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

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1936 The Peg Board INTERIOR OF MEETING HOUSE Dr. Arthur Franklin Ewell R. ARTHUR Franklin Ewell has left a copious, if incomplete, record of his life here at Mt. Lebanon and elsewhere. There are some seventeen notebooks, carefully dated from day to day, inscribed with a close neat handwriting. Unfortunately there are gaps in the work. The notebooks covering his life from 1889. to 1887 and from 1889 to 1992 have not yet been recovered! The only other document remaining is his degree of Doctor of Pedagogy which he received in June 1891 from the University of the City of New York's School of Pedagogy? The nature of his notebooks is sufficiently peculiar to warrant a description. In them we find little about the life ofthe man. It is a log of his intellectual developmentg his principal activity being thinking, it is only rarely that he takes time to give us information about other doings, which, even then, always have their spiritual or intellectual interpretation. He attempted to create a spiritual science. By assigning symbols and values to the various abstractions with which phil- osophy, religion, and education deal, he seeks to place these controversial modes of thought under the discipline of a mathematical scientific method. How far he succeeded in this can only be measured by one having a conversance equal to his with methods of philosophy, theology, peda- gogy, and science. Wedged between these weighty computations are the few words which give the scanty record of his life in the world. Where he was born, or where he lived before 3n 27d 1877 3 is undetermined, but at that time we find him at 9.4Q. W 24 N. Y. He remained in New York until 1882, moving from place to place at first, to settle finally for about two years at H342 W I4.H In the fall of 1882 he removed to Belvidere, N. J., to teach in the Belvidere Seminary. His interests are principally pedagogic, yet he is now beginning to formulate his ideas bearing on spiritual science. How long he stayed 1. Mr. Miller is continuing researches which may recover these lost volumes. fEd. Notej 2. This degree is in the posseuion of the school and will have a place in the school museum. fEd. Notej 8. Probably third month, twenty-seventh day, of 1877. 1Author's Note! '77

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The Peg Board 1936 Civil Laws of the New Earth. But in no case, or under any circumstances, should we injure a fellow being. You see that our Civil government is the voice of the people-Vox populi, Vox Dei-And the people who are the Rulers, are more progressed than are the Rulers of Russia or of any Church- and-State Government on the face of the Earth, we-the Shakers-under the Am secular Gov't can carry out the abstract principles, taught by revelation of the Christ Spirit, more perfectly than has hitherto ever been done by mortal men and women. just as we do carry out sexual purity, notwithstand- ing the sexes are brought face to face, in every day life, living without bolts or bars, in the same Household of Faith. Come and see what God hath wrought. Dear friend, Come to Lebanon and bind your joining to the Church of Christ's Second Appearing. Then, return and found the Order in Russia, with consent of the Govern- ment, which the Shaker Order can and will obtain for you. Calvin Green, one of our prophets, many years ago, predicted a glorious spiritual work in Russia. A Russian Minister visited Lebanon and was very friendly. He invited the Order to Russia. Has not the time arrived? And are not Thou the Man? In the Church of Christ Sd. Appearing, the Spirit is of God. It is not of the people. Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you - And Revelation of God is the Rock upon which the Church is founded. And the Gates of Hell-religious controversy-will not prevail against it. The letter above is printed from a copy unsigned but in the handwriting of Frederick Evansg the letter below is reproduced from an undated copy signed by Evans. Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. U. S. A. Leo Tolstoy, Dear friend, A.P.C.' from you was the last we have heard. We often speak of you. And our prayers for your health and safty are unceas- ing. The Shakers are your fast friends. You will be a welcome visitor, if Providentially you are led to our continent to visit the World's Fair. The North Family will be your home. All Societies of Shakers are your fast friends. You are recognized as a servant of God and a friend to your race. As such, the blessing of God rests upon you. The truths that will constitute the Millenium are open to your spiritual vision. There are a few, here and there, who are with you. The fact that the whole Shaker Order live out the principles you advocate, can but be encouraging to you. The Government does not interfere with us. One poet said, Slaves can- not live in England. That moment their feet touch our soil, their shackles fall. Spread it then, until wherever Britain's power is felt her justice shall be as fully inherited. That hope has been wonderfully actualized. It will be so with your aspirations regarding spiritual things. When you can see seventeen Com- munities of people whose every right is secured to them, whose every rational want is supplied, does it not demonstrate that all mankind may be made happy in this world? Our Sisterhood are redeemed. The Rights of woman are theirs, the rights of property we enjoy. Capital and Labor are at peace. Hygiene is religion with us. Love to you again and again. A love that would cheerfully-gladly-give you and yours a life home. n F. W. Evans. 1 This letter il not dated. The letter: A.P.C. in the Brat line may mean a postcard. 76

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The Peg Board 1936 at Belvidere is diHicult to determine, but that he became principal of the school is reported in the Banner ry' Light, Boston, Saturday, December 6, 1902. Speaking of Ewell's mother, this periodical says: She was an honored pioneer of our Causeg and she will be gratefully remembered by all to whom she so lovingly ministered in the years gone by. She is survived by her son, Prof. Arthur Ewell, who was for some years, the principal of Belvidere Seminary, of which the Misses Bush were the founders, and by her sister Mrs. A. S. Hayward. For some years, is vague, and it is not determinable how long he was at the school before he became principal. At all events, in 1888 he is studying for his doctorate at the University of the City of New York. Whether he returned to Belvidere 'after receiving his doctorate is again un- certain, but highly probable. Only two notebooks cover this period of his life. Herein are to be found class notes which hold a different sort of interest. At the university he studied the histories of pedagogy and philosophy in the classical world. Psychology has not been raised to the dignity of a science. He learns nothing of the beauties of civic and commercial' law, nothing of aptitude tests, or similar gauges of intelligence. The idea behind the course of instruction seems to be that the capacity to think things out clearly will best ,help in their explanation. What became of him after the completion of his doctorate is again a matter of surmise. Not until 1902 do we hear of him again in his notebooks. At this time he is living in Boston, where he receives notice of his mother's death, on the eve of Thanksgiving. He makes the following entries in his notebook? ' Dec. 4, 1 902 thanksgiving 27 On wednesday at IO.3O P.M. Nov. 26. 1902-Mother's spirit was raised out of the earth life-fon Saturday Nov. 29. 1902 Mr. H. D. Barrett ofiiciated at her funeral service at the house in E. Braintree fsee p 14.-390 where I took her when God opened the way- and which she had never gone out of the grounds of sincefOn Saturday after funeral service etc. The Boston' Globe of November 28th speaks of her as a well known Boston woman. On the bottom of the page appear these words: Mother was born April 10. 1812. d. Nov. 26. I902. Age 90 years. 7 months, 16 days. ' From this lower inscription a light wavering line moves upward across the page to thanks- giving 27,! For a while after this he continues with his spiritual science, but his thought inclines more and more toward Christianity. The period preceding his mother's death was one of evident poverty. Ewell's reference when he says, in E. Braintree Qsee p. 14.-392 where I took her when God opened the way, reads as follows: Mch. 9. 1902. When I knew not where to take my mother after hunting long, and after others had hunted, and Ann where she stayed said she must go, and Mrs. Snyder 4. Spiritunliam CAuthor'a Notel. 5. Peculiarlties of punctuation and form are due to exact transcript of manuscript. CAuthor's Notej 78