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Theocrat; Joshua Spencer, their son, Reformed Church; A. D. Tenney, Reformed
Church; Racheal Tenney, Teacher; their seven children, all named Tenney;
C. G. Foster, Printer; Ruth Foster, his wife; their four children, all named
Foster; John Murphy and his two children, both named Murphy; and A. A. Dunn,
Widow, and her six children, all named Dunn. Also listed is Henry Dewey,
Carpenter (aged 27). The census was enumerated on 29 June 1860, so it is not
clear why Henry Dewey and Sarah Tenney (aged 20) are not listed as husband
and wife. The explanation may be that all the children of A. D. Tenney were
already listed on page 72 before the appearance of Henry Dewey on page 73.
On 29 October 1860 the original property, plus an adjoining 80 acres, and
40 acres upon which a grist mill was located, for the sum of $6000, were
transferred to communal ownership in the names of A. D. (Abijah) Tenney
et al., Trustees of the Harmonial Vegetarian Society (Book E, Page 333-334.
Seventeen purchasers were named on the deed, including A. D. Tenney, Rachel
S. Tenney, Henry E. Dewey, Sarah J. Dewey, and William Tenney.
By various accounts: James E. Spencer left the state with “a female
companion” shortly after receiving the $6000 on 29 October 1860; the
Harmonial Vegetarian Society sold the land and disbanded on 2 May 1861;
the buildings were occupied by Confederate troops on 31 August 1861; and
Brigadier General Nicholas Bartlett Pearce commandeered the society’s lands
for a Confederate training camp. Not all of these accounts are correct.
“Bart” Pierce, Brigadier General of Arkansas State Troops did indeed set up
a military training facility at Camp Walker, on Beatie’s Prairie, between
Maysville and Harmony Springs, directly west of the Harmonial Vegetarian
Society lands. Between 6,000 and 12,000 Confederate volunteers were encamped
there as early as April 1861, and the Harmonial lands, conveniently cleared,
were commandeered for military exercises. Directly east of the Harmonial
lands was Camp Jackson, with another 3,000 Confederate troops.
The deed of sale dated 2 May 1861 (Book E, Page 492) is for the forty acres
on which the grist mill stood (SE 1/4 SE 1/4 section 23, T 21 N, R 34 W).
The sellers were A. D. Tenney and John Murphy, Trustees, who were “authorized
and fully empowered” by eight remaining members of the Harmonial Vegetarian
Society (C. G. Foster, W. A. Tenny, J. D. Potter, Ada M. Foster, Rachel S.
Tenny, Irena Potter, Deborah Brackett, and Sarah J. Dewey), who had
relinquished, for the sum of $600, “all our real estate situate in Township
Twenty one.” The purchaser was Henry E. Dewey. He and his family lived at
the grist mill while the Civil War raged around them (see below).
Another deed, dated 27 May 1861 (Book E, Pages 501-502), is for the 480 acres
in Township 20 North (SW 1/4 and W 1/2 SE 1/4 sec 12, and NE 1/4 and E 1/2 NW
1/4 sec 13, T 20 N, R 34 W). The seller was John Murphy, as an individual,
not as Trustee (co-signed by Mary Murphy, presumably his wife, who was not
among the 39 commune members listed in the 1860 census). The purchaser, for
the sum of $5000, was John W. Meek of Benton County, Arkansas. Nowhere is it
stated that John Murphy, with or without A. D. Tenney, was authorized by the
members of the Harmonial Vegetarian Society to sell lands in Township Twenty.
It is interesting to note that on the same day, 27 May 1861, John W. Meek
sold to John Murphy, for the sum of $2500, “Two Negroes described as follows
(To wit) One Man named Jack aged about thirty years and of a coper (sic)
color one woman named Jane aged about thirty five years.” (Book E, Pages
5
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