Darrow School - Shaker Post Yearbook (New Lebanon, NY)

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1936 The Peg Board ZTQLQW Q' Reproduced from Harpefs Magazine XV Uuly 18573, 176 The picture above shows Dr. Barnabas Hinckley at his desk. i The picture on the left is a view in the injrmary, i showing medicine shelves and an old dental drill. l Photographed by Winthrop B. Coffin, '36 food, working hard and paying special attention to ventilation. Concerning their regard for venti- lation, Charles F. Wingate, in the Yournal ay' H ygeio-Therapy, says: Slats are placed in every window to make an opening between the two sashes, so that there shall always be an infiux of atmospheric aid! Since it is evident that the twilight of this Shaker colony has come, it has been our wish ever since the Lebanon School was founded to preserve parts of the Shaker tradition, such as their simplicity, their perseverance, and their motto, Hands to Work, Hearts to God. The few simple health promotives which they employed could well be used by any one. Why, therefore, should we not add to the traditions we wish to maintain those simple but sensible ideas which we may borrow from the Shakers' practice of hygiene? 3. Quoted in the Manifesto, XIX CMay 18875, 114. 27

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The Peg Board 1936 eight other buildings. The fact that its walls were scorched shows how narrow was its escape. After a desperate struggle it was finally saved by the Shakers with the aid of the famous Housa- tonic Engine Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts and of Mr. Henry Tilden of New Lebanon, who brought with him a large number of his employees in the Tilden Company with fire ex- tinguishers. The doctors and nurses who worked in the infirmary were all Shakers, for at the time when the infirmary was in use the Shakers did not believe in having an outside doctor. We find this information in an 1890 Manyfeslo which reads: The believers who formed the Society at the time of its origin, did not rely much on outward remedies and a physician not of their order was con- sidered very needless and unprofitable in most cases. 1 And they seem to have kept the same idea until some time after Dr. Hinckley's death. So far as we know, none of the doctors had dip- lomas from medical colleges except Dr. Hinckley, and the nurses were self-taught Shaker sisters, some of whom employed old Indian methods of nursing. As Sister Emma tells us, no major operations were performed in this infirmary, largely be- cause the Shakers did not then believe in cutting up people. The infirmary was used principally as a place where the aged and infirm, and those suffering from illnesses could go to rest. Sister Emma once said jokingly that sometimes the young people, when they were tired of work, would imagine that they were sick and would ask to be sent to the infnrmary. But there seems to have been very little sickness among the Shakers. This was probably due, among other things, to the fine climate which Mount Lebanon enjoys throughout the year. Since there was so little sick- ness, the two physicians, Dr. Hinckley and Dr. James Smith, were probably sufficient to care for the few cases they had. Not a great deal is known about these two men, but it would not be out of place to mention the few facts we do know about the more prominent one. Sister Emma says that Barnabas Hinckley was the only graduate physician in the Mount Lebanon colony. We have no inform- ation about his youth except that he was brought up among the Shakers. He took his medical degree at the Berkshire Medical College, a school now extinct, which was situated in the neighbor- ing city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His diploma, now in the possession of the Lebanon School, is dated November 23, 1858. According to Sister Emma, he also studied in New York. He also acted as dentist for the Shakers and many people from the village of New Lebanon came to him to have teeth extracted. Sister Emma relates an amusing incident of how he fooled her when she needed to have a tooth pulled. He asked her to let him look at the tooth, and took her head be- tween his knees to make the examination. Then before she even knew what had happened, he had jerked the tooth out. She says that she did not mind the pain, but was indignant at being fooled. This happened, of course, when she was quite a little girl. In 1861 Dr. Hinckley died suddenly of heart failure while helping to move a Shaker stove. He was very much beloved, and that the Medical Department was very fine while he was in charge is shown by this excerpt from an old Harperiv magazine: The Medical Department, under the charge of Dr. Hinckley, appears to be very perfect in its supplies of surgical instruments and other necessaries. A large portion of the medicines are prepared by themselves Ithe Shakersgl and Dr. Hinckley applies them with a skillful hand, under the direction of a sound judgment. He has a library of well-selected medical worksg and the system which he approves is called the Eclectic. 2 While speaking of the Shaker care of the sick, it seems opportune to say something about Shaker hygiene. Their zealous effort to maintain health was evidently the chief cause of their long lives. They kept in good health by doing such simple things as eating plain and wholesome 1. XX fSeptember 18907 2. Harper'l Magazine, XV, Uuly 18571, 175. 26

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T H E P 8 Q EB Lffdm hA 'hs 'h'M5 'M ' W 1 Qigz THE MAIN DWELLING HOUSE 28