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

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i936 The Pegmsoara QW, Photographed by Winthrop B. Coffin, '36 Shaker clock made at IfV11ler1fliet, N. Y. in 1806 by Benjamin Youngs. This clock now stands in the common room oflhe Lebanon Srhool. 43

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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

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'i'hFeFPFEgTii0afd FF ni ' I 1936 had anything against watches, but that they were deemed a needless expense. Even as late as 1860 only six watches were in use in the Church Family. The Shakers also manufactured brooms. In the early days a small number were made with the help of rude machines. Later, machines were invented by which one man could make from six to eight dozen brooms a day. These as well as hand brushes were sold extensively by the Society until about I845. i Chair making was one of the earliest of the Shaker industries. Dr. Andrews quotes from the daybook of Joseph Bennet, proving that chairs were sold at Mount Lebanon as early as I'789. ' The sale of chairs and some other articles of furniture was for a long time a flourishing business at the South Family. Even as late as 1895 we find the following statement about Shaker furni- ture: There continues a constant demand for the famous Shaker chairs, sofas, footrests, and numerous other articles .... We are quite positive that the South Family at Mount Lebanon is the champion chair maker of the world. The work is of the very best and it is well known that They're useful,-ornamental Two grand principles combined. You may search the whole world over, Nor better chairs you'l1 find. Then their sofas and their footrests Are the best the world can giveg Do not try to find their equal, For you cannot while you live. The chair business did not continue for a very great length of time at the Church Family, but at the South family it was kept up until quite recently. The last person to pursue chair making there was Sister Sarah Collins. In some respects the most interesting of the Shaker chairs are those which have a kind of ball roller ir the rear posts. In these chairs one can tilt back comfortably. They have been described thus: At an undetermined date, probably in the first quarter of the last century, if not earlier, a large percentage of the common Shaker three-slat sidechairs became equipped by some ingenious mechanic with the famous ball-and-socket device at the base of the rear posts, an example of the many instances in which the active Shaker mind improved on the status quo. The device consisted of a wooden ball fastened on the back posts by a leather thong knotted at one end and fixed into the post by a wooden dowel. By this arrangement one could tilt back or rock in one of these sidechairs without danger of slipping, the wear on the carpets was likewise prevented. As the Shakers began to decrease in numbers, their activity in all these industries began to diminish. Now, except for the making of an occasional cloak and a few small articles such as baskets, and except for the sale of the widely known extract, Norwood's tincture of verairum viride, nothing remains of the Shaker industries at Mount Lebanon. The surviving Shakers give their attention to agriculture and the raising of fruit. This survey, although it is necessarily incomplete, will, it is hoped, give some idea of the busy life once led here by the Shakers-of the scope and variety of their industries. 28. The Manifecto, XX fAuzust 18907, 170. 29. The Munifealv, XX fsepfember 18901, 193. 80. The Community I ndullries of the Shakers, 233. 81. The Manifeatu, Uuly 18953, 162. 82. The Community Industries of the Shaken, p. 280. 44-