The prime mover behind the community was "sacred socialist" and mystic James Pierrepont Greaves, who was influenced by American Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott, and Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A. (Ed.) (1863): The New American Cyclopedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, Volume XVI, V-Zwirner, D. Appleton & Company, New York.
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father is a 2007 biography by John Matteson of Louisa May Alcott, best known as the author of Little Women, and her father, Bronson Alcott, an American Transcendentalist philosopher and the founder of the Fruitlands utopian community.
Transcendentalist Moncure D. Conway, who helped secure the publication of the sketches in the Commonwealth, recommended they be collected as a book.
In 1859, the Transcendentalist Elizabeth Peabody visited the Schurz home at Watertown, Wisconsin, and was impressed with the young Agathe Schurz's ability and maturity.
The town is also not named for Henry David Thoreau, the transcendentalist author, though this is a common misconception.