The next on the list of the Confederated Associations of western New York, was
THE BLOOMFIELD ASSOCIATION.
We have but meager accounts of this experiment. Macdonald does not mention it. The Phalanx of June 15, 1844, says that it commenced operations on the 15th of March in that year, on a domain of about five hundred acres, mostly improved land, situated one mile east of Honeoye Falls, in the Counties of Monroe, Livingston and Ontario; that it was in debt for its land about $11,000, and had $35,000 of its subscriptions actually paid in; that it had one hundred and forty-eight resident members, and a large number more expecting to join, as soon as employment could be found for them. Two or three allusions to this Association occur afterward in the Phalanx, congratulating it on its prospects, and mentioning good reports of its progress. Finally in the Harbinger, volume 1, page 247, we find a letter from E.D. Wight and E.A. Stillman, dated August 20, 1845, defending the Association against newspaper charges, and asserting its continued prosperity; but giving us the following peep into a complication of troubles, that probably brought it to its end shortly afterwards:
"We are not fully satisfied with the tenor by which our real estate, under the existing laws, is obliged to be held. Conveyances, pursuant to legal advice, were made originally by the owners of each particular parcel, to the committee of finance, in trust for the stockholders and members; and a power was executed by the stockholders to the committee, by which, under certain regulations, they were to have authority to sell and convey the same. The absurdity of the Statute of Trusts never having been licked into shape by judicial decisions, a close and unavailing search has since been instituted for the fugitive legal title.
"Some counselors, learned in the law, find it in the committee of finance, as representatives of the Association; others have discovered that it is vested in them as individuals; others still, of equal eminence, and equally intent on arriving at a true solution, find perhaps that it is in the committee and stockholders jointly; while there are those who profess to find it in neither of these parties, but in the persons of whom the property was purchased, and to whom has been paid its full valuation!
"In order to educe order out of this confusion of opinions, and to enable us to acquire, if possible, a less objectionable title, it has been proposed to petition the Chancellor for a sale, as a title from the court would be free from doubt."
If this may be considered the end (as it probably was), it shows that the Bloomfield Association died, as the Clarkson did, in a quarrel about its titles, and in the hands of the lawyers.
THE ONTARIO UNION.
"This Association" says the Phalanx of June 1844, "commenced operations about two weeks since, in Hopewell, Ontario County, five miles from Canandaigua. They have purchased the mills and farm formerly owned by Judge Bates, consisting of one hundred and fifty acres of land, a flouring mill with five run of burr stones, and saw-mill, at $16,000. They have secured by subscription, about one hundred and thirty acres of land in the immediate vicinity, which they are now working. To meet their liabilities for the original purchase, I am informed they have already a subscription which they believe can be relied on, amounting to over $40,000. They have now upon the domain about seventy-five members. This institution has been able already to commence such branches of industry as will produce an immediate return, and as a consequence, will avoid the necessity of living upon their capital. There is danger that their enthusiasm will get the better of their judgment in admitting members too fast."
The editor of the Phalanx visited this Association among others, in the fall of 1844, and gave the following cheerful account of it: