Finding the Garden of Eden
Like many settlers to America in the early 19th century, the Separatists came looking for the Garden of Eden. Europe, early settlers thought, was dirty, damaged, and corrupted. America, in contrast, was a wide, unspoiled land, a fresh new world. And so they came.
The Separatists were part of this migration to the new world. A fresh, new place, new life for all. They'd carve out a perfect, unspoiled world. And there they'd all strive to become perfect. Well, not all, only believers (according to their faith!)
Helped by Quakers in England and Philadelphia, the Separatists purchased more than 5000 acres in northern Ohio, sight unseen. In the fall of 1817 their leader, Joseph Bimeler (my distant grandfather) led a small group of the more able bodied people to their land. They hired three wagoners to transport their meager goods and the Separatists walked behind the wagons on foot. By late November they'd reached Sandyville, a wretched settlement of log huts in the woods. The wagoners left them there, and they walked the three miles to their land.
What they found appalled them.
Heavily wooded, hilly land, not very fertile, with the Tuscarawas River running diagonally through it. That first night they slept in the open under a large oak tree. The next day they built a tent-like hut of poles, covering them with leaves and earth. They lived in it until the first cabin was built. They continued building cabins as rapidly as possible through the winter. These were simple log cabins with thatch roofs and some, reinforced with tile roofs still stand today.
The only bright spot in the land was the level plains along the river that earlier Indians had cleared. Without that space for planting, it's unlikely they would have survived.
With cabins built and plantings done, they set out to create their own Garden of Eden in a square block in the center of the village. Twelve paths of righteousness marched toward the center where a giant Norway spruce stood tall surrounded by twelve junipers. Christ and his disciples. Intersecting cross paths—temptations—awaited the Separatists if they strayed.
This photo from the 19th century shows how well they tended the garden. It survives today, tended by volunteers and descendents of the early settlers.
Did they really live a life of purity and perfection? The records defy this notion. Several "early" births suggest digresion, a letter in 1818 from a Quaker woman complaining about Bimeler, saying "he has them so infatuated they think he's another Moses," and Bimeler waited to sign over the title to the entire 5000 acres until he was on his death bed.
But, maybe, like the rest of us today, they tried their best.
