Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/836

 810 SHAKERS from Albany. Here they remained, without any considerable accession to their numbers, for 3J years. In 1779 a religious excitement, <w revival, occurred at New Lebanon, Columbia co., N. Y., accompanied by those extraordina- ry physical manifestations which subsequent- ly characterized a similar revival in Kentucky. When these manifestations had subsided, in the spring of 1780, some of those who had been most affected by them visited Mother Aim at Watervliet, and there, as they believed, found the key to their religious experiences. The number of adherents to her doctrines increased rapidly up to the time of her death in 1784, and indeed for some years after. The idea of a community of property, and of Shaker fam- ilies or unitary households, was first broached by Mother Ann, who formed her little family into a model after which the general organ- izations of the Shaker order as they now ex- ist have been arranged. In 1787 Joseph Mea- cham, formerly a Baptist preacher, who had been one of Mother Ann's first converts at "Watervliet, collected her adherents in a settle- ment at New Lebanon, and organized them in this form, probably adding some principles not found in Mother Ann's revelations. Within five years, under the administration of Mea- cham, 11 Shaker settlements were founded, viz. : at New Lebanon, N. Y., which has always been regarded as the parent society ; at Water- vliet, N. Y. ; at Hancock, Tyringham, Harvard, and Shirley, Mass. ; at Enfield, Conn. ; at Can- terbury and Enfield, N. II. ; and at Alfred and New Gloucester, Me. No other societies were formed till 1805, when three missionaries from New Lebanon visited Ohio and Kentucky, and were ultimately successful in founding four societies in Ohio (Union Village, Watervliet, White Water, and North Union), and two in Kentucky (Pleasant Hill and South Union). These settlements are composed of from two to eight "families," or households. A large house, divided through the middle by wide halls, and capable of accommodating from 30 to 150 inmates, is erected for each family, the male members occupying one end and the fe- males the other. The property is owned by each family as a community. The societies ail possess considerable tracts of land, averaging nearly seven acres to each member. They be- lieve idleness to be sinful, and every member who is able to work is employed. They have usually very extensive gardens connected with their settlements, and the culture of flowers, medicinal herbs, fruits, and vegetables has been a favorite business with them ; and they have dealt largely in garden and flower seeds, dried herbs, and medicinal extracts. Of late years they give more attention to agriculture and to manufacturing than formerly. The broom busi- ness is extensively carried on by all the socie- ties. They usually have at their villages store- houses and separate buildings for dairy or me- chanical purposes, a school house for the chil- dren they adopt or who come in with their parents, and a meeting house or hall. Their schools are supplied abundantly with apparatus and libraries. In their mode of worship they exercise both soul and body. The two sexes are frequently arranged in ranks opposite to and facing each other, the front ranks about 6 ft. apart. There is usually an address by one of the elders upon some doctrinal subject, or some practical virtue, after which they sing a hymn ; then they form in circles around a band of singers, to whose music they "go forth in the dances of them that make merry." At times the excitement and fervency of spirit become very great, and their bodily evolutions, while maintaining the order and regularity of the dance and the music, are almost incon- ceivably rapid. They believe themselves to be frequently under the immediate influence of spirit agency, both of angels and of departed members of their own fraternity, who have advanced further in the work of the resurrec- tion or redemption from the generative nature and order than those still in the body. They have a ministry, composed of two brethren and two sisters, who have the oversight of from one to four societies; also each family in every society has four elders, two breth- ren and two sisters, who have charge of the family. The temporalities of each family are cared for by two deacons and two deaconesses. There are three classes of members: 1. The novitiates, who, receiving the doctrines of the Shakers, and living up to the general require- ments of their faith, still prefer to reside with their own families, and manage their own tem- poral concerns, for a time. They are not con- trolled by the society, either as to their prop- erty, families, or children, and enjoy their spiritual privileges in connection with it, un- less they violate its rules and principles. 2. The junior class, composed of persons who have become members of the Shaker communi- ties, and unite in their labors and religious ex- ercises, but who have not relinquished their property to the society, or, if they have given the society the improvement of it, may at any time resume it, though without interest. 8. The senior class, comprising those who, after full experience of the system of the Shakers, voluntarily and deliberately consecrate them- selves, their services, and all their property to the society, never to be reclaimed by them or their legal heirs. Those belonging to this class are called the church or senior order. No dif- ference is ever made in this order on account of the amount of property any individual may have contributed. They, as well as all who retain their connection with the community, are amply provided for, in health, sickness, and old age. The Shakers hold that the reve- lation of God is progressive ; that in the first or antediluvian period of human history, God was known only as a Great Spirit ; that in the second or Jewish period, he was revealed ns the Jehovah, lie, She, or a dual being, male and female, the "I am that I am;" that Jesus,