Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“For Zion’S Sake I Will Not Hold My Peace”: The Spiritual Travails Of A Cochranite Woman, David Newell

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Communal Societies Collection at Hamilton College recently acquired a title that is as remarkable, in terms of content, as it is rare: Olive Junkins’s The Dealings of a Few of the Church at York who Call themselves Christians, with Samuel Junkins and his Wife: Together with a Short Sketch of Her Own Christian Experience, Written by Her Own Hand [York, Maine?]: Printed for the author, 1825.

It appears to be the only surviving contemporary monograph that can be deemed a primary Cochranite work, written by a woman who embraced most or all of the theological beliefs of Jacob Cochrane, …

Reminiscences Of The Shakers And Shaker Collecting By Robert And Hazel Belfit, Robert Belfit, Lynn Crabtree, Patricia Williams

American Communal Societies Quarterly

A transcription of a manuscript from Hamilton College's Special Collections by Robert Belfit with additional material provided by the author's grandchildren. The manuscript records the detailed interactions of a husband and wife who had befriended the Shakers at Hancock, Mount Lebanon, Watervliet, and eventually Canterbury and Sabbathday Lake, beginning in the 1920s. Additionally, it provides rich insight into what it was like to visit those communities at that time, and to collect antiques from their members.

The Dealings Of A Few Of The Church At York Who Call Themselves Christians, With Samuel Junkins And His Wife: Together With A Short Sketch Of Her Own Christian Experience, Written By Her Own Hand, Olive Junkins

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Reprint of a pamphlet promoting beliefs associated with the Cochranites, or the Society of Free Brethren (1816-1819). Printed [in York, Maine?] for the author in 1825, and recently acquired by Hamilton College.

The West Family Of The Hancock, Massachusetts, Shaker Community, Dirk Langeveld

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Today’s museums tend to preserve what was known as the Church, or Centre, Family of the Shaker villages. These families were so named because of the presence of the meetinghouse, or the central position it occupied in relation to the other communal families. The Church Family was typically only one of several that made up a village. Smaller families surrounded the Church Family, and were often named for their geographic relation to the Church Family. Each family was an independent entity (sometimes in association with another family), complete with agriculture and/or industry, elders and eldresses, trustees, and deacons.

This article …

George Darrow, An Early Shaker Who “Turned Away”, Marilyn Cassidy

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Shakers and the Mormons touched the lives of George Darrow and some of his descendants. Darrow, a child of Calvinists and New Light Baptists, became associated with the Shakers, shortly after their arrival in New York in the summer of 1774. He was soon connected to leading members of the Shaker Church by blood, marriage, and association. Darrow’s life’s story is interesting and important because it helps explain his association with the Believers and how they affected his life. But, Darrow turned away despite family connections and having been a participant in Shaker events. He turned away in response …

“The Most Lamentable Tragedy”: William Pennebaker And The 1871 Fracas At Pleasant Hill, Aaron Genton

American Communal Societies Quarterly

On January 7, 1871, the Pleasant Hill East Family journal included an entry recounting a fracas during which William Pennebaker inflicted a severe and dangerous wound on the left side of Henry Spencer’s neck. This very compelling entry opens up an interesting window into the world of the Pleasant Hill Shakers—a world filled with people trying to live for spiritual perfection, but also a world filled with very raw human emotions. This tension between spiritual desire and physical reality is likely embodied in the lives of many Shakers, but perhaps none more so than in the life of William Pennebaker. …

Bibliography Of Publications By Shaker Physicians William Pennebaker And Frank Tripp, Randall L. Ericson

American Communal Societies Quarterly

While in discussion with Aaron Genton about his article on William Pennebaker and the 1871 “fracas” published in the January/April 2016 issue of the American Communal Societies Quarterly, he revealed that scrapbooks at Pleasant Hill contained a number of articles by William Pennebaker and Frank Tripp on a wide variety of medical topics. I searched for these articles in online databases so that I could provide complete bibliographic descriptions for the articles held at Pleasant Hill. I broadened my search and found many additional articles. This bibliography is a result of my research. Pennebaker and Tripp served as doctors …

The Founding Fathers And The Shakers, Christian Goodwillie

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The era of the founding in America, roughly from the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775 through the presidency of Andrew Jackson (the last president who was a veteran of that conflict), was also the era of most dynamic growth for the United Society of Believers. How large did the Shakers loom in the consciousness of the founding fathers, the very people who crafted a government that protected the religious liberty that allowed the Shakers to flourish? Searching the magnificent resource at Founders Online provided at least a partial answer to that question.That site, combined with John Quincy Adams’s …

Room(S) For More: A Communal Dwelling Or Family Home At Ephrata, Jeff Bach, Nick Siegert

American Communal Societies Quarterly

According to the Chronicon Ephratense, the chronicle of Ephrata’s official history, edited and partially written by Peter Miller and published in 1786, the celibate sisters lived in three different communal structures at Ephrata. One surviving building at Ephrata raises questions about the possibility of an additional structure for multiple monastic residents. The building interpreted currently as the Weaver’s House at Ephrata Cloister has been viewed as a single-family house since the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission took ownership of the Ephrata Cloister. For about a hundred years before that it was known generically as the Parsonage, presumably for the …

Prospects For Research On The Community Of True Inspiration, Philip E. Webber

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Review of: The Inspirationists, 1714-1932, edited by Peter Hoehnle. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2015. 3 volume set.