and the Dutch Republic. The group became known as the Community of True Inspiration, and followers were called Inspirationalists. The Inspirationalists faced the opposition of the governments of the German states because they refused to serve as soldiers and would not send their children to Lutheran public schools. Adherents to the faith were imprisoned, flogged, and stripped of their possessions. To escape persecution, many Inspirationalists moved to Hesse, the most liberal German state at the time. Here, the number of Inspirationalists greatly multiplied. Gruber died in 1728 and Rock followed in 1749; left without an instrument, the Inspirationalists' numbers declined in the subsequent decades. Within a span of a few months starting in 1817, Michael Krausert, Barbara Heinemann, and Christian Metz were all named instruments. Although Krausert soon left the church, Metz and Heinemann were able to revive interest in the Community. Heinemann retreated from the Community's affairs in 1823, making Metz the sole leader of the church. The Community continued to face persecution from German states for their refusal to serve as soldiers or utilize public schools. In the 1830s, Metz conceived of the notion of leasing a large area of land as a refuge for the Community. They first leased land from a cloister near Ronneburg, then from the Arnsburg Abbey. They expanded to Engelthal Abbey in 1834, and managed all of their land holdings in common. It was at these estates that the philosophy of communal life began to grow within the Community. By the late 1830s, the Community was prospering. Move to America The Hesse government levied harsher fines and rents against the Community in the wake of economic turmoil in the late 1830s. Metz and other leaders realized that they had to find a new home for the Community. On August 27, 1842, leaders of the Community gathered at Armenburg, Germany, to discuss a movement to the United States. The Community arrived in New York on October 26. For the next three months, church leaders examined tracts of land to establish a new commune. They agreed to purchase the Seneca Indian Reservation near Buffalo, which had recently become open to European settlement following the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek. The first settlement was called Ebenezer after the Eben-Ezer in the Books of Samuel. Over 800 members of the Community immigrated to Ebenezer from Germany. The Community founded a "provisional constitution" in 1843 that defined the