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

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1936 The Peg Board 'CQ-J. pq, SISTERS CUTTING OUT CLOAKS Left lo right: Sister Ann Maria Greaves, Sister Emma J. Neale, Sixler Alire Cary Wade, Eldress Augusla Shine, and lildress Harrie! Bullard. A considerable business in cloaks was also developed at the Church Family. Sister Emma founded this business. The first year, as she tells us, four cloaks were soldg the second year, thirteeng the third year, thirty-sixg and later on, as many as three hundred and seventy-five in one year. Many were sold in Maine and in the Adirondacks. A modiste tried to copy the Shaker cloaks, but she could not get the hoods right, as only the Shakers knew the secret of their construc- tion. A great department store in New York also tried and likewise failed. Among the most celebrated of the Shaker products were their coon-skin gloves. From Sisters Fmma and Sadie of the Church Family we learn that these gloves were sold at one time to Budd of New York. Furs were also prepared for the Greely Relief Fxpedition. Basket making began early in the history of the Mount Lebanon community. The Manyerlo states that they were made for sale in 1813 and that the business increased rapidlyfu Dr. Andrews carries the date at which this occupation was followed even farther back, quoting a list which indicates the sale of four baskets in I8OQ.21 Sister Fmma owns a Shaker basket which is more than one hundred years old. She says that the Shakers made both palm-leaf baskets and straw baskets, that they kept two or three looms busy at this work all the time, and that they sometimes sold as many as four thousand baskets in a single year. These Shaker baskets were of widely varied design and were manufactured in many different sizes. Equally famous are the Shaker boxes. They were made in numerous shapes and sizes, but the most interesting of them perhaps are the oval ones. The llflarzferlo comments thus on the oval boxes: The Manufacture ofoval boxes began as early as 1800. Although not a very extensive branch of business, it has been a source of small income from year to year. At first the 20. The Manifesto, XX KSeptember 18905, 194. 21. The Ccrmmunitu Industries uf the Shakers, p. 166. 41

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The Peg Board 1936 Out of the tanning business such occupations were developed as the making of saddles, harness, and shoes. Sister Emma has given us these interesting notes concerning the leather industry at the Church Family: It was carried on until about 1890, as long as there was any profit in it. By that time many of the brethren were dead and it became necessary to hire outside men to do the work. Frederick Sizer was one of the leaders in this industry. Many young men started work in the tannery and later branched out into other occupations. All the leather goods for the Church Family were made here, even the shoes. The Shaker shoes were all of leather, except for the cloth tops of the sisters' shoes. All articles of leather in excess of what the Shakers needed for themselves were sold to the outside world, and leather from cowhide down to the finest calfskin was sold to outside merchants. Cloth was also made, but apparently not on a very large scale. In 1787 it was wholly the work of hand looms, and these continued to be used for many years.14 In 1793 Benjamin Bruce invented a machine for setting card teeth,15 and in 18oo another machine, which was accepted as a great advance, was invented for shearing the cloth. The first spinning jenny was purchased in 1812, after which date the large spinning wheels were for the most part put aside. By 1834 cloth had been made so cheap by the establishment of cotton factories in this country that the Shakers began to purchase it outside,16 but the Shaker looms continued in steady use until slightly beyond the middle of the century. After that time, though the production of cloth was lessened at Mount Lebanon, the Shakers did not give up their weaving entirely. They made material for chairs, mats, toweling, serge trousers, linen frocking, worsted gowns, cotton handkerchiefs, carpets, spreads etc. '7 The Shakers engaged, besides in the making of hats, bonnets, cloaks, gloves, and baskets. Of the hat industry the Manyesto has this to say: Experienced hatters were among those who accepted the faith of the Believers, and the manufacture of fur and wool hats began with the beginning of the Community. These were made not only for New Lebanon, but for the Believers in other States and for persons not of the Society. After a few years the business was all given in charge of the Society at Hancock, and for twenty years no hats were made in New Lebanon. This branch of industry has never been attended with that success which one might wish, and diminished gradually from year to year till it finally closedfg Dr. Andrews notes that as late as 1830 a few hats were still being made at Mount Lebanon, and that after the Civil War the Mount Lebanon Society again made hats of fur and wool. Sister Emma tells us that the lower Hoor of the schoolhouse was used as a hatter's shop. The manufacture of straw, and palm-leaf bonnets was an important industry at Mount Lebanon. Sisters Emma and Sadie Neale inform us that these bonnets were made not only for the Shaker sisters, but also for sale to the general public. As many as a hundred dozen were sometimes sold in one winter. They were made in five sizes, and small ones for dolls. The palm leaf was brought from the South. The sisters wove them on small looms, and then they worked a braided trim around them. The Kentucky Shakers made them of silk and grew their own silk worms to produce the silk. 14. The Manifesto, XX CMay 18901, 98. 15. The Manifesto. XX fApril 18905, 74. 16. The Manifesto, XX CSeptember 18903, 194. 17. The Community Industries of the Shakers, p. 187. 18. XX CMay 18903, 97. 19. The Community Industries of the Shakers, 175. 40

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The Peg Board 1936 rims were cut from a log in a common saw mill, which did the work very imperfectly. The heads were planed by hand. In 1832 a buzz saw did the work of cutting out the rims, and in 1832 a machine was brought into use, and from this date the rims were also planed by machinery. It is impossible in the short space available here to discuss anything like all of the articles made and sold by the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, but brief mention should be made of their wines, sauces, jellies, and preserves. The Shaker apple sauce especially was widely known. It was prepared by first drying the apples and then boiling them in cider. Catsup was also put up and sold in gallon jugs. To the Shakers goes the credit for making a great number of useful inventions. In 1828 the first foot lathe used by the Shakers was invented. It was employed in turning and drilling? It is said that the idea of making cut nails was suggested to the Shaker mechanics by one of the sisters. In any case the business of making wrought nails and cut nails was for a number of years profitable to the Shakers. It was abandoned about 1830 because of outside competition. In writing about the history of the Watervliet colony Elder D. A. Buckingham mentions a number of inventions credited to the Shakers. The parts of his statement relevant to Mount Lebanon are as follows: The Hrst matching of boards and planks by machinery in this country, was enacted at Mt. Lebanon, N. Y., by Henry Bennett and Amos Bishop in I8I51tl'1Cy using vertical rollers to hold the lumber straight and ropes and windlass to propel the same over circular saws-first making the groove, then the tongue .... We might mention with exceedingly large credit the machinery invented and manufactured by Elders D. Boler and D. Cross- man, for splint-making, basket-working and box-cutting apparatus, at Mt. Lebanon .... We recall the skill of Bro. G. M. Wickersham, as applied to a summer covrringfor a .rad iron slave, by which the hotter the fire, the cooler the room! 24 The Shakers made brass buckles and for a time manufactured and mended all of their own tinware. At an early date, 1795 to be exact, they began to fashion buttons for the garments of the brethren. These were made of the horns and hoofs of cattle.25 In 1812 the war with England brought about a scarcity of wire, and the Shakers had to manufacture their own.26 Clocks were made by the Shakers very early in their history. The Lebanon School possesses a fine Shaker clock made at Watervliet in 1806 by Benjamin Youngs. The increase in the number in use in the Church Family at New Lebanon is thus described in The Manyeslo: At first the knowledge, as well as the machinery and tools were very limited. When the Society was organized, only three clocks were in use in the church family. In 1796 the number had increased to seven. The first alarm clock was made in 1812 at Watervliet, N. Y., and was sent to New Lebanon as a present. There has been a gradual increase in the number of clocks till at this date, 08585 we have some eighty-five in the first familyf' As the manufacture of clocks outside increased, the Shakers found it unprofitable to make them and chose to buy them instead when they were needed. The use of watches was discouraged and at times prohibited. The reason for this was, as Sister Emma explains, not that the Shakers 22. The Munijcllo, XX fSeptember 18901, 193. 28. The Munifsllo, XX fApril 18901, 74. 24. The Slmlur, CNovember 18773. 86. 25. The Manifulo, XX September 18903, 193. 26. TM llanifcdo, XX fAu3ust 1890l, 170. 27. Th udkfflllb, XX fAllClllt 18901, 169. 42