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Log inWoman recalls childhood with Shakers
Woman recalls childhood with Shakers
by Outspoken on Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:30 am
Woman recalls childhood with Shakers
The village in Canterbury, N.H., where Alberta Kirkpatrick lived is now a museum.
The Associated Press
CANTERBURY, N.H. — Eleven-year-old Alberta Kirkpatrick didn't believe she would ever be loved when she arrived in New Hampshire almost 80 years ago.
Her mother was dead. Her father drank. Her three siblings had scattered. She had threatened to kill herself if she wasn't removed from an abusive foster family.
Kirkpatrick found a home as the last child officially raised by the Canterbury Shakers -- then a dwindling, celibate community. And this month Kirkpatrick returned to the village, now a museum, to celebrate her 90th birthday.
"It's like going home to me," said Kirkpatrick, who drove up with a friend from her Warren, Pa., home.
The village has changed since Kirkpatrick ran through its fields picking asparagus from the garden and sledding over its hills. After the last Canterbury Shaker, Sister Ethel Hudson, died in 1992, the onetime religious village was turned into a museum.
Twenty-nine restored and reconstructed buildings, including the one where Kirkpatrick lived, sit on almost 700 lush acres.
Groups of tourists file through the carpenter's shop, where the Shakers printed mail order seed packets. They participate in cooking demonstrations, such as how to make lavender ice cream. And they examine the simple craftsmanship of Shaker furniture, built for efficiency, which can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kirkpatrick, a sharp woman with blazing blue eyes, is one of the last people who remembers it as it really was.
Officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, the Shakers began in England in 1747. Because of their wild dancing during worship, they were called Shaking Quakers and then simply Shakers, according to Tom Johnson, curator of the Canterbury Shaker Museum.
They left England and formed societies stretching from New England to Kentucky where they practiced pacifism, equality of the sexes and celibacy. Men and women performed separate jobs and even used separate staircases.
They become known for their business acumen, craftsmanship and innovations, including the clothespin and circular saw.
In the mid-19th century, they peaked, with more than 6,000 U.S. members, including about 300 in Canterbury. More than 100 buildings, including an infirmary, stood on about 3,000 acres.
But after the Civil War, Shakers had trouble attracting converts, Johnson said. Another source of membership, children in need of homes, slowly dwindled as society developed alternatives.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=202123&ac=PHnws
The Associated Press/Canterbury Shaker Village
The Associated Press
The village in Canterbury, N.H., where Alberta Kirkpatrick lived is now a museum.
The Associated Press
CANTERBURY, N.H. — Eleven-year-old Alberta Kirkpatrick didn't believe she would ever be loved when she arrived in New Hampshire almost 80 years ago.
Her mother was dead. Her father drank. Her three siblings had scattered. She had threatened to kill herself if she wasn't removed from an abusive foster family.
Kirkpatrick found a home as the last child officially raised by the Canterbury Shakers -- then a dwindling, celibate community. And this month Kirkpatrick returned to the village, now a museum, to celebrate her 90th birthday.
"It's like going home to me," said Kirkpatrick, who drove up with a friend from her Warren, Pa., home.
The village has changed since Kirkpatrick ran through its fields picking asparagus from the garden and sledding over its hills. After the last Canterbury Shaker, Sister Ethel Hudson, died in 1992, the onetime religious village was turned into a museum.
Twenty-nine restored and reconstructed buildings, including the one where Kirkpatrick lived, sit on almost 700 lush acres.
Groups of tourists file through the carpenter's shop, where the Shakers printed mail order seed packets. They participate in cooking demonstrations, such as how to make lavender ice cream. And they examine the simple craftsmanship of Shaker furniture, built for efficiency, which can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kirkpatrick, a sharp woman with blazing blue eyes, is one of the last people who remembers it as it really was.
Officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, the Shakers began in England in 1747. Because of their wild dancing during worship, they were called Shaking Quakers and then simply Shakers, according to Tom Johnson, curator of the Canterbury Shaker Museum.
They left England and formed societies stretching from New England to Kentucky where they practiced pacifism, equality of the sexes and celibacy. Men and women performed separate jobs and even used separate staircases.
They become known for their business acumen, craftsmanship and innovations, including the clothespin and circular saw.
In the mid-19th century, they peaked, with more than 6,000 U.S. members, including about 300 in Canterbury. More than 100 buildings, including an infirmary, stood on about 3,000 acres.
But after the Civil War, Shakers had trouble attracting converts, Johnson said. Another source of membership, children in need of homes, slowly dwindled as society developed alternatives.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=202123&ac=PHnws
The Associated Press/Canterbury Shaker Village
The Associated Press
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
