Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Remembering Gus Kermes, Sandra A. Soule

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Long time Shaker Seminar participant and artist Constantine J. Kermes, affectionately known to his countless friends as “Gus,” passed away on May 19, 2009, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Many of his fellow Seminar attendees remember Gus constantly painting when visiting Shaker sites. He painted Shaker village views, their buildings and workspaces, and the people who had populated them.

Daughter Of The Shakers: The Story Of Eleanor Brooks Fairs, Johanne Grewell

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In this presentation I shall try to explain how Eldress Anna's "girls" got to the South Family, Watervliet, what their life was like when they lived with the Shakers and how that experience shaped their lives after they joined “the world.” I’m telling the story based on my recollections and on family records pertaining to one girl and her two sisters, orphans who were brought up by the Shakers. The girl was Eleanor Brooks Fairs, and my name is Johanne Fairs Grewell. Eleanor was my mother, and I do so wish she were here to tell her story.

This is …

Birth, Life, And Death Of Olive Branch, 1896-1924, Vernon Squire

American Communal Societies Quarterly

For those who are just beginning their searches and studies about Shakers, the title might seem to suggest that this article is about a Shaker named Olive Branch. For those more experienced in Shaker studies, they will recognize that Olive Branch refers to the Shaker community in Florida, which existed from 1896 to 1924.

Shaker Messages From Mary Magdalene And John Calvin: Haughty Spirits, Bearing For The Dead, And The Problem Of History, Jane F. Crosthwaite

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Among the pleasures and puzzles of the Era of Manifestations are the many messages that Shaker instruments received from personages long dead. The responsibility and perhaps temptation of the scholar is to decode these messages, to analyze the intention of the instrument, the value of the message, and the utility of the experience for the larger Shaker enterprise.

I have chosen two messages to examine; although they are rather dissimilar—one being a life story from Mary Magdalene and the other a confession from John Calvin—they do have several features in common. They exemplify the range of messages recorded by Shaker …

Letter From Richard Mcnemar To Laurence Roelosson: Introduction, Christian Goodwillie

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Among the earliest manuscripts in the Communal Societies Collection at Hamilton College is a copy of a letter written by Shaker Richard McNemar to one “Laurence Roelosson.” The letter is dated “Henderson County (Ky.) March 3d. 1809.”

William Adee Whitehead’S Visit To The Shakers: Introduction, Elizabeth De Wolfe, Scott De Wolfe

American Communal Societies Quarterly

On Saturday morning, August 7, 1830, William Adee Whitehead left New York City with his sister and brother “for the purpose of making part of what is called the ‘fashionable tour.’” The party traveled north up the river to Hudson and then rode twenty-five miles to the summer haven of Lebanon Springs. Over the next two days, the Whitehead siblings took part in a popular antebellum pastime, visiting the Shakers.

Memorandum Of Peregrinations By Land & Water. Recorded For My Own Amusement. Vol. 2nd From July 1830 To May 1832 By W.A.W. [Excerpt], William Adee Whitehead

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Photocopy of a manuscript journal in the collection of the Monroe County Public Library, Key West, Florida. A search for the original manuscript journal was unsuccessful and the location of the original is at present unknown.

Conflict And Tribulation On The Frontier: The West Union Shakers And Their Retreat, Carol Medlicott

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Of the seven major western Shaker sites, one in particular stands out as distinctive. This elusive and puzzling western site is the village of West Union, located along the Wabash River in Knox County, Indiana, several miles north of Vincennes. Although it was planted early by the original eastern missionaries who first directed their proselytizing efforts at frontier settlers in that area in the summer of 1808, it was also abandoned early and abruptly, after nearly twenty years of building, improvements, and expansion.

This article will offer fresh analysis of West Union from the perspective of historical geography. I will …

Letter From Richard Mcnemar, Richard Mcnemar

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Copy of a letter written by Shaker Richard McNemar to Laurence Roelosson dated “Henderson County (Ky.) March 3d. 1809.”

Watervliet Shakers Through The Eyes Of Oneida Perfectionists, 1863-1875, Anthony Wonderley

American Communal Societies Quarterly

The Oneida Community (1848-1880) of central New York was notable for its intellectual garrulity—a curiosity about other utopians coupled with eagerness to make first-hand acquaintance with idealists of every stripe. Founded and led by Vermonter John H. Noyes, Oneida Perfectionists considered themselves members of one extended family sharing equally in all relations of labor, love, and property. They felt especially close to their fellow Christian communists, the Shakers, and, for a time, developed neighborly ties with one particular community of the Millennial Church. Watervliet, just north of Albany and about one hundred miles east of Oneida, was among the largest …

Heaven In A Hollow Earth: The Shaker-Koreshan Connection, Christian Goodwillie

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Throughout the history of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing the sect has welcomed interaction with other communal societies. Sometimes, though, these relationships created problems that neither participant foresaw.

The late-nineteenth-century Shakers’ progressive nature enabled them to discuss their theology in an open manner that allowed for outside perspectives regarding all but a handful of core Shaker principles—celibacy, confession of sins, and community of goods. This openness to new ideas was exercised to perhaps its breaking point in the Shakers’ interaction with Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed. The Shakers may have discussed their theology at a deeper level …

“Rather Than Ever Milk Again”: Shaker Sisters’ Refusal To Milk At Mount Lebanon And Watervliet — 1873-1877, Lauren A. Stiles

American Communal Societies Quarterly

During the 1870s and 1880s the agricultural press published articles calling for men to do the milking in place of women. Dairy farming was also becoming increasingly specialized with milk being sold to local cheese factories rather than being made by women into butter and cheese on the farm site. Although these secular developments coincided with the Shaker sisters’ refusal, the sisters may well have been unaware of them. Although no other Shaker villages outside of Mount Lebanon and Watervliet were faced with a similar refusal, the severe widespread loss of male membership probably accounts for the gradual changes in …

Celebrating And Sacralizing Violence: Testimonies Concerning Ann Lee And The Early Shakers, Stephen J. Stein

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In what follows it is my intention to identify briefly the religious claims of the Shakers, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, to sketch some aspects of the early history of the community, and to describe the ways in which Ann Lee and her followers, also called Believers, were subjected to violence. Then I will examine the ways that the Shakers featured, utilized, and exploited the tales of violence against Lee and the early Believers—celebrating and sacralizing that violence for their own religious ends.

The Abuse Of Spirit Messages During The Shaker Era Of Manifestations: “A Hard Time Of It In This Hurrycane Of Gifts, To Know What Is Revelation And What Is Not”, Glendyne Wergland

American Communal Societies Quarterly

After Ann Lee’s death, Shakers regulated morality in a more mundane fashion. Their domestic surveillance turned up misbehavior, which Believers were required to report to the elders, who tried to convince sinners to repent and confess. The society’s leaders, a team of two brethren and two sisters known as the Ministry, institutionalized procedures for repentance and confession. During the Era of Manifestations, however, that system changed. Shakers tried to maintain a dynamic tension between gifts of inspiration and their need for order and union. But from 1838 through 1841, inspiration prevailed. Knowing that their followers prized spiritual gifts, the Ministry …