What began in early 1903 as a place of a new exciting Christian faith soon became so much more! The new converts had to learn a life of celibacy, of being vegetarians, living a communal life, that men could never again shave or cut their hair, and of learning the teachings of their newly found leader Benjamin Purnell, who had traveled as an itinerant preacher from Kentucky, and who arrived into Benton Harbor in a covered wagon and who was a broom maker by trade. The success of his dream of creating his own religion would go down in history as being one of the most famous American founded faiths of all times. Soon after their beginning there on the eastern edge of Benton Harbor, the construction began of several majestic mansions, elaborately detailed like never before seen in the Midwest, and places that all of these travelers could quickly fall in love with and move immediately into as their final life’s destination. As they arrived they were intensely interviewed to find out every possible aspect of their lives, and if chosen by the pillars, were asked then to sign over every worldly possession that they had held to be donated to the House of David to support their great cause. There were farmers with mammoth amounts of farmland, there were industrialists with factories and foundries, there were a husband and wife that had a diamond mine in Australia, two brothers that owned the 2nd leading wagon factory in America behind Studebaker and had invented the very first automobile, stringed instrument makers from England, artists from Italy, famous actors & actresses, some of the worlds greatest musicians, great chefs, jewelry makers, great masons, famous architects, watch makers, great inventors and great minds from around the world, and on and on. Immediately all of these possessions were to become the property of the House of David. Within a short few years the colony had amassed a fortune, literally holdings into the millions, and that growth continued on for the next 3 decades.
Beginning with their invention of the waffle cone in 1904 they traveled to the St. Louis World’s Fair to introduce themselves to the world and to kick off their new invention that would capture the hearts of millions. It was at that event that the founder Benjamin Purnell discovered the amazing use of little 1/4 scale steam engine trains that were being used to transport the tens of thousands of visitors to the World’s Fair into the grounds. Immediately after the fair ended the House of David would send two of their men to travel to New York to the Cagney Brothers Locomotive factory where they acquired one of the little steam engine trains from the World’s Fair and transported it back to Benton Harbor, where the colony’s men dismantled every piece of it and recreated that very train to be stronger and faster, and then built 8 more just like it! At that point in 1905 Benjamin Purnell decided to begin construction an amusement park, using the newly built trains to circle the perimeter of the park and transport visitors into the center where they had their zoo, a spectacular amphitheater for musical events, an exotic bird aviary, a hotel and vegetarian restaurant, and eventually a baseball stadium for its long haired whiskered players that would become world famous!! They built their own steam fired power plants that generated their own electricity, which they sold off to the City of Benton Harbor until WWll. By 1908 the newly built park was in full swing, and visitors flocked in from all over the country! The colony bought cruise ships, a bus line, trolley cars, and every form of transportation that they could get their hands on to bring guests to their soon-to-be famous park! Visitors arrived by the tens of thousands per week, and soon the House of David was one of the leading amusement parks in all the country. It would ultimately entertain nearly 100 million visitors before its demise in 1973, when the average age of the membership had gotten to be over 70.
Around 1909 Benjamin Purnell decided to buy a 2600 acre island in the middle of Lake Michigan, and for the next 11 years they would use this little paradise called “High Island” as an amazing source for exotic timbers to sell to the Grand Rapids furniture industry, as well as bring the timbers back to St. Joe and Benton Harbor where the wood was used to construct those cities most elaborate homes. The colony used their own tall sailing ship, the Rosa Belle, to deliver items to the members living on the island, as well as deliver back all of the great crops that they grew on High Island. The Rosa Belle was lost at sea during an early November storm in 1917 and all hands on deck were lost with her. One of the colony’s steam ships, the Rising Sun, then took over and continued to transport passengers and timbers for the next several years from High Island to the cruise ship port in Benton Harbor, until she too was lost at sea in 1921. The ship remains on her side near Pyramid Point just south of Charlevoix. Soon after that accident the House of David abandoned the island and eventually sold it off to Warren Townsend, who owned an enormous furniture factory in Grand Rapids.
