Mount Lebanon, New York, North Family Records

Historical notes

The North Family was established in 1799 as a gathering order for new members. As such, it was responsible for recruiting new converts, receiving and interviewing visitors and inquirers at New Lebanon, conducting public worship and preparing converts for a complete commitment to the Society and membership in one of the other New Lebanon families. The family operated under the direction of an elders lot (two women and two men), one of the men being designated as a public speaker. The elders and eldresses also had oversight over two subsidiary gathering families, the Upper and Lower Canaan families. The early elders or designated missionaries, traveled to areas of revivalist activity to recruit new members. Benjamin S. Youngs was one such missionary under Ebeneezer Cooley, the first North Family Elder. Even after the 1850's when other families began receiving new members directly from the world, the North Family remained the most public of the Mount Lebanon families. Under the leadership of Richard Bushnell, Frederick W. Evans and Marie Antoinette Doolittle, they became interested in spiritual phenomenon manifested in the outside world and participated in seances led by non-Shaker spiritualist mediums. Evans and Doolittle disseminated their ideas through publications and maintained wide contacts with like minded individuals and spiritualistist groups. As the designated public speakers or spokesmen for the Shaker Society, the North Family elders, Calvin Green, Richard Bushnell and Frederick W. Evans in particular, had always taken an active role in formulating Shaker doctrinal theology and ethics. Evans, a prolific writer, became the leading proponent of a more radical redefinition of the Shakers’ social philosophy during the later part of the 19th century, and was the center of controversy with more conservative Shaker leaders such as Harvey L. Eades of South Union, Kentucky. By the turn of the century under the guidance of Anna White, the North Family public activities were focused on supporting progressive movements and perpetuating the Shaker legacy through distribution of Shaker imprints to public institutions. In 1905 they sponsored a peace conference in the Mount Lebanon Meetinghouse. After Anna White's death, the North Family became primarily a home for Shakers transferred from other closing communities. The North Family, the last remaining family at Mt. Lebanon, was closed in 1947. Under the terms of the North Family covenant, responsibility for temporal affairs was placed in the hands of the trustees. Nevertheless, Elders Richard Bushnell and Frederick W. Evans, in sharp contrast to the Church elders, were very active in financial affairs and held notes and other investments in their own names. In addition to supervising the financial interests of the family, the elders often joined the Church Family trustees in representing Shaker interests in legal affairs. For example, Richard Bushnell took an active role in trying to keep three young boys from being removed from the Shakers in the case of William Pillow. Frederick W. Evans presented the petition in support of military exemption before President Abraham Lincoln. Deacons or trustees were first appointed at the North Family in 1814, and under the terms of the covenant were charged with recording and holding in trust the uncommitted property of members as well as keeping covenant records and conducting business for the family. The covenant does not specify the makeup of the office of deacon or trustee. No females were appointed as trustees until 1901 though they were appointed as deaconesses. The leading trustees were Richard Bushnell (1821-1827), Charles Bushnell (1827-1851), and Levi Shaw (1854-1907). After Eldress and Trustee Sarah Burger died in 1915, the family was placed under the Church Family trustees. Both the North Family elders and trustees participated in the financial transactions of the family throughout its history. Under New York State law, title to real property for all New Lebanon families, including the North Family, was to be held by the Church trustees. Therefore, the activities of these three administrative units, the North Family elders, the North Family trustees, and the Church trustees, were interrelated and complex. The North Family also participated in joint ventures with other families such as the purchase of land in Michigan with the Church Family in 1853. In 1875, with the help of the Hancock, Massachusetts, Church Family, they traded the property of the former community at Tyringham, Massachusetts, to Joseph Jones for a tract of timber known as Promised Land in Pennsylvania. This was finally sold in 1905 under Eldress Anna White's direction at considerable loss to both families. In addition to his involvement with the elders in these investments, Trustee Levi Shaw also established under his independent management a sawmill and a carpet beater business in Windsor, New York, and traded his share of timberland in Michigan for house lots in Niles, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. There is no indication that a separate lot of family deacons was established in the North Family as it was in the Church Family. As a gathering order with only a small core of permanent members, it is possible the order of deacon and trustee also encompassed the direction of domestic family affairs such as gardening, seed production, and building maintenance.