1804: Dufour's Letter to His Children at Vevay

Jean Jacques Dufour did a lot more than create a vineyard in Switzerland County. He was a very religious man who sent lengthy sermons to his children in Indiana during the period he had returned to Europe. A sketch of Lucy Morerod Detraz in an 1876 Vevay Reveille stated he wrote many of these "sermons" which were mailed to the United States.

This text includes three elements. These are the introduction to an 1804 letter by Dufour to his children. The other two elements are the letter's first and last paragraphs The letter has more than 3,600 words and contains a great deal of scriptural citation and only the last paragraph has any personal detail. I have not yet found the second letter which the magazine editors promised to publish.


The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine for the Year 1817.VOL. XIII. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG Theological Printer and Bookseller, No. 50, Corahilt.

Letter from a father in Switzerland to his children in America..

'The following letter was written by a Swiss vine-dresser to his children, who had emigrated to America, and now reside somewhere in our western country; we believe at Vevay in Indiana. The writer alludes to the trances, or ecstasies, which had been common in the western states, and of which he had been informed by his children.


He takes occasion, therefore, to enter upon a religious discussion, which must have been interesting and useful to them; especially as they are in a country to a considerable extent destitute of religious privileges. The letter has been translated for the Panoplist. The summary of arguments in favor of Christianity, which it contains, may be useful to many readers, who have paid little attention to the subject. The spirit with which it is written will recommend it to the pious. We propose to insert another letter from the same person, in a subsequent number of our work."

To all my dear children,

With respect to the subject of your letter, that there are in your country large assemblages of various religious sects, who convene for the purposes of devotion, and that in these assemblages many fall down in ecstasies, who declare they are thus smitten with grace, and are really inspired; I advise you never to seek divine grace by means of ecstasies. God has mercifully furnished men who desire it, with a different means, even his word of truth Contained in the Old and New Testaments.

In the creation of man, God endowed him with two excellent properties, reason and liberty. His duty was to render to his Creator the homage and praise, which were so justly due. But, as Moses says, Satan has seduced man through pride to revolt from his Creator. Pride then is the original sin; and since pride still exists, and increases, there is permanent evidence of the verity of the words of Moses. Hence pride has depraved the reason of man, and has restricted his liberty only to evil. On this point you will do well to reflect and reason.

[The wording that follows is from the last paragraph]

My dear children, carefully consider how wretched are those, who reject the word of God: it is to reject God himself. How ought the single thought of death to alarm their minds? You know me well; you know that I am but the son of a simple peasant, a laborer, a vine-dresser, who never had any, other instructor but my late father; who have never studied any other book than my Bible; who have never been taught the rules of elocution.

My language is altogether simple and rustic; but I flatter myself that you will regard it with equal attention; for you ought to be convinced, that I bear you always on my heart, and that I desire your happiness, both for this life and the life to come, as much and more than my own; for I am your tender father,

Jean Jacques Dufour

- Sales de Montreux Jan, 1, 1804.

The Curious Case of John Allen

In the 1850s and 1860s, groups of spiritualists who believed in socialism and free love settled in the Patriot area. Some of them were connected with the famous Brook Farm experiment in Massachusetts.

Two of them John Murray Spear and John Allen, were former Universalist ministers who turned to spiritualism. But did the move toward Utopia end up in murder?

The official story of Allen’s end was that he died of congestive fever, as reported in the Historical Magazine, published in New York in late 1858. In the words of the obituary notice:

“ALLEN, who, for many years was one of the most efficient and earnest workers in the cause of constructive socialism in this country. He died at his vineyard at Patriot, Indiana, where he had been residing for several years. His disease was congestive fever. His age was 48. Mr. Allen was a native of New England, and originally a minister of the Universalist denomination.”

An abolitionist, Allen turned away from Universalism because of opposition to his anti-slavery sermons. He began following the views of Charles Fourier, a French Socialist, and moved west after the failure of Brook farm, Allen and his wife moved to Cincinnati and then to Patriot. Details are unclear, but in the middle 1850s, they moved to a Utopian settlement in Texas. He moved to New York and then back to Patriot, where later Spear’s group would purchase the Switzerland County property. During this time, Patriot was used as a staging area for laborers moving to Texas. And Allen was joined in Indiana by Francois Cantagrel who was a student of Fourier.

Whatever those details, the legal notice that appeared in the Vevay Reveille of Oct. 20, 1858 is very clear. It states an inquest was held on the body of John Allen, by a justice who was acting as coroner of Posey Township on Oct. 3, 1858. Two doctors examined Allen’s stomach contents, and the jury came back on Oct. 11, rendering the following verdict ”We are the opinion that the deceased came to his death came from the effects of poison administered by some person unknown to the jury.”

Given the lack of immediate suspects, there is little likelihood that law enforcement had the sophistication to pursue the case much further.

Two more legal notices have bearing on this. On Dec. 1, 1858, the Vevay paper carried a notice that Bela Herrick had been appointed administrator of Allen’s estate, which was probably insolvent. Herrick, who was born in New York in 1794, was a founder of the Patriot Universalist Society in 1835, a logical person to be associated with Allen. Herrick then advertised a sale to be held on Dec. 24 at Allen’s house. The few items listed were “household and kitchen furniture, 1 cow and calf, 1 copper still and wine press and many other articles.”

Considering that obituary said Allen died at his vineyard, it seems there’s little chance that there was another John Allen in the area.