Politics & Religion

Belief and Doctrine in Aurora

Politics

Politically, most members of the Aurora Colony voted as Republicans. The museum has surviving voting records from 1872 and 1874 as well as a Union Ticket in support of Lincoln in 1864.

Dr. Keil supported the cause of the Union though he did not want his young men to fight in the war. Nevertheless, quite a few of the members at Bethel did join the militia, only to receive honorable discharges in 1863 just before they crossed the Oregon Trail to join Dr. Keil at Aurora. Other Colonists, men like Christian Giesy, formed a militia in the Washington Territory in 1853 to protect themselves from what they felt might be imminent Indian attacks.

Religion

Most of the Colonists had backgrounds in protestant churches, most coming originally from either the Methodist or German State Lutheran Church but with influences from the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century. This movement had influenced some Colony founders to join the Harmony Society and one basic belief within the Colony was that denominations did not serve the will of God and were too formal. Keil, in particular, did not believe that ministers should be paid, and a good percentage of his followers came out of a tradition in which communal living was considered the ideal for Christian living. 

We know that members of the Aurora Colony observed held special religious observances in the Colony Church; there are written accounts remarking that members gathered by candlelight in the early morning darkness before dawn on Christmas morning to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Colonists built churches at Bethel and Aurora, but attended neither after the Colony disbanded. Both churches were torn down early in the twentieth century.

From California Notations

When Charles Will visited the home of his Uncle Alfred Henry Will in California in 1926, he was told the following about the Colony religion.

“There were no religious meetings of any kind in Aurora prior to the building of the John Giesy House with work starting after the arrival of the Bethel wagon train of 1863. Charlie, your own grandfather, John Will, built many of the chimneys and fireplaces of Aurora Colony homes. It was while occupied at this trade on the John Giesy house that Dr. Keil stopped by and talked with your grandfather, who besides being very religious was also interested in education — in the schooling of Colony children. It was there that John Will told Keil — ‘We came to Aurora to be with you.’ Keil meditated on this for several days and then called the people together in a mass meeting in the still unfinished John Giesy House. From then on the meetings were held every two weeks by Keil. It was in that year that work was started on the big church on the hill. 

The Church Building

Charles Snyder spent two years helping to build the Aurora Colony church, which opened in 1867. The tower was 114 feet high with an observation balcony onto which one could easily fit the 60 piece colony band. The church was torn down in 1911 when the spire began to fall into disrepair.