Communes and the Republican Party. Those may seem like two concepts that should never appear in the same sentence, but there is a common bond between them and Southport, as Kenosha was once known.
It is a bond that is buried deep in the layers of Wisconsin history.
In the 1840s, Southport had more than its share of “free thinkers” who loved to discuss new ideas and causes such as women’s suffrage, public education and the abolishment of slavery.
Frenchman Charles Fourier captured the free thinkers’ imagination with his idea that problems of modern society could be eradicated by forming small communities called phalanxes.
Phalanxes were socialistic communes that included aspects of capitalism.
In a phalanx, residents lived either under one roof, or in individual dwellings, but were required to eat at a communal table.
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Fourier believed no one should have a solitary occupation. By a rotation of labor, men and women could be happier at their work and avoid boredom, which destroyed the soul.
Southport Telegraph editors Michael Frank and C. Latham Sholes were among the list of prominent villagers who were bit by the Fourier bug. That list included Charles Durkee and Louis P. Harvey (who later became Wisconsin governor).
In November 1843, the topic for debate at the Southport Lyceum was “Does Fourierism present a practical plan for such reorganization of society as will guard against our social evils?” A passage of Michael Frank’s diary reveals it was decided in the affirmative.
Phalanx blossomsIn 1844, a group from the Lyceum drafted the constitution of the Wisconsin Phalanx. The bylaws provided for a means of arbitration for disagreements, education for all the children, religious tolerance and temperance.
Any member could be expelled by a majority vote for rude and indecent behavior, drunkenness or trafficking of liquor, swearing, lying, stealing, defrauding another member, protracted idleness, gambling or habitually indulging in fault-finding.
Stock in this utopian society sold at $25 per share. The record book of the Wisconsin Phalanx reveals that the Rev. Jason Lothrop and Michael Frank were among the members.
Also among the list of accepted members was Warren Chase, 30, and his wife Mary, who had come to Southport in 1838.
Phalanx vice president Chase led 18 men and a 7-year-old boy from Southport with provisions, livestock, tools and tents to establish their sanctuary. After two weeks of searching central Wisconsin, they found just the right place on May 27, 1844.
The land was purchased in the name of Michael Frank, whom Chase described as “a quiet citizen of the village, of irreproachable character and far too honorable to defraud anyone.”
Named for a goddessThey named their settlement Ceresco in honor of Ceres, the Roman goddess of wheat. The settlement later became the center of the town of Ripon.
By 1846, 200 people called Ceresco home. The phalanx land eventually increased to 2,000 acres.
Life at Ceresco was busy, with everyone working in one of the five series of occupations: agriculture, industry, commerce, education and domestic service. Each series was broken into smaller labor groups.
Everyone could draw stock or cash on settlement day according to his work record. Members paid room and board and 75 cents per week for meals.
By 1849, there were signs of discontent in the community. Most of the families were still living in the long houses and wanted more privacy.
The most compelling reason to leave was because the phalanx would buy them out and they could take their profits and move on. In 1850 the corporation was dissolved.
Four years later came the famous 1854 meeting in Ripon that founded the Republican Party, which had a unifying front: the fight against slavery.
