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

Page 48 text:

'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-

Page 47 text:

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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1936 The Peg Board ORRIN HASKINS' WORKSHOP Photograph by Winthrop B. Coffin. '36 BRETHRENS' WORKSHOP 45