EXPERIMENT IN UTOPIA The United Order of Richfield 1874-1877 BY FERAMORZ Y. FOX
INTRODUCTION
Experimentation with economic and social institutions was characteristic of the American frontier. America's pioneers were not "standpatters"; they did not hesitate to modify the arrangements under which they lived and worked. M a n y of the unique experiences in the nation's history were products of this incessant change and experimentation. Perhaps the most interesting and instructive experiment in pioneer U t a h was the attempt by Brigham Young and his associates to institute the "United Order of Enoch." More t h a n a hundred of these cooperative community Utopias were established in M o r m o n localities in the West during the 1870's. Prompted by forces which threatened the political and economic independence of the M o r m o n people, and by the obvious advantages of cooperative activity in achieving common social and economic goals, the United Orders illustrate the fundamental idealism of Brigham Young and his followers in seeking to realize the status of Jesus' apostles: "And all that believed were together, and h a d all things common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every m a n h a d need." Four types of United Orders were established: 2 1. In certain communities every producer was asked to assign his economic property (land, livestock, tools) to a community cooperative, and the labor of all was directed by an elected board of management. Each Edited with an introduction by Leonard J. Arrington, U t a h State University. Dr. Arrington is grateful to the U t a h State University Research Council for support of this and other U t a h studies. 1 Published descriptions of the United Orders of 1874 include: Edward J. Allen, The Second United Order Among the Mormons (New York, 1936), and Chapter X I in Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 ( C a m bridge, 1958).
