Orderville: My Communist Heritage

(Communism: a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. )

Shauni and I just got back from a vacation to Utah, where we had a reunion and lots of fun. On the way up, we stopped in a little town in southern Utah, called Orderville, she and I both had some ancestors who lived there. I had never heard of Orderville, or known I had ancestors from there, until Shauni got me interested in family history. One of my ancestors that I didn't mention in the post about my roots , was Isaac Von Wagoner Carling. His father, John Witt Carling, had lived in Nauvoo and known the prophet Joseph Smith, and his successor, Brigham Young, personally. John was asked by Brigham Young, during the construction of the Salt Lake temple, to make a sketch and model for the oxen who would hold the temple's baptismal font on their shoulders. Isaac crossed the plains with his family as a young man, where he met his future wife, my grandmother, Asenath Elizabeth Browning, daughter of the famous gunsmith, travelling in a neighboring wagon with her family, who were friends of the Carlings.

From childhood, Isaac had been considered exceptional: bright (even considered a genius), talented, and possessing a deep sense of morality. He was a poet, musician, a craftsman and carpenter (like is father), and an inventor. After marrying his sweetheart, Sena, he called her, they lived for many years in Fillmore, Millard County Utah. He was a man of ideals, optimism, and a great desire to live righteously.

During the 1870's, Brigham Young, and other leaders of the Church, began a social campaign in earnest, to revive the "United Order of Enoch," also known as the Law of Consecration, or the Order of Stewardship, preached by Joseph Smith during the Ohio, Missouri, and Nauvoo periods of the church. This was a response to the dramatic economic and social changes brought to Utah during that time due to the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which passed through Salt Lake, and threatened to dilute the purity of the theocracy. For these, and other, reasons, Brigham Young began to travel throughout Utah, preaching the need to return to the United Order, and finally establish Zion.

Since no one in the church was coerced into living the Order, and no set of specific instructions was given on how to establish and run such a co-op, many different types of communities resulted, most of which, however, did not make it past electing officers. Orderville was begun as a break-away group from that at Mount Carmel, due to ideological differences on how to run the organization. It was around this time that my grandfather, Isaac, was invited to join the Saints in Orderville, and bring his family. There were 16 of them total, and they proved invaluable to the success of this memorable experiment.

Isaac quickly showed his adeptness and enthusiasm for living the order, and became a prominent leader in the community. His daughter, Catherine, says this about their move to Orderville:

Father turned all his property over to the United Order, except the
household and personal things. We experienced a great change in our lives,
making new friends and changing our way of life among new people who became dear
friends and a good people to live among.

The communal activities practiced in Orderville went far beyond what Brigham Young had counseled or what Joseph Smith had taught concerning the Law of Consecration. It was the only instance in which all members of the Order ate at a common meal in a dining hall, wore uniform clothing which was produced locally, lived in identical apartment style houses, and in which the elected board oversaw every viable industry: "The elected board supervised all activity, including entertainment, schooling, cooking, clothing manufacture, and farming. Private property did not exist, though personal possessions were assigned as a Stewardship to each individual."

Another remarkable aspect of Orderville, was its success, and duration:

Under this regimen the order prospered, both materially and
spiritually. Assets of the eighty families tripled from $21,551 to $69,562 in
the first four years of operation and reached nearly $80,000 by 1883. The
leaders made adjustments as time went on. In 1877 they replaced the earlier
loose dependence upon willingness to contribute with an accounting system that
placed uniform values on labor and commodities (the wages varying by age and
sex, but not type of work).

The order was practiced successfully in Orderville for nearly a decade, and, indeed, would have continued longer if not for the passage of the Edmund's Anti-Polygamy Act of Congress, by which many of the leaders and members of the community were either imprisoned, or forced into hiding. When the board finally was faced with the unavoidable need to disband, Isaac was one of only three members who voted not to discontinue the order. He and his wife continued to live there until their deaths, and are buried in the Orderville cemetery.

When I discovered this intriguing history of my grandfather's family, it was like long forgotten memory had suddenly surfaced again, bringing clarity to my thoughts and feelings. I have always been fascinated by recorded attempts to live a communal life: the Biosphere 2 project, Arcosanti, even Jamestown could qualify. It is exciting to know that I have a fairly recent ancestor who shared, and from whom I might have inherited, my enthusiasm for true communism, and the concept of Utopia. I also know, better than most, the blunders, dangers, and tragedies of the recent past associated with small-scale, and state-sanctioned/enforced communism-- including the crimes against humanity performed by Stalin and Chairman Mao. These are undoubtedly, some of the most heinous and unforgivable acts of all time, along with the Holocaust.

I hope my readers will not imagine that I support or endorse these regimes, or their actions. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These evil men are twice as guilty in my sight: once for their offenses, and twice for their manipulation, distortion, and perversion of something so potentially good-- human cooperation. It is a shame to me, that one cannot speak of communism without an apology for the monstrous mistakes of these men. But, even in their infamy, these men cannot corrupt this truth-- that man, as an individual and as a race, will reach his full potential only when we are all free and equal, and able to live industriously, and peacefully together. It can be done, it already has been.