Owen’s lectures in the hall of the House of Representatives at Washington, February 5 and March 27, 1825, before audiences composed of the famous men of the day, gave wide publicity to his views. He displayed a model of the ideal village which he proposed to found on the Wabash. The community buildings were to form a hollow square 1000 feet long. The material needs of his proposed colony were all provided for in the buildings of his model village; and he announced a comprehensive system of education in which the young of the community should be led from the lowest to the highest branches. Owen had announced that “these new proceedings,” as he called his plans, were to take effect at New Harmony--he gave the prefix to Rapp’s name for the place--in April, 1826. He spent the summer of 1825 in England, but returned to America in the fall, reaching New York November 7. His hospitable invitation had awakened the interest of a large number of persons, ranging from sincere converts to eccentric and irresponsible vagabonds, drawn from all parts of the United States and Europe. What is known in New Harmony literature as “the boat load of knowledge” set out from Pittsburg in December, 1825. About thirty people assembled on a keel boat, which they made comfortable for the voyage, and turned toward New Harmony. The ice closed upon them near Beaver, and they did not reach their destination until the middle of January. The passengers included Robert Owen and his sons, Robert Dale and William, William Maclure, Thomas Say, Charles A. Lesueur, Achilles Fretageot and wife, Captain Donald Macdonald, Dr. Gerard Troost, Phiquepal d’Arusmont, and Stedman Whitwell, a London architect.[40] Joseph Neef followed in the spring, and Frances Wright, of Nashoba fame, who married d’Arusmont, first appeared there in the second year of the community. Schoolcraft and Rafinesque were both visitors at New Harmony, but not during the life of the Owen community, though Rafinesque has been erroneously named as an original member.