Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-31
FIRST COMMUNISM
TRIAL IN AMERICA
WAS WITH SHAKERS
Dwindling Numbers in Colony
Lead to Abandonment
Proposal.

The idea of equal rights for womer
was introduced in America two year.
tbefore. our Declaration Of independence
declared "all men are created equal
Spirit manifestations. akin to the re
cent popularity of other world com
munication had a vogue in the colonies
before the Revolutionary war.
These facts are recalled by the pro
posed abandonment of the Shaker Com.
munity in Enfield, New Hampshire
which is reported to have dwindled
from $50 members to only six sur
v%ivors. says a bulletin from the Wash
ington, d. c., headquarters of the Ma
tional Geographic society.
How an Idea Survived
of all the religious groups that
found sanctuary on the soil of colo
NAL America the most remarkable. per-
haps. were the Shakers with their Gus
toms that were partly medieval and
partly far ahead of their day the bull
letin continues. And the persistence
of q firmly grounded religious belief
is aptly Illustrated by their survival to
this day although their virginia. vows
provided nc younger generation to carry
on their tradition. and their deliberate
isolation in self-sustaining communi-
ties. gave few opportunities to make
converts.
THE Shakers never had more than
5000 members and the II communi-
ties remaining today reported 1861 mem
bers in 1916. which means a popula-
ton of not more than a thousand. The
longevity of individual members. COM
0lned with their abstinence from meat
and fish. their prescribed manual labor
and hygienic living. have made their
communities interesting human expert
ment stations for the biologist as well
as the geographer. The bodily move
ments as they worshiped closely re-
semble the MONDAY gymnasium exer-
cises of man. an American business
man.
Arrested for Gyrations
Ann Lee, self-styled Ann the Word
but known among her followers as
Mother Ann founded the Shakers
whose official title is United Society
of True Believers in Christ's Second
Coming After four children died in
their infancy Ann Lee sought solace
among an off shoot of the Quaker sect
in England which had been influenced
by the early eighteenth century wave
of manifestations among what we
would call mediums Ann could not
read or write. and her husband later
deserted her. For her shouting, leap'ng
and bodily gyrations during her ex-
hOrtations she was arrested in Man
chester.
While in Jail the young woman as
serted that the Christ appeared to
her in a vision. told her he was one
with her. and upon serving her SEN
tence she gathered a few followers
and set out to America 10 proclaim
herself the embodiment of Christ in
His second coming.
A Modern Miracle
"On the way across the ships cap
tain forbade the Shakers to indulge in
their athletic form of worship. Where
upon. according to Shaker literature, a
storm arose. a plank was sprung, and
the vessel began to fill. Mother Ann
treasured the captain. saying two an
gels had appeared before her in n vision
to promise her safe passage. Just as
the crew was becoming exhausted from
pumping a huge wave again struck the
and damned the plank back into
For two years Mother Ann work
ed in New York as Il washerwoman,
in 1916. she founded the first
Shaker village at Watervliet. y. y"