The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and ObservationNordhoff, Charles
History
The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation
Nordhoff, Charles
Collective settlements -- United States
The North Union Shaker Society lies eight miles northeast from
Cleveland. It was founded in 1822, in what was then a thickly timbered
wilderness, and the people lived for some years in log cabins. The
society was most numerous about 1840, when it contained two hundred
members. It is now divided into three families, having one hundred and
two persons, of whom seventeen are children and youth under twenty-one.
Of these last, six are boys and eleven girls. Of the adult members,
forty-four are women and forty-one men. Their numbers have of late
increased, but there was a gradual diminution for fifteen years before
that.
About a third of the present members were brought up in the society; of
the remainder, the most were by religious connection Adventists,
Methodists, and Baptists. They have among them persons who were weavers,
whalemen, and sailors, but most of them were farmers. The greater number
are Americans, but they have some Swiss, Germans, and English. They do
not like to take in children unless their parents come with them. The
health of the society has been very good. Many of their people have
lived to past eighty; one sister died at ninety-eight. In the last fifty
years they have buried just one hundred persons.
They eat but little meat; use tea and coffee, but moderately, and "bear
against tobacco," but permit its use in certain cases. But they allow no
one to both smoke and chew the weed. They have a school, and like to
sing, but do not allow musical instruments.
Less than a quarter of the young people whom they bring up remain with
them.
They own 1355 acres of land in one body, and have no outlying farms.
They have a saw-mill, and make brooms, broom-handles, and stocking
yarn. But their chief sources of income arise from supplying milk and
vegetables to Cleveland, as well as fire-wood, and some lumber, and they
keep fine stock. They used to make wooden ware. Their dairy brought them
in $2300 last year. They employ nine hired men.
The buildings of this society are not in as neat order as those of
Groveland or others eastward. I missed the thorough covering of paint,
and the neatness of shops. They have no steam laundry, and make no
provision for baths. But they have the usual number of "shops," among
them an infirmary, or in Shaker language a "nurse-shop." They have a
small library, and take two daily newspapers, the New York _World_
and _Sun_. They read the Bible "when they have a gift for it," but
depend much upon their own revelations from the spirit-land.
They owe no debts, and have a fund at interest. They make a detailed
annual report to the presiding ministry. They have never suffered
serious loss from mismanagement and defaulting agents or trustees.
_Watervliet and Whitewater_.
The two societies of Watervliet and Whitewater, in Ohio, I did not
visit. They are small, and subordinate to that of Union Village.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account