Shakers

Our main reason for coming to the Harrodsburg area of Kentucky was to visit the Shaker village at Pleasant Hill. After first stumbling on the Amana Colony in Iowa, we have become interested in the new awakening of religious movements in the USA during the 19th century. These groups sought to find an alternative to the more standard forms of believe. The Shaker movement was one of these. They had established a number of communities in the northeast, with the head of the movement located in Lebanon, New York.

As settlers moved into the wilderness of Kentucky, it was decided to send missionaries along with the settlers. So it was that a small band of missionaries moved west to Kentucky and gaining some converts to their beliefs, they settled north of Harrodsburg in an area known as Pleasant Hill.

The Shakers believed that they were living in the “millennium”, which meant heaven on earth. They also believed that God was both father and mother to them all. As a result, they adhered to the concept of celibacy, since all men and women were brothers and sisters. They strived to be worthy in the eyes of God and celibacy was an important part of that process.

They started as poor farmers and over the over hundred years of existence at Pleasant hill, their wealth and views of life changed with the times to a limited extent. During the hundred years they lived at Pleasant Hill, no children were born to the members. However, married converts and their children were taken into the community along with orphans and indentured children. After the age of sixteen, all children were free to leave the community if they chose. All that remained must adhere to the Shakers’ beliefs.

The meeting hall is a unique structure that not only reflected the ingenuity of the builders of the inverted truss design, but the reason such a structure was necessary. Since it had no pillars, it allowed the members at weekly services to express themselves physically. They often danced, jumped up and down or rolled on the floor as the spirit of God moved them. At the peak of nearly 500 members, this required a lot of room to move around. There were also no fixed pews or other seating in the meeting hall, so that the floor space could remain open. This is where the term Shaker comes from.

As the Civil War approached, they were near their peak of prosperity and membership. They all lived in common housing buildings with men sleeping on one side of the building and women on the other side. Here were special areas for children that were raised by the community as a whole. At the peak, there were five community housing units. Converts with children had to agree to allow the community to raise the children and also that they remain celibate for the rest of their lives in the community.

The Civil War proved to be a watershed event for the community. The bloodiest battle of the war fought in Kentucky took place just a short distance to the south at Perrysville. Both armies passed thru the Shaker community. While they generally were not harmed by the armies, their charity efforts nearly completely depleted their resources. Perhaps more important, the horror of this conflict shook some of their beliefs of living in a “millennium” environment. Like other religious commune societies, they also suffered from groups of people taking advantage of their beliefs by living in the community but not being part of the productive process. In Pleasant Hill, they were often called “Winter Shakers”. They converted to the faith in early winter when there was little work to do and enjoy the abundance of the society and then leave in the spring when the work commenced in earnest.

While they continued for another forty years after the war, it was a steady decline with a drop off in converts and a deteriorating faith in their principles.

By 1910, there were only 12 members left. This group sold the land and buildings to a local business man with the provisions that they could live there until they died. The last member died in 1923, after the purchaser of the property died. His heirs honored the agreement and after the last member passed sold the land and buildings.

The community has been restored and with the docents providing lively interpretations of life in the community, it is a very worthwhile experience.

Are we there yet?

After saying goodbye to our daughter and SIL, we headed south to Salvisa, KY to a campground that sits on the Kentucky River. This part of the river is famous for the Palisades that line the banks. These features were formed over thousands of years as the flowing water wore away the limestone rock.

The Cummins Ferry RV and Marina Resort sits at the end of a long and narrow road. While reading the reviews, we knew that it was essential to take the proper roads to approach the campground or you were in for a lot of trouble. I dutifully forced the GPS to go the desired route and we turned on to a county highway winding through the hill country. The road continued to get a bit smaller as we went along. When we saw a good sized propane truck come the other way there was that first hint of concern. Luckily he pulled way off the road to allow us to get by. Finally, we saw the signs direct us to the campground. Suddenly, the marked road ended and a barely one lane road continued mostly steeply downhill towards what we surely hoped was the campground. Meeting another propane truck now was not going to be pretty. We finally got to the campground without meeting another vehicle. Whew!

The campground has full hookups and a view of the Palisades. There is a lot of mud at the moment, as they also had lots of rain in the last few days. This weekend is the Halloween celebration and there are kids everywhere. We carry a few items for every holiday, so we were ready to take part in the annual candy give away.

The event was well organized and we really enjoyed seeing the small kids having fun. Some of the parents were also really into it and there were lots of elaborate decorations around the park.

Happy Halloween!

Photo shoot

Like a number of others, we have been suffering continuous rains for the last several days along with some high winds. Before these conditions arrived, we wanted to get some pictures of our daughter, Katie, and her husband, Dain. They have been married only a few months and they wanted some informal pictures. So, on one of the last nice days, we went back to the county farm park we visited on our last stop here. It was a nice day with mostly good lighting.

They were sufficiently happy with the results that they are making up some albums.
Their dogs Nova and Hemi enjoyed a nice walk in the park after the photo op was over.

Later, after I had loaded up the photos to the computer, Dain and Katie decided on which pictures would make the cut for the album. Halley jumped right in and provided her two cents worth.

Tomorrow, if the weather breaks as promised we will be heading south into Kentucky and hopefully see some improvement in the temperatures. Clearly winter is heading in this direction. The winter forecast for Ohio is bleak with a prediction of the worst winter in 100 years. That does not bode well for anyone, but those of us running south will at least fare a little better.