Place - A Shaker Community Restored in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

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During the 1990s, I attended a conference at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, which was a Shaker religious community from 1805 through 1910. Shakertown, as it is known by the locals, is about 25 miles southwest of Lexington, in the state's bluegrass region.


By 1800, Mother Ann Lee's (1736-1784) religious movement had already established 11 Shaker communities in New York state & throughout New England. About this time, the community sent 3 Shaker missionaries across the Cumberland Gap & through Ohio to find converts in the west. Shakers practiced celibacy & their numbers would die out without new converts.


The Pleasant Hill community was begun by 44 converts who signed a covenant of mutual support & common property ownership of the 140 acres on which they were living. It did not take long for the community to expand & the property to grow to 4,369 acres.


The Shakers chose a peaceful way of life. They were celibate and believed in equality of race & sex and in freedom from prejudice. A quest for simplicity & perfection is reflected in their fine craftsmanship.


The Shakers were skilled farmers, and over the years they expanded land holdings by acquiring adjacent farms for orchards & fields. The Shakers at Pleasant Hill became known for their excellent livestock & engineering accomplishments. Their location near the Ohio River was ideal for agricultural & economic commerce.


By 1816, they regularly traveled to larger communities to sell their wares: brooms, shoes, preserves, garden seeds, & herbs. The Shakers sold their wares in cities and towns up & down the Ohio & the Mississippi rivers, some at great distances, such as New Orleans.


The Shakers, known for their beautifully simple furniture & architecture, also invented many labor-saving processes to serve their large community. In the early 1830s, they constructed a water tower on a high plot of ground. A horse-drawn pump lifted water into the tower, and from there a system of pipes carried it downhill to kitchens, cellars, & wash houses.


In the wash houses, horse-powered washing machines were built to reduce the enormous chore of laundering the community's clothes & linens.


Music was also an important part of Shaker life, with songs, hymns, & anthems written by both men & women. Their dancing or shaking was the origin of the name Shaker.


The community began to decline with the advent of the Civil War & controversies over slave ownership. The last resident on the property died in 1923. The 14 original buildings of the religious community were restored in the 1960s, & it is now the largest restored Shaker community in America, a National Historic Landmark visited by thousands of tourists annually.
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18th-Century New England Landscapes

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Michele Felice Corne (1752–1845) Ezekiel Hersey Derby Farm

Michele Felice Corne (1752–1845) Harbor View

Michele Felice Corne (1752–1845) New England Country Seat.

Today in History - British Secure Philadelphia 1877

On this day in 1777, a British Royal Navy fleet of ships, trying to open up supply lines along the Delaware River & the occupying British army in Philadelphia, is bombarded by American cannon fire & artillery from Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

Six British ships were severely damaged, including the 64-gun battleship HMS Augusta & the 20-gun sloop Merlin, which both suffered direct hits; before they were run aground & subsequently destroyed. More than 60 British troops aboard the Augusta were killed, while the crewmembers aboard the Merlin abandoned ship, narrowly avoiding a similar fate.

Although the American forces defending Fort Mifflin were victorious on October 23, 1777, the battle continued throughout the month of October into November. With much of the fort destroyed & under continuous artillery & cannon fire, American Patriot forces abandoned Fort Mifflin on November 16, 1777.

The capture of Fort Mifflin gave the British Royal Navy near complete control of the Delaware River up to Red Bank, New Jersey. Fearing that the fall of Fort Mercer, located across the Delaware from Fort Mifflin, was imminent, Continental Army Colonel Christopher Greene ordered a full retreat off all American Patriot troops from the fort & the burning of all buildings & ships to prevent their capture by the British. General Charles Cornwallis took over the evacuated fort, guaranteeing a safe winter for the British forces occupying Philadelphia, while their disheartened Continental counterparts froze at Valley Forge.

http://www.history.com

Today in History - Princeton University Receives Its Charter

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College of New Jersey, Princeton. Court Yard in 1764. This depiction shows around school, but none were allowed inside to learn.

On this day in 1746, Princeton University was founded at Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the College of New Jersey. In 1756, the College moved to its new quarters Nassau Hall, in Princeton, New Jersey.

But it was not until 1969 - as the world outside its gates clamored for equal access to intellectual power - that Princeton University first admitted women as undergraduates.

In 1887, the university actually maintained & staffed a sister coIlege in the town on Evelyn & Nassau streets, called the Evelyn College for Women, which was closed down after roughly a decade of operation. And, a few women were allowed to study cartography at the university during World War II, because it was a time of national emergency.
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Off To - Philadelphia's Elfreth's Alley

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Tucked into downtown Philadlephia is probably the oldest street of 18th & early 19th century homes of craftsmen & artisans surviving in America. Just published photos & a brief history of Elfreth's Alley on the It Is About Time blog. Please join us there for a tour.

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Off To - Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Town

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Just added the story of Philadelphia's Historic RittenhouseTown on the It's About Time blog using 21st-century photos of the 7 surviving 18th-century buildings. Come take a tour of this Pennsylvania German paper mill town.

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Off To - Philadelphia's Schuylkill River & Fairmont Park

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1730 John Bartram's House

If you are interested in 21st-century photos of 18th-century homes around the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, please go to the It's About Time blog.

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Off To - 18th-Century America

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1780 Blacksmith Simon Wickes' House, Chestertown, Maryland

On my blog It's About Time, I am trying to take little photographic day-trips to pockets of 18th-century architecture & culture preserved in America today.

So far we have visited:

Old Salem in North Carolina,

Colonial Kitchens,

Historic Annapolis in Maryland, &

Old Town Alexandria in Virginia.

Our newest junket is to Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Chestertown was a bustling seaport town in the 18th century. Please come along to historic Chestertown. 1769 Thomas Smythe's Widehall. Chestertown, Maryland
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Colonial Kitchens, Gingerbread, and Old Salem

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Old Salem's Moravian Gingerbread

Just posted a a tour of Colonial Kitchens and of the buildings at Old Salem, a mid-18th century Moravian village in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on my It's About Time Blog. Also posted the Moravian Gingerbread recipe.

The Moravians were featured on this blog in the story of arist Johann Valentin Haidt. Please come visit the other blog for modern depictions of the restoration.

The Single Brothers House, 1769, Old Salem, North Carolina.

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