Since the Fourierist Association had registered their community under state law, the village of Ceresco, Wisconsin survived the collapse of the utopian socialist experiment of the 1840s.

Remaining members of the Wisconsin Phalanx later formed a living cooperative and study group called the Ceresco Union in 1855, espousing the doctrines of religious freethought and interpersonal free love until dispersed by a mob of outraged citizens.

In 1832 the son of a wealthy New York landowner, Albert Brisbane (1809–1890), a student of philosophy in search of ideas for the betterment of humanity, was introduced to a newly published short work by philosopher Charles Fourier (1772–1837) entitled Treatise on Domestic and Agricultural Association.

"[3] Brisbane would soon begin work translating and expounding upon the ideas of Fourier for an American audience, with his first and most famous book, Social Destiny of Man, seeing print in 1840.

[3] Brisbane's book was well-received and it enjoyed immediate success, gaining a broad readership among those concerned with the problems of society and helping to launch the Fourierist movement in the United States.

[4] Among those who read Brisbane's book and was thereby converted to the ideas of socialism was a young New York newspaper publisher, Horace Greeley, later elected to the US House of Representatives.

[4] Greeley would provide valuable service to the Fourierist movement by advancing its ideas in the pages of his newspaper of that day, The New Yorker, throughout 1840 and 1841, and offering Brisbane a column in his successor publication, the New York Tribune, from the time of its establishment in March 1842.

[6] A faddish boom seeking to test Fourier's ideas on "Association" in practice soon followed, and from 1843 to 1845 more than 30 Fourierian "phalanxes" were established in a number of northern and midwestern states.

[9] Convinced of the applicability of Fourier's "Associationist" prescription, Chase committed himself to the emerging movement without reservation, organizing a series of preliminary meetings to draft a constitution for a local "phalanx.

"[10] On March 23, 1844, a formal meeting of phalanx supporters was held at the Southport village schoolhouse and officers were elected in accordance with the constitution previously drafted.

[14] Instructions were issued to participants to obtain a tent to provide temporary shelter until permanent housing could be constructed, and details for provisioning the settling party arranged.

[17] According to the constitution of the Association, decisions were to be made by an elected group including four executive officers — a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer — as well as a nine-person board of managers.

[20] Individuals were permitted to keep their own horse and carriage on the association's land, with payment to be made to cover the actual cost of animal maintenance.

[21] Whenever five or more individuals engaged in a similar branch of industry, these were to organize as a "group" and to elect a foreman, who would be charged with keeping an account of the work performed by each member of that unit.

"[21] This elaborate bureaucratic apparatus above the level of groups and foremen remained in the distant mists of Fourierian fantasy due to the small scale of the Wisconsin experiment.

[17] Permission was eventually given for individual families to be provided with foodstuffs for their own preparation, although the great majority of participants remained committed to Fourier's collectivist model through 1845.

[23] Liquor was banished from the premises and Chase noting in his December 1845 annual report that "the four great evils with which the world is afflicted — intoxication, lawsuits, quarreling, and profane swearing — never have, and with the present character and prevailing habits of our members, never can, find admittance into our society.

[25] The list of specified offenses for which expulsion could result was extensive, including "rude and indecent behavior, drunkenness, trafficking in intoxicating drinks, profane swearing, lying, stealing or defrauding another, protracted idleness, willfully injuring the property of the association, knowingly consenting to the injury of the association or any individual member thereof, gambling, [or] habitually engaging in censoriousness and faultfinding..."[25] The Wisconsin Phalanx's deep concern with profanity, honesty, and temperance was not accidental.

"[29]This assessment was confirmed by a Methodist circuit rider who visited the community, who noted that "though a few of the men were professed infidels, they always received ministers gladly and treated them with consideration.

"Success with us is no longer a matter of doubt.... We feel and known that our condition and prospects are truly cheering, and to the friends of the cause we can say, Come on, not to join us, but to form other Associations; for we can not receive one-tenth of those who apply for admission.

Ominously for the fate of the collective enterprise, only a minority of Ceresco associationists were eating together at the general table by this date, with 100 people part of the 21 families which prepared their meals and ate as traditional nuclear units.

"[35]The reality of tightly shared accommodations, with numerous families occupying rooms in a single crowded "long house," proved less than compelling for many members of the phalanx's resident community.

[37] The community's flour mill had finally begun operation in June and increased property values helped to keep the Association solvent and a total of 1,713 acres were owned by the Phalanx.

As the phalanx was heavily invested in land and infrastructure and available cash was in short supply, these payments generally took the form of orders on the treasury payable at some future date, usually bearing 10 or 12 percent interest.

[39] Determined to avoid legal action, the community began to liquidate its movable assets to cover the redemption of stock held by departing members.

[39] The latter course of action was followed and on January 29, 1850, the Wisconsin State Legislature passed a bill allowing the association's 9-member council "to sell and convey real estate by their official act; also to lay out and have recorded a village plat with streets and squares and public lots.

[39] By the end of the summer most of the land had been sold, with the money received used to buy back outstanding shares of stock, with the formal understanding that any surplus generated over par value would be split by the corporation's former stockholders.

[42] The actual cause of the dissolution remained a matter of some mystery among contemporary observers, with Everett Chamberlain declaring that "Human nature was the rock on which this fine ship split, as did all other argosies bearing the banner of Owen or Fourier.