Ora Labora was known as the“Christian German Agricultural and Benevolent Society of Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work). Members could combine work with prayer and live according to the Methodist Church Discipline. Established on the shores of Michigan’s Wild Fowl Bay in 1861. The colony was located near the town of Bay Port, Michigan.
The colony operated until 1867. After which time, lands reverted to individual families or were sold to pay for the colony’s debt. Not a trace of the town remains today.
Initial research on Ora Labora is credited to Florence McKinnon Gwinn of Caseville. In 1922, she published an article entitled “A Community Experiment” in the book Pioneer History of Huron County, Michigan. Huron County Pioneer and Historical Society published it. It provided an overview of the colony and is considered the starting point for most researchers on the topic.
In April of 2020, Hamilton College published American Communal Societies Quarterly an article entitled; The “Christian German Agricultural and Benevolent Society of Ora et Labora” by Dr. Walter A. Brumm provided an examination of the major reasons that Ora et Labora failed to thrive. The article also offers an excellent list of sources about the Thumb colony. The publication also contains a manuscript containing a brief history of the colony written by founder Emil Baur. Baur offered his own reasons for the colony’s demise.
Located near present day Bay Port, Ora Labora known as “Christian German Agricultural and Benevolent Society of Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work), where it’s parishioners could combine work with prayer, and live according to the Methodist Church Discipline. Founded in 1862 on Michigan’s Wild Fowl Bay, the colony disappeared in 1867.
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Archives of Michigan is now in possession of a collection of Ora Labora letters written in English and Old German by Emil and Bertha Baur and other family members. They were found in Cincinnati in 1974 and sent to the Historical Society of Michigan in 2018. They are in process of being prepared for availability online
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The Letters from Ora Labora 1862 – 1898. Offers a glimpse of the challenges of being a religious pioneer in Michigan’s Wilderness.
This is a collection of stories written through the years.
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In October of 1871, a great forest fire swept across much of the Thumb region including the section of Michigan that included the lands of the former colony of Ora Labora. The colony was in the process of being disbanded and the lands sold off, but large holdings remained including some cabins and buildings. The colony’s benefactor and primary landowner, the Harmony Society immediately sent $200 for distribution among the needy.
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Ora Labora’s final viable year as a religious colony in the wilderness of the upper thumb of Michigan was 1866. We reveal the final desperate attempts to keep it going.
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The Pigeon Historical Society to relocate and restore two cabins that were originally located in the 1800s German religious colony called Ora Labora.
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The Ora Labora Experiment is an excerpt from a common historical document that has been scanned and re-published numerous times
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Part II of the Ora Labora story outlines the summer of 1863. Building is rapid and progress exciting in Michigan’s north. But the looming effect of the Civil War is about to impact this fledgling German religious colony’s effort to bring their culture and traditions to the Great Lakes wilderness.
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