Adams County, Iowa
| For the new National Icarian Heritage Society web site- click here. |
For the Adams County Iowa French Icarian Colony web site - click here.
Who were the Icarians?
Icarians were followers of the philosophy, teaching and writings of Etienne Cabet. Cabet, born in 1788 in Dijon, France, was a journalist, lawyer, and teacher. Cabet's novel Voyage En Icarie described a social organization proposed to bring peace and equality. Cabet and the Icarians were forced to leave France because of their political beliefs.
How did they get to Adams County?
They came to the United States in March of 1848 and were living in Texas when they learned that the Mormons had left the City of Nauvoo, IL. Cabet made contact with the Mormons and the Icarians moved to Nauvoo.
In the morning of the 15th of March, 1849, a steamer, the "American Eagle," pulled in at the wharf at Nauvoo, Illinois. On board were some 260 French communists, known as Icarians from the title of a Utopian romance published by their leader, Etienne Cabet.
The deserted city of Nauvoo seemed to them like a refuge provided by providence. Six years before, it had been the largest city in Illinois, but the Mormons had departed and the French immigrants looked about them at the empty houses and the blackened ruins of the temple. Six years later there were some 500 communists at the settlement they called Icaria.
By 1855, the community had prospered but dissensions had arisen. There were followers of Cabet, the founder, and a faction opposed to him. Finally the faction opposed to Cabet gained control of the government and the Cabotist party refused to work. Cabet and his followers agreed to leave Nauvoo going to St. Louis where the disheartened leader died in the fall of 1856. His associates disbanded their community organization in 1864.
The revolutionist party left at Nauvoo did not prosper either. Distant lands looked more inviting to them and they decided to establish a new Icaria in Adams County, Iowa, where they owned about 3,000 acres of land. The advance party of Icarians, consisting of ten or twelve persons, settled in "Icarian Grove" in September 1852, four miles north of Corning, where their cabins stood many years. In the spring of 1853, however, the location of the colony was changed to the present site, three miles east of Corning high on a bluff.
Roads were necessary for the immigrants, and the steep impassable banks of the Nodaway River made east-west travel difficult. This compelled the immigrants to enter Adams County from the north, off of the Mormon Trail. The Morman Trail came from the east, via Pisgah and Hopeville. It then diverged to the north, passing near Fontanelle on the way to Kanesville (present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa) on the Missouri River.
The entire Icarian community was transplanted in 1860 to this new site east of Corning.
A recent wind storm brought down the legendary "Beer-Bear" oak tree on former Icarian land east of Corning. The tree was located near the site of the original Icarian dining hall.
When portions of the tree were sawed away, the cut permitted the counting of approximately 234 rings, meaning that it had been in existence since 1763! Iowa Oak trees have been known to last for hundreds of years.
The "Beer" part of the old tree's name comes from 1878. According to Jules Prudhommeaux's 1926 book "The Icarian Social Experiment":
"The young Progressives noisily expressed their joy. Beer flowed under the great oak and the wine was not spared. Outsiders came to congratulate the winners and found themselves in the midst of laughter and dancing...".
This occured after a district court dissolved the colony in 1878. The decision was never appealed. The groups reorganized, and the Young Icarians endured only a short time as most moved to California in the early 1880's. The older group or New Icaria resettled about a mile south-east, existing until 1898.
The "Bear" part of the story of this tree is more fictional, one of the legends of Adams County:
The late Jules Gentry, the last living member of the Icarian Colony, was the source for this story.
Gentry related "that when a cicus train parked on the Burlington tracks just to the north one summer day, a bear escaped from its trainer, eventually finding its way to the dining hall area where it climbed the big oak."
You may be able to find their descendants through the help of Mabel Schweers or others at the Icarian Research Center in Corning, Iowa. You may email Mabel at: mabelschweers2274@msn.com or Bev Sickler at jsickler@frontier.net. Contact Bev at 641-322-4289 to visit the museum in Corning.
The Icarian Research Center also has many books, booklets, posters and proceedings from Annual Meetings of The National Icarian Heritage Society. These publications may be obtained from the treasurer, Cora Beggs, 9420 Trillium Dr., St. Louis, MO 63126. More information can also be obtained from The National Icarian Heritage Society, 503 8th St., P.O. Box 404, Corning, Iowa 50841-1430.
