In the 1890s, the Associated Colonies of New York was established to create utopian communities in the West, Standish would be there second development. It was their belief that people living in the East wanted to escape from large industrialized cities where corporations were in control. Those same people, they concurred, sought independence, would work for themselves and own their own homes. Each “colony” was designed using the philosophical beliefs of Myles Standish and the economic structure promoted by LDS leader, Brigham Young. In 1897, the Standish townsite was laid out, and its founders stated growth would be slow, not a boom and bust cycle. Things did not work out well, and it went bankrupt in 1901. After that the town really started to grow.
