The Communistic Societies of the United States by Charles Nordhoff

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They own nearly six thousand acres of land, of which three thousand five
hundred acres are in the home farm, the remainder about four miles off.
The South Union Shakers were early famous for fine stock, which they
sold in Missouri and in the Northwestern states and territories. They
still raise fine breeds of cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens, and this
is a considerable source of income to them. Some of their land they let
to tenants, among whom I found several colored families; they have also
extensive orchards; the remainder they cultivate, raising--besides the
pasturage of their stock--corn, wheat, rye, and oats. They have also a
good grist-mill, from which they ship flour; they own a large brick
hotel at the railroad station, which, I was told, is a summer resort,
there being a sulphur spring near it, also a store, both of which they
rent to "world's people;" and they make brooms, put up garden
seeds--which was formerly an important business with them--and prepare
canned and preserved fruits, which they sell largely in the Southern
States. I saw here on the table those very sweet "preserves" which a
quarter of a century ago were to be found on every farmer's table in New
England, if he had a thrifty wife, and which, after breeding a kind of
epidemic of dyspepsia, have now, I think, entirely disappeared from our
Northern tables. It seems they are still served on "company occasions"
in the South.

They have for their home use a tannery, and shops for tailoring,
shoemaking, carpentering, and blacksmithing; and they employ fifteen
hired people, all Negroes.

Their buildings, which are both brick and frame, are all in excellent
condition; and the large pines and Norway spruces growing near the
dwellings (and "trimmed up"--or robbed of their lower branches, as the
abominable fashion has too long been in this country), show that the
founders provided for their descendants some grateful shade. Near the
Church Family they showed me two fine old oaks, under which Henry Clay
once partook of a public dinner, while at another time James Monroe and
Andrew Jackson stopped for a day at the country tavern which once stood
near by, when the stage road ran near here. "Monroe," said one of the
older members to me, "was a stout, thickset man, plain, and with but
little to say; Jackson, tall and thin, with a hickory visage."
Naturally, this being Kentucky, Clay was held to be the greatest
character of the three.

Here, too, as I am upon antiquities, I saw old men who in their youth
had taken part in the great "revival," and had seen the "jerks," which
were so horrible a feature of that religious excitement, and of which I
have previously quoted some descriptions from McNemar's "Kentucky
Revival." To dance, I was here told, was the cure for the "jerks;" and
men often danced until they dropped to the ground. "It was of no use to
try to resist the jerks," the old men assured me. "Young men sometimes
came determined to make fun of the proceedings, and were seized before
they knew of it." Men were "flung from their horses;" "a young fellow,
famous for drinking, cursing, and violence, was leaning against a tree
looking on, when he was jerked to the ground, slam bang. He swore he
would not dance, and he was jerked about until it was a wonder he was
not killed. At last he had to dance." "Sometimes they would be jerked
about like a cock with his head off, all about the ground." The dancing
I judge to have been an involuntary convulsive movement, which was the
close of the general spasm. Of course, the people believed the whole was
a "manifestation of the power of God." There is no reason to doubt that
McNemar's descriptions are accurate; from what I have heard at South
Union, I imagine that his account is not complete.

The South Union Shakers have no debt, and mean to obey the rule in this
regard; they have a very considerable fund at interest. They eat meat,
but no pork; drink tea and coffee, and some of them use tobacco--even
the younger members. They have as their minister here a somewhat
remarkable man, who studied Latin while driving an ox team as a
youngster, and later in life acquired some knowledge of German, French,
and Swedish while laboring successively as seed-gardener, tailor, and
shoemaker. His mild face and gentle manners pleased me very much; and I
was not surprised to find him a man greatly beloved in other societies
as well as at South Union. Nevertheless his example does not appear to
have been catching, for I was told that they have no library. They read
a number of newspapers, but the average of culture is low.

They have no baths; have lately bought a piano, and had a brother from
Canterbury to instruct some of the sisters in music. The singing was not
so good as I have heard elsewhere among the Shakers. They have a school
during five months of the year; and they like to take children--"would
rather have bad ones than none." They have brought children from New
Orleans and from Memphis after an epidemic which had left many orphans.
The young people "do tolerably well."

The founders of this society were "New-Light Presbyterians;" since then
they have been reinforced by "Infidels," Spiritualists, Methodists, and
others.

It is certainly to their credit that, living in a slave state, and
having up to the outbreak of the war a great part of their business with
the states farther south, these Shakers were always anti-slavery and
Union people. Formerly they hired Negro laborers from their masters,
which, I suppose, kept the masters quiet; it did not surprise me to hear
that they always had their choice of the slave population near them. A
Negro knew that he would nowhere be treated so kindly as among the
Shakers. During the war they suffered considerable losses. A saw-mill
and grist-mill, with all their contents, were burned, causing a loss of
seventy-five thousand dollars. They fed the troops of both sides, and
told me that they served at least fifty thousand meals to Union and
Confederate soldiers alike. There was guerrilla fighting on their own
grounds, and a soldier was shot near the Church dwelling. "The war cost
us over one hundred thousand dollars," said one of the elders; and
besides this they lost money by bad debts in the Southern States. Since
the war they lost seventy-five thousand dollars in bonds, which,
deposited in a bank, were stolen by one of its officers; but the greater
part of this they hope to recover. Like all the Shakers, they are
long-lived. A man was pointed out to me, now eighty-seven years of age,
who plowed and mowed last summer; two revolutionary soldiers died in the
society aged ninety-three and ninety-four; one member died at
ninety-seven; and they have now people aged eighty-seven, eighty-five,
eighty-two, eighty, and so on.

During "meeting" on Sunday I saw the children, many of them small, and
all clean and neat, and looking happy in their prim way. They came in,
as usual, the boys by one door, the girls by another, each side with its
care-taker; and took part in the marching, kneeling, and other forms of
the Shaker worship. After the war, the South Union elders sought out
twenty orphans in Tennessee, whom they adopted. Last fall, when Memphis
suffered so terribly from yellow fever, they tried to get fifty children
from there, but were unsuccessful. Considering the small number who stay
with them after they are grown up, this charity is surely admirable. And
though the education which children receive among the Shaker people is
limited, the training they get in cleanliness, orderly habits, and
morals is undoubtedly valuable, and better than such orphans would
receive in the majority of cases among the world's people. Nor must it
be forgotten that the Shakers still, with great good sense, teach each
boy and girl a trade, so as to fit them for earning a living.

_Pleasant Hill._

The Pleasant Hill Society lies in Mercer County, seven miles from
Harrodsburg, on the stage road to Nicholasville, and near the Kentucky
River, which here presents some grand and magnificent scenery, deserving
to be better known.

They have a fine estate of rich land, lying in the midst of the famous
blue-grass region of Kentucky. It consists of four thousand two hundred
acres, all in one body. They have five families; but the three Church
families have their property in common. In 1820 they had eight families,
and between 1820 and 1825 they had about four hundred and ninety
members. At present the society numbers two hundred and forty-five
persons, of whom seventy-five are children or youth under twenty-one.
About one third are males and two thirds females.

Pleasant Hill was founded in 1805, and "gathered into society order" in
1809; at which time community of goods was established.

The members are mostly Americans, but they have in one family a good
many Swedes. These are the remnant of a large number whom the society
brought out a number of years ago at its own expense, in the hope that
they would become good Shakers. The experiment was not successful. They
have also two colored members, and some English. They have among them
people who were Baptists, Methodists, Adventists, and Presbyterians. A
considerable number of the people, however, have grown up in the
society, having come in as children of the founders; and one old lady
told me she was born in the society, her parents having entered three
months before she came into the world.

They eat meat, but no pork; use tea and coffee, and tobacco, but "not
much;" have baths in all the families; have no library, except of their
own publications, of which copies are put into every room, and a good
supply is on hand, especially of the "Sacred Roll and Book," and the
"Divine Book of Holy Wisdom," which appear to be more read here than
elsewhere. They have no musical instruments, but mean to get an organ
"to help the singing." They receive twenty newspapers of different
kinds; and they are Spiritualists.

The buildings at Pleasant Hill are remarkably good. The dwellings have
high ceilings, and large, airy rooms, well fitted and very comfortably
furnished, as are most of the Shaker houses. Most of the buildings are
of stone or brick, and the stone houses in particular are well built. In
most of the dwellings I found two doorways, for the different sexes, as
well as two staircases within. The walks connecting the buildings are
here, as at South Union, Union Village, and elsewhere, laid with
flagging-stones--but so narrow that two persons cannot walk abreast.

Agriculture, the raising of fine stock, and preserving fruit in summer
are the principal industries pursued at Pleasant Hill for income. They
make some brooms also, and in one of the families they put up garden
seeds. They have, however, very complete shops of all kinds for their
own use, as well as a saw and grist mill, and even a woolen-mill where
they make their own cloth. Formerly they had also a hatter's shop; and
in the early days they labored in all their shops for the public, and
kept besides a carding and fulling mill, a linseed-oil mill, as well as
factories of coopers' ware, brooms, shoes, dry measures, etc. At present
their numbers are inadequate to carry on manufactures, and their wealth
makes it unnecessary. They let a good deal of their land, the renters
paying half the crop; and they employ besides fifteen or twenty hired
hands, who are mostly Negroes.

Hired laborers among the Shakers are usually, or always so far as I
know, boarded at the "office," the house of the trustees; and this often
makes a good deal of hard work for the sisters who do the cooking there.
At Pleasant Hill they had two colored women and a little boy in the
"office" kitchen, hired to help the sisters; and this is the only place
where I saw this done.

They have a school for the children, which is kept during five months of
the year. They do not like to take children without their parents; and
very few of those they take remain in the society after they are grown
up. They are troubled also with "winter Shakers," whom they take "for
conscience' sake," if they show even very little of the Shaker spirit,
hoping to do them good. They were Union people during the war, and a few
of their young men entered the army, and some of these returned after
the war ended, and were reinstated in the society after examination and
confession of their sins. During the war both armies foraged upon them,
taking their horses and wagons; and they served thousands of meals to
hungry soldiers of both sides. Their estate lies but a few miles from
the field of the great battle of Perryville, and this region was for a
while the scene of military operations, though not to so great an extent
as the country about South Union. The Confederate general John Morgan,
who was born near here, always protected them against his own troops,
and they spoke feelingly of his care for them.

This society has no debt, and has never suffered from a defalcation or
breach of trust. Some years ago they lost nearly ten thousand dollars
from the carelessness of an aged trustee.

They are long-lived, many of their members having lived to past ninety.
They have one now aged ninety-eight years.

* * * * *

SHAKER LITERATURE, SPIRITUALISM, ETC.

"It should be distinctly understood that special inspired gifts have not
ceased, but still continue among this people:" so reads a brief note to
the Preface of "Christ's First and Second Appearing," the edition of
1854.

In the "Testimonies concerning the Character and Ministry of Mother Ann
Lee," a considerable number of her followers who had known her
personally, being her contemporaries, relate particulars of her teaching
and conduct, and not a few give instances of so-called miraculous cures
of diseases or injuries, performed by her upon themselves or others.

The hymns or "spiritual songs" they sing are said by the Shakers to be
brought to them, almost without exception, from the "spirit-land;" and
the airs to which these songs are sung are believed to come from the
same source. There are, however, two collections of Hymns, to most of
whose contents this origin is not attributed, though even in these some
of the hymns purport to have been "given by inspiration."

[Illustration: A SHAKER SCHOOL]

[Illustration: SHAKER MUSIC HALL]

In the older of these collections, "A Selection of Hymns and Poems for
the Use of Believers," printed at Watervliet, in Ohio, 1833, one can
trace some of the earlier trials of the societies, and the evils they
had to contend with within themselves. The Western societies, for
instance, appear to have early opposed the drinking of intoxicating
beverages. Here is a rhyme, dated 1817, which appeals to the members in
the cause of total abstinence:

"From all intoxicating drink
Ancient Believers did abstain;
Then say, good brethren, do you think
That such a cross was all in vain?

"Inebriation, we allow,
First paved the way for am'rous deeds;
Then why should poisonous spirits now
Be ranked among our common needs?

"As an apothecary drug,
Its wondrous virtues some will plead;
And hence we find the stupid _Slug_
A morning dram does often need.

"Fatigue or want of appetite
At noon will crave a little more,
And so the same complaints at night
Are just as urgent as before.

"By want of sleep, and this and that,
His thirst for liquor is increased;
Till he becomes a bloated sot--
The very scarlet-colored beast.

"Why, then, should any soul insist
On such pernicious, pois'nous stuff?
Malignant _spirits_, you're dismissed!
You have possessed us long enough."

As a note to this temperance rhyme, stands the following:

"CH. RULE.--All spirituous liquors should be kept under care of the
nurses, that no drams in any case whatever should be dispensed to
persons in common health, and that frivolous excuses of being unwell
should not be admitted. Union Village, 1826."

"Slug," in the third of the preceding verses, seems to have been a cant
term among the early Shakers for a sluggard and selfish fellow, a kind
of creature they have pretty thoroughly extirpated; and presumably by
such free speech as is used in the following amusing rhymes:

"The depth of language I have dug
To show the meaning of a Slug;
And must conclude, upon the whole,
It means a stupid, lifeless soul,
Whose object is to live at ease,
And his own carnal nature please;
Who always has some selfish quirk,
In sleeping, eating, and at work.

"A lazy fellow it implies,
Who in the morning hates to rise;
When all the rest are up at four,
He wants to sleep a little more.
When others into meeting swarm,
He keeps his nest so good and warm,
That sometimes when the sisters come
To make the beds and sweep the room,
Who do they find wrap'd up so snug?
Ah! who is it but Mr. Slug.

"A little cold or aching head
Will send him grunting to his bed,
And he'll pretend he's sick or sore,
Just that he may indulge the more.
Nor would it feel much like a crime
If he should sleep one half his time.

"When he gets up, before he's dress'd
He's so fatigued he has to rest;
And half an hour he'll keep his chair
Before he takes the morning air.
He'll sit and smoke in calm repose
Until the trump for breakfast blows--
His breakfast-time at length is past,
And he must wait another blast;
So at the sound of the last shell,
He takes his seat and all is well."

"Slug" at the table is thus satirized:

"To save his credit, you must know
That poor old Slug eats very slow;
And as in justice he does hate
That all the rest on him should wait,
Sometimes he has to rise and kneel
Before he has made out his meal.
Then to make up what he has miss'd,
He takes a luncheon in his fist,
Or turns again unto the dish,
And fully satisfies his wish;
Or, if it will not answer then,
He'll make it up at half-past ten.

"Again he thinks it quite too soon
To eat his dinner all at noon,
But as the feast is always free,
He takes a snack at half-past three.
He goes to supper with the rest,
But, lest his stomach be oppress'd,
He saves at least a piece of bread
Till just before he goes to bed;
So last of all the wretched Slug
Has room to drive another plug.

"To fam'ly order he's not bound,
But has his springs of union round;
And kitchen sisters ev'ry where
Know how to please him to a hair:
Sometimes his errand they can guess,
If not, he can his wants express;
Nor from old Slug can they get free
Without a cake or dish of tea."

"Slug" at work, or pretending to work, gets a fling also:

"When call'd to work you'll always find
The lazy fellow lags behind--
He has to smoke or end his chat,
Or tie his shoes, or hunt his hat:
So all the rest are busy found
Before old Slug gets on the ground;
Then he must stand and take his wind
Before he's ready to begin,
And ev'ry time he straights his back
He's sure to have some useless clack;
And tho' all others hate the Slug,
With folded arms himself he'll hug.

"When he conceits meal-time is near,
He listens oft the trump to hear;
And when it sounds, it is his rule
The first of all to drop his tool;
And if he's brisk in any case,
It will be in his homeward pace."

Here, too, is a picture of "Slug" shirking his religious duties:

"In his devotions he is known
To be the same poor lazy drone:
The sweetest songs Believers find
Make no impression on his mind;
And round the fire he'd rather nod
Than labor in the works of God.

"Some vain excuse he'll often plead
That he from worship may be freed--
He's bruis'd his heel or stump'd his toe,
And cannot into meeting go;
And if he comes he's half asleep,
That no good fruit from him we reap:
He'll labor out a song or two,
And so conclude that that will do;
[And, lest through weariness he fall,
He'll brace himself against the wall],
And well the faithful may give thanks
That poor old Slug has quit the ranks.

"When the spectators are address'd,
Then is the time for Slug to rest--
From his high lot he can't be hurl'd,
To feel toward the wicked world;
So he will sit with closed eyes
Until the congregation rise;
And when the labor we commence,
He moves with such a stupid sense--
It often makes spectators stare
To see so dead a creature there."

The satire closes with a hit at "Slug's" devotion to tobacco:

"Men of sound reason use their pipes
For colics, pains, and windy gripes;
And smoking's useful, we will own,
To give the nerves and fluids tone;
But poor old Slug has to confess
He uses it to great excess,
And will indulge his appetite
Beyond his reason and his light.
If others round him do abstain,
It keeps him all the time in pain;
And if a sentence should be spoke
Against his much-beloved smoke,
Tho' it be in the way of joke,
He thinks his union's almost broke.
In all such things he's at a loss,
Because he thinks not of the cross,
But yields himself a willing slave
To what his meaner passions crave.

"This stupid soul in all his drift
Is still behind the proper gift--
With other souls he don't unite,
Nor is he zealous to do right.
Among Believers he's a drug,
And ev'ry elder hates a Slug.

"When long forbearance is the theme,
A warm believer he would seem--
For diff'rent tastes give gen'rous scope,
And he is full of faith and hope;
But talk about some good church rule,
And his high zeal you'll quickly cool.
Indulge him, then, in what is wrong,
And Slug will try to move along;
Nor will he his own state mistrust,
Until he gets so full of lust
His cross he will no longer tug,
Then to the world goes poor old Slug."

"Hoggish nature" comes in for a share of denunciation next in these
lines:

"In the increasing work of the gospel we find,
The old hoggish nature we will have to bind--
To starve the old glutton, and leave him to shift,
Till in union with heaven we eat in a gift.

"What Father will teach me, I'll truly obey;
I'll keep Mother's counsel, and not go astray;
Then plagues and distempers they will have to cease,
In all that live up to the gospel's increase.

"The glutton's a seat in which evil can work,
And in hoggish nature diseases will lurk:
By faith and good works we can all overcome,
And starve the old glutton until he is done.

"But while he continues to guzzle and eat,
All kinds of distempers will still find a seat--
The plagues of old Egypt--the scab and the bile,
At which wicked spirits and devils will smile.

"Now some can despise the good porridge and soup,
And by the old glutton they surely are dup'd--
To eat seven times in a day! What a mess!
I hate the old glutton for his hoggishness.

"No wonder that plagues and distempers abound,
While there is a glutton in camp to be found,
To spurn at the counsel kind Heaven did give--
And guzzle up all, and have nothing to save.

"When glutton goes in and sits down with the rest,
His hoggish old nature it grabs for the best--
The cake and the custard, the crull and the pie--
He cares not for others, but takes care of I.

"His stomach is weak, being gorg'd on the best,
He has had sev'ral pieces secret from the rest;
He'll fold up his arms, at the rest he will look,
Because they do eat the good porridge and soup.

"Now all that are wise they will never be dup'd;
They'll feed the old glutton on porridge and soup,
Until he is willing to eat like the rest,
And not hunt the kitchen to find out the best.

"We'll strictly observe what our good parents teach:
Not pull the green apple, nor hog [1] in the peach;
We'll starve the old glutton, and send him adrift;
Then like good Believers we'll eat in a gift."
[Footnote: To eat like a hog.]
[Illustration: pointing finger]

Following these verses are some reflections, concluding:

"Away with the sluggard, the glutton, and beast,
For none but the bee and the dove
Can truly partake of this heavenly feast,
Which springs from the fountains of love."

Obedience to the elders and ministry also appears to have been difficult
to bring about, for several verses in this collection inculcate this
duty. In one, called "Gospel-virtues illustrated," an old man is made
the speaker, in these words:

"Now eighteen hundred seventeen--
Where am I now? where have I been?
My age about threescore and three,
Then surely thankful I will be.

"I thank my parents for my home,
I thank good Elder Solomon,
I thank kind Eldress Hortency,
And Eldress Rachel kind and free.

"Good Elder Peter with the rest--
By his good works we all are blest;
His righteous works are plainly shown--
I thank him kindly for my home.

"From the beginning of this year,
A faithful cross I mean to bear,
To ev'ry order I'll subject,
And all my teachers I'll respect.

"With ev'ry gift I will unite--
They are all good and just and right;
If mortifying they do come,
I'll still be thankful for my home.

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