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

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The Peg Board 1936 In 1086 Chadwick formed part ofthe very extensive manor of Bromsgrove, and as such was the possession of Urso d'Abi tot, descending-as did all that great man's vast estates- to the Beauchamps. In 1232 the house and part of the land was exchanged by Roger de Lens for a house in Worcester, and St. Wulfstan's Hospital became the owners. After the Dissolution, one Richard Morison received a grant of the estate from the King, and six years later fin I 5461 Christ Church, Oxford, acquired it, selling it in 1904. The house itself-or an earlier one on the site-'was held in the seventeenth century by the Lowe family, and has had various owners subsequently, having been sold several times. Tolstoy and the Shakers N THE possession of the North Family at Mount,Lebanon is a letter from Count Leo Tolstoy to Elder Frederick Evans and copies of three letters from Evans to Tolstoy. Two of the copies are in Evan's handwriting, and one is typewritten, but signed by him. These letters have already been printed in a Shaker broadside and in the Manyesto, but have not had a very wide circulation and may be of interest to readers of the Peg Board. For those reasons we reproduce them here. For permission to reprint them we are indebted to Eldress Rosetta Stevens of the North Family. Sister Emma insists that Tolstoy also corresponded with Elder Alonzo Hollister of the Church Family. We have no doubt that her assertion is well founded, for Tolstoy had much in common with the Shakers-his doctrine of non-resistance, and his views set forth in The Kreutzer Sonata. The editors of the Peg Board are searching diligently in the hope that additional Tolstoy letters may come to light. In reprinting the letters now in ourhands, we have followed the spelling and punctuation of the originals. Those of Frederick Evans show a number of mistakes, but it must be remembered that they are merely copies, perhaps hastily made for his own files. Mt. Lebanon, N. Y., U. S. A. Dec. 6th. 1890 Leo Tolstoy Dear friend: I am deeply interested in you 81 your work, so far as I understand both ou 81 it. Y Wisdom says, I love those who love meg 81 we love those who are in the same truths that we ourselves are in. It is wonderful how clear are your ideas in relation to the definition of the words Christian 81 Christianity. Calvin Green fsome of whose writings you have seenj was an inspired man. He was spiritually impressed about the future of Russia: 81 he was enthusiastic upon the subject. Leo Tolstoy seems to be inspired to begin the fullfillment of the prophecies of Calvin Green. I purpose to send you some of my writings to read 81 to criticise, 81 in so doing, I shall be much obliged. Why should not theologic problems be sub- ject to the same rigid logic that mathematical problems are subject to? And why should not theologians be as cool 81 self-possessed as are mathematicians? If possible, they should be far more so: they should love each other, 81 that would be like oil, in all parts of a complicated piece of machinery. You are pained at our ideas about Ann Lee, 81 spirit intercourse between parties in 81 out of mortal bodies. I suppose it to be caused by mis- conceptions of what our views have been 81 are now, at this present writing. What they were, when the ' Millennial Church ' was written, leave to the people of those times. Paul says, When I was child, I thought 81 spake as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things, 81 thought 81 spake as a 72

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1936i TheiPeg Board l' l .Al ANOTHER VIEW OF CHADWVICK HALL Courtesy of Mr. Hurry E. Palfrey In I803, Mr. Carpenter, ofChadwick Manor, published a treatise on Agriculture It was printed for the author by Heming of Stourbridge and dedicated to the Hon. Edward Foley and William Lygon Esquires, representatives in Parliament for the County of Worcester: To you, Gentlemen, well known as friendly encouragers of that most ancient and noble art of agriculturegl' and contains a long list of Subscribers, many of whom were gentlemen of this town and neighborhood. The work contains engravings of a plow, called The Worcestershire Plough, a model farm-house Cnot unlike two barns side by sidel with ground plan, and a model barn fvery similar to the housel with ground plan. In this work Mr. Carpenter states that he has sown a considerable quantity of flax, for many years, and recommends the sowing of the best Riga flax seed. The bounty then al- lowed by government, after being dressed in the stone, was of some consideration, as he received sixty pounds at one time, for flax and hemp, by an order from Sessions at Worcester! From the Birmingham Por! fAbout August l930,Z-- The Manor or reputed manor of Chadwick came into prominence a few years ago when a portion of it, 414 acres in extent, was presented by Mr. Edward Codbury and his brother to the National Trust with the object of preserving an agricultural and pastoral oasis in the midst of what may become a merely urban or suburban district. This intention presupposes that the farms will remain farms and will not become parks or playgrounds. The capital messuage a large handsome house of late seventeenth- century date, brick built with stone dressings, lies in a hollow to the right of the main road from Birmingham to Brumsgrove about a mile beyond Ruberg, and may be approached by a public footpath. Immediately above it are Spring Pools, a beauty spot which claims the attention of every passer+by. The site of the house is snug and sheltered, but by no means one which would be chosen by early builders for defensive purposes. 1 William Cotton, Chadwick Manor, 1881. Mr. Palfrey appends the following note: Contemporary with the above named J. Carpenter of Chadwick, the Rev. Benjamin Carpenter was minister at the Dissentmg Know Ullltlfllhl Chapel at Stourbridge. I have seen a reference to this Rev. B. Carpenter in connection with Bromsgrove. but at present am un able to trace same. It will be seen, however, that Stourbridge, Chadwick, and Bromsgrove were associated in various instances and this probably would have some bearing on Frederick Evans' association with Chadwick if it could be investigated. 71

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1936 The Peg Board man. Should that not be the case with those who are in the kingdom of heaven, -of whose increase 81 government, to order 81 establish it in justice 81 judgment, there should be no end? The little stone cut out of the mountain, without hands-by revelation--grew, 81 became a great mountain, 8z filled the earth. You are exactly adapted to the present condition of the people of Russia. At one time, the God of Israel told Moses that he would not lead the people of Israel hereafterg but that he would appoint an angel in his place, as leader. Israel, instead of increasing with the increase of God, has retrograded. I will send you an 'Open Letter' that I wrote to Judge Thayer, who re- leased a man that had been arrested under the ruling of the Postmaster- General Wanamaker, that your book was immoral, 81 that it was unlawful to sell it. The letter to the judge had an extensive circulation. I will also send you my Autobiography. What is your age? Do not work too much for your age 81 strength: where the mind is as fully employed as is yours, the muscles are easily overdone. Why cannot you come to Mt. Lebanon, 81 see what God hath wrought? It would do you good. A poor, illiterate, uneducated factory-woman has confounded the wisdom of all men-reformers, legislators, 81 scholars, who have come to nothing, as promoters of human happiness. Their systems have ended, in Christendom, as you now see it, 81 as Booth 81 his companion who inspired him, saw it. The end has come! 81 Tolstoy 81 Shakerism remain, as the last hope of mankind. Love to you F. W. Evans Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co., N. Y., U.S.A. Russia. Toula. Yasnaya. Polyana Fcbr. 3f15 1891. Dear Friend and Brother, Thank you for your kind letter, it gave me great joy to know that you approve of my ideas on christianity. I was very much satisfied with your views upon the different expressions of religious sentiments, suiting the age of those to whom they are directed. I received the tracts you sent me and read them not only with interest but with profit, and cannot criticize them because I agree with everything that is said in them. There is only one question, that I should wish to ask you. You are, as I know, nonresistants. How do you manage to keep communial but nevertheless-property? Do you acknow- lege the possibility for a christian to defend property from usurpators? I ask this question because I think that the principle of non-resistance is the chief trait of true Christianity and the greatest difliculty in our times is to be true to it. How do you manage to do so in your community? I received your tracts, but you say in your letter that you have sent me books, do you mean that you have sent me books and tracts, or do you call the tracts books? I received more than a year the Oregon paper Worlds Advance Thought. I have several times seen your articles in it. I am very thankful to the editor for sending this paper, in every No. of it I get spritual nourishment and if it were not for some spiritistic tendency, which is foreign to me, I would absolute- ly agree with all its religious views. I like this paper very much. With sincere respect and love, Yours truly, Leo Tolstoy. 73