Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Bethel, MO

Bethel is a village in Shelby County, Missouri, founded in 1844 as a religious communal colony by Dr. William Keil, a Prussian-born preacher.

Keil's followers, almost exclusively German immigrants, believed the Book of Acts required Christians to hold all property and the means of production in common, and they organized the Bethel Colony on that principle.

The colony prospered quickly — by 1850 it had about 500 members and by 1860 roughly 600, with more than 3,500 acres under cultivation and thousands of sheep, cattle, and horses.

In 1855 Keil led a party of colonists west over the Oregon Trail and founded the Aurora Colony in Oregon, directing Bethel from afar by letter for the rest of his life.

Bethel's settlers kept their property in common until 1880, three years after Keil's death in 1877, when the colony's holdings were divided among the remaining members — ending what is remembered as Missouri's most successful communal experiment.

In 1848 Keil built himself a three-story mansion called Elim, which still stands east of the village.

The Bethel Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and about 30 of the colony's historic buildings survive today.

The village sits on the banks of the North River in Shelby County and covers only about 0.14 square miles.

Bethel's population was 135 at the 2020 census — far below the roughly 650 colonists who lived there at its mid-1850s peak.

In the 2010 census Bethel had 122 residents living in 60 households.