American Studies Commons^™

Why Historians Should Examine Shaker Novels And Short Stories, Richard Marshall

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Visitors to the villages often broadcast cautionary tales in late-eighteenth and nineteenth-century publications, tales that are remarkably similar to those of many authors of novels and short stories that appeared concurrently. Unfortunately, similar stories whose authors purport them to be historical novels continued to be disseminated in the twentieth century and indeed into the twenty-first century, well after most Shaker villages had closed. Thus a remarkably unvarying voice of anti-Shakerism has been kept alive for over two hundred years, a voice that threatens to obscure the legacy of the Shaker success in communal living.

Personal Visits And Observations: Charles Nordhoff’S Remarkable Tour Of American Communal Societies, Peter Hoehnle

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In 1873 and 1874 Charles Nordhoff, the former managing editor of the New York Evening Post, then working as a freelance descriptive writer, made a personal survey of the major communal societies in the United States. In a period of political and economic turmoil, Nordhoff wanted to observe how ordinary Americans, many of them European immigrants, formed cooperative communities to meet their spiritual, religious and physical needs. The result of his investigation was a book with the ponderous title, The Communistic Societies of the United States from Personal Visit and Observation. One hundred and forty years after its initial …

A Short History Of The Columbian Phalanx, Julieanna Frost

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Columbian Phalanx was one of eight Fourierist communities established in Ohio during the nineteenth century. Formed between Dresden and Zanesville in 1844, it is uncertain as to when they disbanded, though it appears that this group was in existence for approximately two years.

Document: A Journal Of A Journey From Canterbury To Enfield [Connecticut], Stephen J. Paterwic, John Kaime

American Communal Societies Quarterly

"Journal in verse, of a visit to Enfield, Conn., in February by John Kaime” (Western Reserve Historical Society, V B-4). Introduced by Stephen J. Paterwic. The sixty octave poem grew out of a dialogue between prominent representatives of the Adventists and Shakers held at Enfield by one of the Shaker representatives.

Shaker Brothers In The Spirit: The Exchange Of Ideas And Spiritual Gifts Between Seth Youngs Wells And Calvin Green, Jane F. Crosthwaite

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Hidden in plain sight among the multitude of manuscripts documenting the Era of Manifestations are two notices that reveal not only a publishing partnership between two Shaker men but the dramatic byplay of spiritual activity which fueled a lengthy revival period. For at least twenty years in the mid-nineteenth century, spiritual revelations enlivened and expanded Shaker theological and institutional life; moreover, within the solemn messages, the enthusiastic music, and the arresting gift drawings one finds a number of personal exchanges which suggest that the intimate notices strengthened, if they did not create, the web on which larger issues grew. Embedded …

Document: Columbian Phalanx Broadside

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The special collections of Hamilton College has recently acquired this broadside printed upon the liquidation of the possessions of the Columbian Phalanx. Miller’s assessment that the community ceased operations later in the year of its founding appears to be correct based on the date of the auction of their possessions scheduled for January 7, 1846. Information about many of the smaller phalanxes is very scarce, and printed materials from them are even scarcer.

“Blacksmith By Trade”: The Journey Of African-American Shaker Justinian Cartwright, Rebekah Brummett

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Justinian Cartwright was one of ten individuals emancipated in 1819 by their slave-owning Shaker families who were part of the South Union Village in Auburn, Kentucky. This article traces Cartwright's activities from 1813, when he began working in the community's blacksmith shop until his death in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1862.

Document: “A Beautiful Box Of Gifts And Emblems Of Presence Given To Calvin Green As A Token Of Eternal Blessings….Copied November 25th 1847”

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Illustrated manuscript that highlights the relationship between noted Shakers Seth Youngs Wells and Calvin Green from the period of internal revival known to scholars as the “Era of Manifestations” (but called the “New Era” by the Shakers). From the Canterbury Shaker Village Archives, #788.

Document: An Account Of An American Commune In The Soviet Union During The 1920s

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Hamilton College’s special collections has recently acquired this remarkable letter from American journalist Arthur Brown Ruhl (1876-1935) to his mother Nellie Brown Ruhl (1856-1932). The letter is densely written across eight pages and describes a heretofore unknown group of Americans living in an intentional community in the newly formed Soviet Union. Ruhl (1876-1935) was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Harvard University in 1899. He served as an inspector for the American Relief Administration (ARA) in Russia from 1921 to 1923. On April 29, 1923, the New York Times Magazine published Ruhl’s “Back to Old Russia as Pioneers: The …

Utopia, Ohio, 1844–1847: Seedbed For Three Experiments In Communal Living, Cori L. Flatt, Peter A. Hoehnle

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The nearly forgotten town of Utopia, Ohio—now a tiny community located on the banks of the Ohio River, approximately thirty miles southeast of Cincinnati—provided a testing ground for three distinctive communal experiments during the period from 1844 to 1858. Although today described as “a ghost town on U.S. Route 52—a dozen houses, barns, trailers and the Village Market,” this one geographic point witnessed the rise and fall of utopian dreams as well as great human tragedy. These dreams ranged from a socialist movement inspired by the teachings of Charles Fourier, to a spiritualistic/abolitionist undertaking led by John O. Wattles, and, …

Visitor’S Account Of The Shaker Community At Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, Clara Von Gerstner

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Originally published in: Clara von Gerstner, Beschreibung einer Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerica in den Jahren 1838 bis 1840 (Leipzig: Verlag der J. C. Hinrichs’fchen Buchhandlung, 1842), 377-385. Translated by Professor Chris Burwick, Hamilton College.

From Wuerttemberg To Zoar: Origins Of A Separatist Community, Eberhard Fritz

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In Ohio, the members of the Zoar community regarded their village as a sanctuary, a safe haven separated from an otherwise evil, sinful world. The community’s chosen name implies they felt they had escaped from Wuerttemberg. Most of the Separatist groups they belonged to had been established in the years after 1801. Thus, we know two dates for certain, but if you research the story of the founders of Zoar there remain many mysteries.

George Rapp and his followers laid the foundation of the Separatist movement in the late eighteenth century, and the founders of Zoar followed the example of …