Erik Jansson and several Swedish followers settled in Bishop Hill, IL in 1848 and formed a church. One of the fuundamentalist beliefs of the group was that men and women should be separate in all activities - so the church was divided with a low wall through the center. Jansson relented in 1848 and began allowing marriage to avoid extinction of the group. They thrived with farming and broom manufacture operations. The colony operated as a commune until the late 1850's when the barn where their money was hidden burned down and most of the men left to fight in the Civil War.