Portal:Chicago/Selected article/137

The Spirit Fruit Society was a communitarian group in the United States organized after a period of repeated business depressions during the 1890s. Although it never numbered more than a handful of adherents, the Spirit Fruit Society existed longer and more successfully than any other American utopian group. Plagued by rumor, suspicion, and attacks in the press during its early years, the group remained active until 1930. The name derives from the group's belief that mankind's spiritual state is that of a bud or blossom on a plant and that man's soul has not yet developed into a fruit from a blossom. The goal of the society was to bring the soul to fruition. As the Society's founder, Jacob Beilhart, said in documents for incorporation of the society, "... as yet, man is an underdeveloped 'plant' which has not manifested the final fruit, which he is to produce." The essential philosophy of the group was based upon a belief in self-renunciation, hard work, tolerance, and peace. The society was started by Jacob Beilhart, a Seventh-day Adventist preacher from Columbiana County, Ohio. Beilhart studied and was exposed to a variety of beliefs during his life and finally settled back in Columbiana County, having decided to start an intentional community where he could practice his beliefs and model his lifestyle for others.