United Society of Shakers, Mount Lebanon, Church Family, Trustees’ Records, 1773-1944

Scope and content

The records in this group reflect the diverse responsibilities of the Trustees. The Trustees acted as a repository for the “Records Kept by Order of the Church” vol 3 and 4, (1856-1916), an official record, not of accounts, but of daily events in the Church Orders written by the Clerk of the Society, who was in later years a member of the Ministry. Other records on membership, which are not complete, include indentures, appointments, death lists, cemetery maps, wills and inventories, and visitors registers. Covenants with original signatures are located in the records of the Elders. Although there are some early accounts, the business records date primarily after the 1840s and include account books, receipts, and correspondence on garden seeds, herbs, medicinal extracts and cloaks. There is a particularly strong collection of records from the A.J. White medicinal extract industry after 1875. Among the early real estate records is a register of deeds compiled by Isaac N. Youngs in 1839. The bulk of the real estate files date after the 1870's and represent land investments in Michigan, Illinois and New York City; railroad right of ways; and the sale of portions of Mount Lebanon. The records include the holdings of the North, Canaan and South families in addition to the Church Family. The series of legal records, also incomplete, focuses on court cases related to indentures and membership and on petitions and hearings on military exemptions and the New York State Trust act. Organization: The records are divided in the following series: 1) Journals 2) Covenants, regulations 3) Vital statistics 4) Correspondence 5) Legal and financial records Business records Real estate and investments Law suits and petitions 6) Shaker history, biography and theology

Historical notes

The position of Office Deacon was established in 1794 to oversee the external temporal affairs of the Church families. Prior to that time, those duties were performed by the family deacons and by David Meacham. In 1811 when the Church Family was reorganized into the First and Second Order, the office deacons continued to oversee the external affairs of both families. Increasingly, the office deacons became known as Trustees in reference to their legal authority to hold title to property. Although the order of Trustees was composed of two men and two women, the women were referred to as office sisters and were not officially appointed as trustees until 1901. In 1901 all of the remaining families at Mount Lebanon were placed under a single order of Society Trustees. A complete list of Trustee or Office Deacon appointments is available. The duties of the Trustees under the 1830 Covenant included keeping the Book of Records which contained copies of the covenant, leadership appointments, membership records and other important matters of a public nature as well as the preservation of all documents and written instruments pertaining to the united interest of the Church. In practice, other writers were appointed to keep these records, the first appointees being Seth Y. Wells and Isaac N. Youngs. In 1857, Giles B. Avery became Clerk and from that time the position of Clerk continued to be held by a junior member of the Ministry. The records, however, officially remained the responsibility of the Trustees. In addition to keeping the Book of Records it was the duty of the trustees to receive and hold all consecrated property and donations, to conduct all business with the outside world on behalf of the Church and to keep regular and complete accounts of all business transactions. Shaker pedlars for the New Lebanon Church families made extended trips selling garden seeds, brooms, coopered ware, cloth and sieves. Other merchandise included oval boxes, spinning wheels, palm leaf and straw bonnets, baskets, dried herbs and products of the forge and field. In 1872, when the East Family was sold, the Church Family continued to farm the fields under the management of William Anderson who kept records of its dried corn production under the name of "Brickyard." After the Civil War the Shakers began contracting Shaker labor to outside businesses as a source of income. In 1876, Trustees Edward Fowler and Benjamin Gates contracted with A. J. White to produce and package White's medicine called "The Shaker Extract of Roots." Patent medicine production continued into the 1930's under the direction of Emma J. Neale. New York State law dictated that the Church Family Trustees were required to hold title to all the real property of the other New Lebanon families as well as that of Church Family. By 1839, all deeds were transferred to the Church Family Trustees who acted thereafter in behalf of other families in the purchase and sale of real estate. The Church Family also entered into joint investments in land with the North Family at Mount Lebanon as well as the Church Family at Hancock, Massachusetts. By the 1880's, the Trustees were selling excess farmland and timberland in order to invest in commercial property in Chicago and New York City, a practice which involved Benjamin Gates in his own legal problems as well as those of Church Family Trustee Robert Valentine and the North Family trustee, Levi Shaw. The financial losses from these ventures was further exacerbated by the decision of Benjamin Gates to buy property for a short lived colony in Florida in 1895. As the family in which the Central Ministry was resident, the New Lebanon Church Family played a prominent role in the Shaker Society and the activities of the Church Family Trustees reflected this increased responsibility. They were often involved in legal affairs not only on behalf of the Church Family but of other families or in the interests of the society as a whole, and helped articulate the Shaker response to claims on its property or in defense of its right to exemption from military service. As the primary agents for land transactions, they acted for the Ministry in the early decades in establishing new communities and, in the final decades of the 19th century, handled the business affairs of faltering families throughout the society. In 1923, Emma J. Neale and Sarah A. Neale were the sole remaining Society Trustees. When the Church Family property was sold in 1930, they moved into the Ann Lee Cottage. The entire Mt. Lebanon society was closed in 1947.