CHAPTER
6
ORDERVILLE AND THE EXPERIMENT IN COMMUNAL LIVING JL he experiment with the M o r m o n church's United Order in Kane County split communities apart. Separate factions developed a r o u n d Kanab bishop Levi Stewart and John R. Young, Brigham Young's nephew and a vigorous advocate of the order. Tensions ran high, and divergent attitudes toward communalism in general limited the successfulness of the effort, although Kane County was also the site of what has come to be considered the most successful of all M o r m o n attempts to live the United Order ideal—Orderville. The desire to build a Utopian community was not unique to the Mormon pioneers. Other idealistic millennialistic religions throughout the world during the nineteenth century reshaped expectations about c o m m u n i t y relationships and developed new ways of being members of a society. The Shakers and the Oneida Colony, among others, required much of their members, such as forsaking associations with outsiders, relinquishing former loyalties, and refining their minds and behaviors to conform to the community norms. The Law of Consecration and Stewardship was first presented to the Mormons in Kirtland, Ohio, in the early 1830s by church founder 103
