by Carol Costa
A large building was constructed to serve as a communal kitchen and dining area. A special house was built behind the community building for Ben, Mary, and Coy. Mary supervised the building of her new home and although it was larger than most of the houses on the property, she insisted that it be plain to fit in with the simple lifestyle the other House of David members were instructed to follow.
Benjamin decreed that in order to keep their bodies pure the colonists should refrain from eating the flesh of animals.
Although the Flying Rollers had lived as vegetarians, the House of David members had not been previously required to do so. However, Benjamin"s new rule was part of his plan to make the colony independent and self-supporting.
Although Benjamin was the undisputed leader of the colony, he was smart enough to give his people a voice in many of the decisions made for the common good. At this time, women in the United States had not yet been granted the right to vote, but Benjamin realized that women were the backbone of his colony. Therefore the opinions of the House of David women carried as much weight as those of the men.
Benjamin"s sacred writings had been reprinted and were being sold across the country. New members began to travel to Michigan to join the colony. Benjamin and Silas carefully screened the new people, assessing not only the funds they were able to contribute to the commonwealth treasury, but also the individual skills and abilities each person brought to the colony.
While the colonists worked hard, they also found time to play. Music and sports were a big part of life at the House of David. Benjamin and Mary encouraged and supported all the social activities that included games, concerts and an overall sharing of time and talents.
An ice cream stand was opened on the colony property during the summer months. Delicious ice cream made with fresh strawberries, peaches and blueberries from the House of David farms was sold from the stand. A waffle cone developed by a woman named, Louella Mason, who had worked in bakeries and restaurants before joining the colony held the home-made ice cream.
The more the House of David musicians played together, the better they sounded and the outdoor concerts became an evening event that everyone looked forward to when the weather was clear and warm.
Soon, the concerts and the ice cream began drawing people from Benton Harbor and its twin city, St. Joseph, to the lovely gardens that surrounded the community buildings. Benjamin quickly realized that the neighboring communities were looking for entertainment and were more than happy to accept the diversions the House of David people offered.
The colony and its members had been fairly isolated from the people in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, until word of the concerts and ice cream in the special waffle cones had spread and caused the citizens of these adjacent towns to seek them out. While no one was quite sure how news of these attractions had spread, the fact that they had drawn a receptive audience made Benjamin realize that providing entertainment for people was a viable and profitable way to promote the colony.
One September morning when Mary and Ben were having breakfast with Silas and Cora, and Jacob and Daisy, Benjamin made an announcement. “We must have work for our people beyond farming and building,” Benjamin said. “We must provide work that will keep them in the colony, rather than working in factories in Benton Harbor.”
“Our farms and orchards provide more than enough food for our people and we are gathering income from the excess produce sold in the markets across the state,” Silas told him.
As if he had not heard Silas, Benjamin continued. “The land across from the dining hall can be purchased from the county and it would be a good location for an amusement park. Eden Springs Park will attract people from all over the country.”
“How do you know they will come?” Cora asked.
“They will come the first time out of curiosity. They will come back again and again because we will make them feel welcome and we will provide good food and many attractions.”
Mary who had been listening to Benjamin"s vision of the park for some time now, finally spoke. “Benjamin is right.
People seek out places to bring their families, safe lovely places where they can relax and enjoy themselves.”
“And our park will be lovely, full of flower gardens and music,” Benjamin added. “It will also have a zoo for the children and a playing field for our baseball team.”
“A baseball team?” Silas was stunned. “I know you love the game, Ben, but how are we going to form a baseball team?”
“Many of our young men play the game in the empty fields. They will become our first team of players.”
“Well,” Cora said quietly. “These are grand plans indeed, but I fear they will put a great strain on our funds.”
“Perhaps,” Mary told her. “But it"s Ben"s dream for the future and I think it is wonderful. Like his father, Coy loves baseball and is an excellent pitcher. He will be on the team.”
Jacob did not comment one way or the other, but Daisy finally spoke for both of them. “I think it"s a wonderful idea.
The summer concerts have become so popular with the townspeople we can barely find room for all who come to hear the music. And the ice cream stand is sold out most nights.”
Jacob agreed. “I think our people will embrace the ideas.”
As Jacob predicted, Benjamin"s enthusiasm spread through the colony and everyone was coming up with ideas for the park. Benjamin and Jacob set to work on a design for the House of David Park. Trips were made to Chicago to study the baseball fields there and look at amusements they might incorporate into their own facility.
Coy was given the job of lining up the best players for the ball team. Silas began contacting other established teams that were willing to travel to Benton Harbor to play on the House of David team.
About this time, some colonists had been sent to the St. Louis World"s Fair to man a booth meant to recruit new members for the colony. At the fair, they saw a miniature train complete with a locomotive and passenger cars that was used to move people around the fair grounds.
“Our park must have such a train,” Benjamin declared when he heard about it.
“We will have to send someone to New York to the Cagney engine company,” Jacob replied.
“You and Silas shall go and come back with details on how the track should be laid.”
Eden Springs Park was already under construction. Cages were being constructed for the zoo animals. Because the property dipped into a deep ravine, there were two levels of amusements. The entrance to the park had a large ice cream stand. Now a train depot was constructed and train tracks were laid to encircle the perimeter of the ravine that was about one mile in circumference.
“We need another train station where the zoo, beer gardens and baseball field will be located.” Mary told Benjamin, who passed the instructions on to his workers. “And we must build another ice cream stand there.
“An ice cream parlor is also needed in the lower level and stands where people can purchase our merchandise must be located at both stations and on the lower level,” Benjamin said.
The amusement park was growing larger and more complex each week, as new ideas seemed to spring to life like the flowers that were bursting into bloom all around the park area.
Mary was supervising the crafting of merchandise for the park. She had enlisted some outside artists to design religious sculptures and train some of the colonists to cast stoneware and paint it.
Adolph Mueller who had built the wooden furniture for the apartment in Fostoria was put in charge of the woodworking shop.
There, wooden jewelry boxes, bowls of all sizes and beautiful religious carvings were crafted and glazed.
The House of David orchestra had already been formed and was practicing on a daily basis. They would play in the beer gardens on the lower level of the park where there would be a stage and dance floor. People would be able to order refreshments while they listened to the music and danced.
A bowling alley with an a
rea of game tables was built behind the beer gardens. The pins in the bowling alleys were specially constructed into a metal frame so that they could be reset by pulling a handle at the front end of the alley. That made the pin boys who reset the pins manually at existing bowling lanes unnecessary. Coy said that the automation itself would attract people to the House of David bowling alley.
Finally in the summer of 1908, Eden Springs Park opened.
The publicity the park had garnered while it was being built had spread to the larger cities that lay on the shores of Lake Michigan opposite Benton Harbor and St. Joseph.
There was a boat that made daily trips across Lake Michigan from Chicago to Benton Harbor and it soon became the preferred way of travel for the city dwellers that began visiting the park in droves.
Soon the name Eden Springs Park was forgotten and the colony"s popular attraction became known as the House of David Park.
The House of David Park was everything Benjamin and Mary had hoped for and more. It was a place that buzzed with excitement and activity from early spring to late fall. It brought people from all over the country. It provided jobs for all the colonists and it generated a great deal of money for the House of David treasury.
There was an auditorium built on the upper level of the park where church services were held. Benjamin"s ability to mesmerize an audience ensured that the services were always wellattended.
Despite the great prosperity operating the park had bestowed upon the colony, the colonists continued to live simply, content to work and wait for their Angelic Messenger to lead them into the Millennium. However, the seventh messenger and his wife, Mary, had decided to embrace some of the luxuries they had done without all of their lives.
The colonists now referred to them as King Benjamin and Queen Mary and they did indeed begin to live like royalty. There was an area of the Eden Springs property that was surrounded by stately trees and had been landscaped with lush rolling lawns. The miniature train passed by this lovely area as it made its way back to the main depot at the entrance to the park. It was in this idyllic setting that Benjamin and Mary had their home constructed. It was a massive house with an underground tunnel and a secret room. The stones used to build the house had bits of crystal imbedded into them, making them sparkle. The stones shone like diamonds in the sunlight and therefore the dwelling came to be called the Diamond House.
The business offices of the House of David that had grown along with its wealth were located on the first floor with a large well-appointed kitchen, a dining room, a formal parlor in the front to greet and entertain guests and bedrooms for selected staff members like Jacob and Daisy and several others who worked in the office or ran the household. On the second floor, the King and Queen and their son, Coy, had their choice of four lavish suites complete with sitting rooms and ornamental baths on one end of the hallway while a number of extra single rooms were at the other end.
The household staff had private quarters behind the kitchen. Louella Mason came to live at Diamond House to run the kitchen and supervise the other women assigned to help her with meals and cleaning.
Since the colony"s numbers were growing steadily, two large dormitory-style buildings had been constructed across the road from the park entrance. The houses were named Bethlehem and Jerusalem and they housed the members who worked for the park in one capacity or another. The living quarters were attached to the dining hall and behind that were the laundry facilities, the art studios and woodworking shops. Silas and Cora were put in charge of these buildings and decided to live at Bethlehem to make managing the houses more convenient.
When people with substantial funds joined the House of David, they were sometimes given preferential treatment and received private housing that reflected their importance to the colony.
On the opposite end of the spectrum were the members who worked the farms and tended the orchards who still lived in log cabins without indoor plumbing and electricity.
Despite the economic disparity that existed in the colony, no one complained or seemed to care. It was a commonwealth where their basic needs were addressed. They were not there for the material things in life, but for the spiritual leadership of King Benjamin who promised that each day brought them closer to the Millennium.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
King Benjamin often went into a trance and awoke with sacred messages from the other six angels who were at the throne of God. One of the messages Benjamin received a few years after the House of David Park opened was that to prepare themselves for the Millennium, the House of David members should abstain from sex. Husbands and wives should live like brother and sister.
Mary was stunned at the sacrifice Benjamin was imposing on the members. “What are you thinking, Benjamin?” she asked angrily after the announcement had been made. “You will drive everyone from the colony with this law. You must reconsider it.”
Benjamin laughed. “I cannot rescind the messages I receive from the throne of God. Our people will either follow the law or secretly defy it.”
“And what about us?”
“We are the King and Queen of the colony. No one would dare question our activities. However, I will remove myself from your suite to keep up appearances.”
“Why have you imposed such a harsh rule on our people? They already work very hard and make so many sacrifices for the colony.”
“I am the Seventh Messenger and will lead those who are worthy into the Millennium. Those who desire eternal life must obey me without question.”
Mary stared at her husband. Benjamin had always been able to make people believe in him and follow his precepts. Now with the enormous success of all his recent ventures, the power he held over the House of David colonists was beginning to alter his judgment.
“I think you just want to see how much power you have over our people,” she said.
Benjamin eyes grew darker as he moved towards her. For a moment, Mary thought he would strike her, but then he laughed again. “You have been at my side for so long, you think you can question my motives as if I were an ordinary, mortal man. But I am not an ordinary man, dear wife. I am the Seventh Messenger sent to earth to guide God"s chosen people. Therefore, my motives and judgments are above question and reproach.”
Benjamin walked past Mary and left their suite. A few hours later, one of the household staff came to the room and removed all of Benjamin"s belongings, moving them to the empty suite next door to Mary"s.
Mary expected a roar of opposition from the colonists, but in the end only one person complained about the rule that was labeled the Virgin Law.
Two months after Benjamin"s Virgin Law was imposed on the colonists, Daisy Whitehall came to the storage room where Mary was sorting merchandise ordered for the souvenir stands. It was August and there was a steady stream of visitors to the park, especially on days when the House of David baseball team played on their home field.
It had quickly become apparent to Mary that the colonists who crafted items to sell in the souvenir stands could not keep up with the demands of the tourists. She had begun ordering merchandise from companies outside the colony and having the House of David Park logo, which was a miniature train pulling out of the main depot, stamped on the items.
Mary was checking an order of wooden toothpick holders when Daisy entered the storage room and called out to her.
“Mary? It"s Daisy. I need to talk to you,” the girl called out.
Mary stuck her head around a pile of boxes and smiled at her unexpected visitor. “I"m back here. Come and sit down.”
Daisy picked her way through the maze of cartons in the storage room and joined Mary in the back of the building. Mary was sitting on a high wooden stool in front of a counter. There was a lower stool off to the side and Daisy lowered herself onto it.
“I"m sorry to bother you,” Daisy began apologetically.
“No bother,” Mary assured her. “I"m almost done. What do you need?”
“I just need to talk to someo
ne,” Daisy voice broke and her eyes filled with tears.
Mary got off the stool and walked over to her. “What"s wrong, honey?” Mary was several years older than Daisy and had become a mother-figure to her. Daisy was usually so cheerful; it was disconcerting to see her upset.
“I"m leaving Jacob.”
Mary wished she had remained seated as Daisy"s announcement was stunning. “Why? What"s happened?”
“It"s Benjamin"s Virgin Law. Jacob refuses to break it.”
“And you want to break it?”
“I don"t want to be Jacob"s sister,” Daisy replied emotionally. “I want to be his wife.”
Mary nodded. “I"m so sorry, Daisy. You"re still so young and vital, but Jacob is older and..”
“Jacob may be several years older than me, but he was a wonderful lover.”
“I see.” Mary was having a hard time picturing the quiet, reserved Jacob as a passionate husband.
“If he really loved me, he would not follow Benjamin"s stupid law. And maybe that"s the real problem. I chased Jacob for a long time before he even noticed I was alive. And he probably would never have married me, except Benjamin told him he should.”
“Benjamin didn"t tell Jacob to marry you, Daisy. He simply told Jacob that he should take notice of your feelings for him.”
“Jacob does everything that Benjamin says. If Benjamin told Jacob to take poison, he would do it.” Daisy"s tears were gone dried up by the heat of her anger.
“I"m afraid you"re right,” Mary agreed. “Jacob has always been totally devoted to Benjamin. He believes that Benjamin is an angel and can do no wrong.”
“You don"t.”
Mary was once again shocked by Daisy"s words. Especially since Mary assumed that all the colonists saw her and Benjamin as united in all things. “I do believe in Benjamin,” Mary said trying not to sound defensive.
“I"m sorry,” Daisy said quickly. “I shouldn"t have said that. Benjamin is your husband and you must stand by his side in all things.”