Zoar

• Zoar VillageGerman Separatists from Wurttemberg founded Zoar in 1817 and held all property in common from 1819 until members voted to divide it in 1898.

How Zoar began

Zoar was founded in 1817 by about 150 German Separatists from Württemberg who had fled religious persecution by the Lutheran state church, and in 1819 they formally organized as the Society of Separatists of Zoar, a communal Christian society that held all property in common. Named for the Biblical village to which Lot fled in the Book of Genesis, the settlement paid off its land debt in the 1820s by digging its section of the Ohio and Erie Canal for the state, and under leader Joseph Bimeler grew into a prosperous, self-sufficient community that owned over 10,000 acres by the 1850s. The Society dissolved in 1898 and divided its property among the roughly 222 remaining members. The Zoar Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and became a National Historic Landmark District in 2016; several buildings are preserved as a museum operated by the Ohio History Connection.

Settled 1817, by Society of Separatists of Zoar, German Separatist emigrants from Württemberg led by Joseph Bimeler.

Where the name comes from

Named after the Biblical town of Zoar, to which Lot and his family fled from the destruction of Sodom in the Book of Genesis.

Before the town

No source specific to the Zoar village site describing Native American villages, trails, mounds, or treaty history was found in the sources we checked. The Tuscarawas Valley more broadly was Delaware (Lenape) country in the 18th century, with Moravian mission towns (Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten, Salem, Goshen) elsewhere in the county; nothing in the sources consulted ties that history specifically to the Zoar tract.

Timeline

1. 1817 — About 150 German Separatists from 36 villages in Württemberg, fleeing persecution by the Lutheran church, arrive in Ohio and settle land along the Tuscarawas River, naming it Zoar.
2. 1819 — The settlers formally organize as the Society of Separatists of Zoar, pooling their property into a communal society governed by elected trustees.
3. 1820s — Offered the choice by the State of Ohio, the Zoar Separatists spend several years digging the Ohio and Erie Canal through their own land for pay, earning about $21,000 that lets the Society pay off its land loans on time with money to spare.
4. 1850s — The Society reaches its greatest prosperity, owning more than 10,000 acres of land and worth an estimated $1 million.
5. 1853 — Society leader Joseph Bimeler dies, after which the community's cohesion gradually declines.
6. 1898 — The remaining roughly 222 members of the Society of Separatists of Zoar vote to dissolve the communal society and divide its property, valued around $3.5 million, among themselves.
7. 1969 — The Zoar Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
8. 2016 — The Zoar Historic District is designated a National Historic Landmark District.

Stories

A canal debt paid in ditch-digging

When the Separatists arrived in 1817 they had bought 5,500 acres of Tuscarawas Valley land sight unseen and owed a debt they had no easy way to repay. In the mid-1820s the State of Ohio was routing the Ohio and Erie Canal directly through their land and needed labor to dig it. The Zoarites took the job themselves, spending several years in the 1820s digging the canal, and the state paid them roughly $21,000, enough to clear their land debt outright with money left over. The episode turned a struggling religious refugee colony into a solvent, self-sufficient community and set it on the path to the prosperity it enjoyed at mid-century.

Common property, common table

In 1819, the Zoar Separatists formally organized as the Society of Separatists of Zoar: every member turned over personal property to the community, and in return the Society provided housing, food and work assignments for life. Farms, shops and mills were run by trustees elected by the membership rather than by individual owners. Under the leadership of Joseph Bimeler, a former pipemaker and teacher from Ulm, the arrangement held together for nearly eighty years and, at its 1850s peak, controlled over 10,000 acres and roughly a million dollars in assets. It ended in 1898 when the remaining members, no longer bound by the religious conviction that had founded it, voted to dissolve the Society and split the property among themselves.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohiohistory.org · savingplaces.org · commons.wikimedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Tcmsd-wilkshire Hills100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-15

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