and its property was divided among the Zoarites. It was an end to the communistic experience at Zoar.  View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F01_020_1
Subjects: Tuscarawas County (Ohio); Zoar, O; Society of Separatists of Zoar; Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads: "Kings Palace, Zoar." The Kings Palace, or the Number One House as it was later called, served as the home of Joseph Bimeler, leader of the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Built in 1835, the house was originally intended as a senior citizen home for Society members, but that purpose was rejected by the elders of Zoar. Instead, Bimeler occupied the home until his death in 1853. A group of separatists from Germany, eventually known as Zoarites, established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County in 1817. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they had separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole. In exchange for their work, the Society would provide for them. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the separatists experienced economic prosperity. Due in part to influences from the outside world and the death of original residents, the remaining members decided to dissolve the society in 1898, and its property was divided among the Zoarites. It was an end to the communal experience at Zoar. The Village is now an Ohio Historical Society site and is open to the public as Zoar Village State Memorial. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F01_021_1
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.; Society of Separatists of Zoar--History
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption on front of photograph reads: "'The Hermitage, ' one of the first six houses, is kept as a sort of shrine to the memory of Alexander Gunn, retired Cleveland hardware man, who lived in it eighteen years." Gunn first visited the village of Zoar in 1879, and eventually purchased this house as well as a brewery when the Society of Separatists of Zoar, a communal society, disbanded in 1898. Gunn, who died in 1900 in Germany, is buried in Zoar. A group of separatists from Germany, eventually known as Zoarites, established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County in 1817. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they had separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole. In exchange for their work, the society would provide for them. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the separatists experienced economic prosperity. Due in part to influences from the outside world and the death of original residents, in 1898 the remaining members decided to dissolve the society, and its property was divided among the Zoarites. It was an end to the communistic experience at Zoar.  View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F01_026_1
Subjects: Gunn, Alexander, 1837-1901; Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.; Society of Separatists of Zoar--History
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse Reads: "A residence of historic Zoar. The first home built in 1818." The picture depicts a log house on the corner of a dirt road. The house is covered in ivy with a porch facing the road. Zoar, a small community in Tuscarawas County, was founded by a group of German separatists in 1817. These separatists, who soon became known as Zoarites, were originally from an area of Germany known as Wurttemburg. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they separated from the official German religion, the Lutheran Church. Separatists faced severe persecution in Wurttemburg, including confiscation of their properties and imprisonment. The group's leader, Joseph Bimeler (or sometimes spelled Joseph B�umeler), decided to bring the separatists to the United States. Several members of the group traveled west to Ohio in the fall of 1817 and began to construct the community's first buildings. The rest of the separatists, approximately two hundred in all, arrived at Zoar in the spring of 1818. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F01_028_001
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.; Society of Separatists of Zoar--History; Log structures
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)