Aurora Mills Colony, Oregon
In 1853 Wilhelm Keil sent representatives of his moderately successful utopian community in Missouri to the Washington Territory to look for a spot which Keil described as a “…second Eden.” Keil intended to create a self-sustaining agrarian utopian community and in 1855 left the area of Bethel, Missouri with about 250 of his followers, and the body of his recently deceased son, preserved in whiskey. The party wintered over in the area which is now Washington and in 1856 settled near Oregon City.
The property Keil purchased south of Oregon City had an operating mill on it, and Keil named the new colony Aurora Mills in honor of his daughter. Keil was a tailor by trade before becoming a preacher, and he exercised sole authority of the new colony, running it as he had once run his own shop. All communal property in his utopia was held in his name, rather than in a corporation. All adult members of the colony were required to contribute in the form of labor, but he was not.
The Aurora colony built schools for its children and businesses which were soon profitable. Fruit orchards and additional mills contributed to its success and when the railroad passed through Aurora Mills a hotel was added.
Keil stressed that the colony’s rules were to be found in the Bible and denied the use of titles among the residents, other than to address one another by Christian. He made the going to confession mandatory for residents, with public confessions which helped maintain what he deemed to be a necessary level of humility among the residents. He was not required to practice confession himself. He also would address what he termed deviant behavior publicly, in order to shame those in error.
When Keil found himself without heirs after the death of his sole remaining child, he decided to begin the process of dividing his sole ownership of the property among the members. He died before he could accomplish this and the community members formally dissolved the community in 1883. Today the area where the colony stood is in the city of Aurora. Several properties which were part of the colony remain standing in Aurora today.