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In the 1880s an English author and social reformer named Thomas Hughes came to the woods of eastern Tennessee in America and founded an experimental colony called Rugby.
It was to be a place where Hughes' ideas of a just and equitable society could be realized. There would be no class distinctions as in England. In Rugby, through agricultural endeavors and support of various crafts, men and women could realize their potential in a planned community.
Buildings went up. An inn was built. Hundreds of believers from England and America were attracted to the growing site. A small bit of England, without the class distinctions, was carved out of the Tennessee wilderness. For a time a thriving community attracted worldwide attention to the idea that a planned community could produce a small utopian world. Rugby was even called a "New Jerusalem."
Sadly, Rugby did not endure. Typhoid struck one year, taking the lives of several inhabitants. In time the financial backers pulled out, the economy changed and severe winters took their toll on the enthusiasm of the people. The inn burned and was not rebuilt. Gradually the money, the zeal and the people disappeared, leaving behind only a few to hold to the dream.
You can visit Rugby today, as I did a few years ago, and see a historic remnant of another noble attempt to found a community on social ideals. It is one of many such communities founded with the goal of making social changes that would produce utopia, a place where justice and peace would reign.
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