John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[32] into which I should here be thrown, and a warm sympathy with the peculiar views of my friends, decided me to come here. I may possibly visit you in the course of the year, but even that is quite doubtful. I shall if I can afford it.

The life he was now entering upon seemed just what would be best for him. The Brook Farm Association was no charitable or philanthropic Utopia, but an honest and conscientious effort to combine co-operative labor with democratic living and intellectual improvement. There were to be no drones and no privileged members. Everybody was to work, everybody was to receive wages, and everybody was to pay for what he got. Dana was engaged to teach Greek and German, or anything else “within his capacity,” and to work on the farm. With the proceeds of his teaching and of his wages for farm labor he was to pay for his living. Having had eight years experience as clerk in a general store at Buffalo, he was regarded as a competent business man, and as such he was chosen to act as one of the trustees for the property and management of the association. From the first he became one of its most industrious and useful members. Young, ardent, and active, with no infirmity except his over-strained optic nerves, he was fit for any task which might come his way. With an extraordinary facility in languages, he was an excellent teacher, and this is certified by the fact that his pupils gave him at once the title of “Professor,” which he held to the end of his connection with the association.