Cane

Description

Walking cane made from a red oak sapling with natural crook. Natural finish. Red rubber cane tip at bottom, not original. Carved inscription, "F.W. EVANS, MT. LEBANON, N.Y." below handled, centered in flattened field with carved border. Cane has been cut down in height and a stub tenon carved at bottom for rubber cane tip.

Notes

Canes are usually fit to the person using them, being that height, weight, length of arm, and posture all vary for individuals -- people of the same height may not necessarily use the same length of cane. That said-- this cane is 33" in height. Elder Frederick Evans was 6'5" tall. A common guesstimate (and the most inaccurate method) is to take half the person's height as the length for a cane. So in this case Evans would have used a cane that is 38 1/2" high. The rubber tip on this cane has been replaced, leading one to assume that the cane was cut down for a later user, and the rubber tip replaced a nicer brass tip with which the cane was probably fitted. Elder Frederick William Evans (1808-1893) was a North Family Elder at Mount Lebanon for 57 years. Evans was born in England and came to America with his brother George. Both were social reformers. George Henry Evans founded Americas first "socialist" paper, The Workingman's Advocate. Frederick investigated utopian societies and joined the Shakers in 1830 where he remained for the next 63 years. Elder Frederick was the person primarily responsible for shaping the architectural landscape of the North Family as it appeared during 1860-1880, the period of significance as defined by Shaker Museum and Library for restoration efforts at Mount Lebanon. In fact, it was Evans more than any other single Shaker who determined the design of the Great Stone Barn. The Museum holds several items associated with Elder Frederick including "his" garden fork with his name incised in its handle, a key fob with his name stamped into it, an oval box inscribed "Frederick W. Evans 1851 (1857?)," the Evans family Bible, numerous manuscripts, photographs, and printed works. At Mount Lebanon, Evans was the most recognized connection between the Shakers and the outside world, especially in promoting the Shakers social gospel-- the peace movement, civil rights, women's rights, animal rights, health reform, the right treatment of our environment and natural resources. His obituary from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls him, "the practical head of the Shaker community," even though he was never a member of the Shaker Ministry. Evans corresponded widely with newspapers and magazines, published an autobiography, lectured both in this country and on two trips to England.