They raised 600 bushels of wheat more than their requirements and had 3000 gallons of whisky to sell.
They soon made woolen cloth, spinning the yarn by hand. In 1809 they erected a woolen factory for manufacturing of broadcloth from the wool of merino sheep, which they were among the first to introduce in this country. They had their own mechanics and tradesmen.
The society was always a religious community and George Rapp, in temporal affairs was extremely practical, but he was an enthusiast only in religion. He would not allow his authority to be questioned.
While the settlers were prosperous, they were disappointed in their settlement in some respects. In Germany they had raised grapes and made wine, and had hoped to engage in that industry here, but the land was poorly adapted to the culture of the vine. As their manufactures increased their transportation troubles also increased, as they were twelve miles distant from the Ohio River.
They accordingly decided to move, and in 1814 George Rapp, John L. Baker and Lewis Shriver explored the Western country in search of a new site for settlement. They found a suitable place on the Wabash, in Posey County, Indiana, and in 1815 the whole society moved there.
They had lived in Harmony ten years, during which time 100 members had died. They were buried in a small plot, and, as was their custom, the graves were not marked, but only numbered.
This little graveyard, together with the substantial brick buildings of the village, is all the memorial the Harmonists have left of their first home in America.
The society again removed, in 1825, to Economy, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where they arrived May 17, 1825, making the trip by boat, their new home being located on the Ohio River twenty miles from the first home of the society, at Harmony, and eighteen miles from Pittsburgh.
George Rapp died August 7, 1847, aged ninety years. The society remained intact, although reduced in membership, until May 12, 1903, when there were but four members.