The Germantown Colony Museum stands on the spot where the colony thrived outside of Minden and includes original cabins that belonged to the commune's residents.
They came to Louisiana to build a community where they could freely worship God in their own way.
They also were carrying a bundle of silkworms.
This is the simple answer to Dale Jarreau's Curious Louisiana question about a communal colony in Minden.
"I read about the New Llano utopian community in Curious Louisiana, and I remembered reading about a similar colony near Minden," the Watson resident said. "I also heard that this colony spun its own silk. Is this true?"
Not only is it true, but proof of the silk produced in the Germantown Colony still exists. A wedding dress of homespun silk is still proudly displayed in the Germantown Colony Museum, located about seven miles outside of Minden at 200 Museum Road.
The museum's name also reflects the colony's name, Germantown, populated by a group of some 50 German immigrants, who made stops in Pennsylvania and Grand Ecore, near Natchitoches, before settling in their own north Louisiana community.
This 1860 wedding dress was spun from silk by women living in the Germantown Colony outside of Minden. The silk was produced by silkworms colonists brought to Louisiana from Pennsylvania. The dress is on display in the Germantown Colony Museum, which is part of the Secretary of State Office's museum system.
That was in 1835, a year before Minden was established.
"The community would last until 1871," said Catharine Poole, director of the Germantown Colony Museum. "Everything was community owned. They had a blacksmith shop and seasonal goods from the gardening. They had sheep, so they had wool — and they raised cotton."
The museum is one among nine in the Secretary of State Office's museum system, which also includes Louisiana's Old State Capitol. It stands on what was the colony's grounds and includes original structures.
The museum's mission is to tell the story of Germantown, which actually began in 1785 with the establishment of the Harmony Society, a religious sect led by George Rapp in west Germany.
The Harmonists, as they were known, had broken away from the Lutheran Church, and Rapp had collected some 10,000 followers by 1790. They believed the second coming of Jesus Christ would happen in their lifetimes, and they refused to serve in the German military and send their children to German schools.
The Harmonists' nonconforming views resulted in persecution by the German government, so Rapp and about 500 followers hopped a boat and emigrated to the United States in 1804, settling first in Butler County, Pennsylvania, then moving to southern Indiana to accommodate the growing colony.
The Harmonists finally returned to Pennsylvania in what is now the city of Economy. Each of these colonies was built on the idea of the utopian commune, where everyone shares everything.
The Germantown Colony Museum displays a photo of the wearer of the 1860 silk wedding dress next to a display case of the actual dress made from silk spun by women in the community.
Arriving among them in 1831 was a German couple known as the Count and Countess von Leon with a group of 40 of their own followers. The count went by several names, one being Maximilian Bernhard Ludwig.
He claimed to be the messiah, which attracted some followers within the Harmonist community, resulting in a division within the colony. Leon sued the Harmonists, was awarded more than $150,000 and settled first in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania.
His group later traveled down the Ohio River to Grand Ecore on the banks of the Red River outside of Natchitoches. The area was was a floodplain, which created a mosquito haven.
Mosquitoes were carriers of yellow fever, which was rampant in Louisiana. Count von Leon's declaration didn't guarantee him immunity from the disease, which caused his demise on Aug. 29, 1834.
"They were trying to create their own Jerusalem," Poole said. "They were unaware of the ways of Louisiana's weather and conditions. The spring rains had caused the banks of the Red River to flood their homes and washed the cemetery and everything else away. It was awful."
The interior of the Germantown Colony Museum in Minden.
That's when a man named Red Johnson told the colonists about tracts of available land northward in Claiborne Parish.
"At that time, Louisiana did not have 64 parishes like it does today," Poole said. "Webster Parish wouldn't be carved out until later. So, Red Johnson led these people up to where the Germantown Colony Museum stands today, and they got was a section of land of 640 acres granted by Congress."
The count's wife, Countess Elisa von Leon, had taken over leadership of the colony by that time.
"The Countess and the followers loved the hilly landscape of their new colony, because it looked like the landscape of Germany," Poole said. "And it really is a beautiful spot."
Once again, the colony was set up as a commune where everybody owned and shared everything.
"The one exception is that everyone owned their own chickens," Poole said. "They were more like Amish and Mennonite communities. They were self sufficient, and they called it Germantown. The colony was an active community for 37 years."
The Germantown Colony Museum displays a set of preserved silkworms, along with their raw silk, with information on the worms' lifespan. Colonists once spun silk and used it to create silk garments.
So, what about the silkworms?
"They did have silkworms, but we don't know where they got them," Poole said. "We just know they picked up the silkworms somewhere along the way and brought them here."
Among Germantown's structures was a general store, which traded with residents outside the colony.
"The women made silk dresses and different articles from the silk they spun by the silk worms and sold them in the store," Poole said. "They had mulberry trees, and they fed the leaves from these trees to the silkworms. Those mulberry trees are still here."
Meanwhile, the colonists didn't let the berries from those trees go to waste, making mulberry wine that also was sold to the outside.
"They also had a peach orchard and used the peaches to make peach brandy," Poole said. "These things were not only used for consuming, but they were used to helped preserve the colony."
A sugarcane press from the Germantown Colony stands on the backdrop of the Germantown Colony Museum's buildings.
Germantown existed until the Civil War not only divided the nation, it also devastated the economy, forcing the colony to formally disband.
"The year they disbanded, 1871, was the same year that Webster Parish was carved out of Claiborne Parish," Poole said. "That's the parish where Minden is now."
Many of the colonists opted to remain on the former community's property. Their descendants, including Poole's in-laws, still live in the area.
Still, economic hardship wasn't the only reason the community faded.
"People change," Poole said. "As time passes, people don't stay in the same places as their grandparents and parents. They don't stay with the same traditions and beliefs. They move on. And they did that — they moved on."
But that doesn't mean Germantown was forgotten. The museum is a testament to the community as are artifacts, including silk items spun in the colony, in the Spring Street Museum in Shreveport and the Dorcheat Museum in Minden.
The Germantown Colony Museum is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call (318) 377-6061 or visit sos.la.gov/HistoricalResources/VisitMuseums/GermantownColonyMuseum for more information.
