Bethel

During the late 18th and early 19th century, many communal colonies were established in the United States. Examples of these are the Amana colonies in Iowa, Zoar in Ohio and New Harmony in Indiana. Dr. Wilhelm Keil, a charismatic religious leader who sought to create a harmonious, nurturing community for its citizens, founded the Bethel German Colony, similar to the Amana colonies, in 1844.

When Keil began preaching in Pittsburgh, he found a nucleus for a Christian communal society within a group of people who had split from the harmonist society. Promised nothing but bread, water and hard work by Keil, his followers sold their property in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states and undertook the difficult journey to the far West to establish their colony on the sparsely settled prairies of north Missouri.

In the autumn of 1844, Keil, his family, and a few others, arrived to spend a winter of considerable hardship on property on the North River. The next spring other colonists began arriving, among them many skilled craftsmen who built homes, community buildings and other necessary structures. All buildings were large and sturdy, most of them made of brick manufactured in the colony.

All activities of the Bethel German Colony were under the nominal direction of Keil, who seems not only to have exerted an extraordinary power over his followers but to have inspired an extraordinary devotion among them. His word was final in all legal, religious and social matters.

Each family was given a house and each person worked as he was able. No records or accounts were kept of work done or supplies provided within the community. Food was distributed from the colony stores each Saturday, and clothing was provided in the spring and fall. While agriculture was the primary occupation, the Bethel colonists also supported industries such as a tannery, a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a grist mill, a tailor shop, a distillery and a few textile looms.

By 1855, the Bethel Colony had a population of 650, and its property included almost 4,000 acres in Shelby County and more than 700 acres in Adair County. Yet Wilhelm Keil grew increasingly restless through the 1850s. In 1855, a group of about 75 Bethel colonists led a procession of 25 wagons for a 2,000-mile overland trip to the Oregon Territory. Keil settled his followers in a new colony in the Willamette Valley of the Oregon Territory. For the next twenty years, Bethel and the colony in Oregon were held together by Keil's magnetic personality as well as the colonists' loyalty and devotion to him and his teachings.

The Bethel German Colony prospered for 35 years, disbanding in 1879 after Keil's death. Today over 30 original Colony buildings survive in Bethel, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. You can visit from May to October, enjoying gift shops, museums and the Bethel German Colony.