Evening star., 1937-06-13
SECT Of SHAKERS
NEAR EXTINCTION
Closing of School This Month
to Be Symbol of |nev-
liable Passing.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
HANCOCK, Mass.-They'r old and
gray now, the peaceful Shakers, and
to them the closing of their school
here later this month is a symbol Of
their orders inevitable extinction.
Tow headed, chunky, year old
Geraldine Moore, the only pupil left
in the Hancock Shaker School, must
90 down in the valley next year to a
school, where her classmates will be
sons and daughters of Adams kind
The light laughter of little
Geraldine echoes strangely through
the stern, but stately, buildings of the
Shakers and brings back memories of
more prosperous days to the II sis
ters"-all that remain in this relig-
iously communistic colony.
Founded 200 Years Ago.
Just 200 years ago, the order was
founded by Ann Lee, robust daughter
of a blacksmith in Manchester, Eng
land, and was based upon the prln-
ciples of celibacy, community of wealth
and equality of the sexes.
Even as America fought for its free
dom, the Shakers, persecuted in Eng
land, moved to this country in ITS
and established their first colony in
Watervliet, N, Y; their second, high
on Lebanon Mountain, near the Mas
sachusetts- New York State line, and
the third in this little Berkshire town.
Other colonies mushroomed rapidly.
Within a century the Shakers, formal
" known as the United Society of
Believers, had 5000 members in l8
colonies in States.
Barred from marriage, the Shakers
hopes for the future rested upon the
admission of serious minded persons
and adoption of children
They gained their name through the
manner in which they swung their
arms and shook their bodies and
heads while praying.
Schools Established.
Schools were established in each
colony for the adopted children. There
they learned the Shaker principles.
To them was given the decision of
whether they would become Shakers
when they became of age, whether
they would live celibate lives forever
after as sisters" or brothers" in
Shaker families, whether they would
give their hands to work, their hearts
to God"
Each colony had its factories In
them. shoulder to shoulder, worked
the Shaker sisters" and brothers"
~, -I,;o ot,
versal recognition for beauty and SIM
pLcity, or canned goods which were
highly praised the country over.
Each colony had it's fertile acres
where the men and women toiled be-
tween morning and evening prayers
to store up food for hungry mouths
and add additional wealth to their
community fund for doing good"
Braids Rag Rug.
At the Lebanon colony 83-year-old
Sister Sarah Collins, member of the
orders Governing Board of Elders
and Elderesses for 60-odd years, is
braiding huge rag rug in her spare
time away from the "family's" chair
factory.
Her strong and gnarled hands we're
busy as she worked on her knees over
the rug and recited the Shaker rules
for doing good
DO all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
To all the people you can,
In every place you can,
At all the times you can,
AS long as ever you can"
There wouldn't be any trouble in
the world" Sister Sarah said as she
looked up from her work, "if every
one obeyed that rule"
Aged but dainty, Sister Martha
Wetherell, prim in her starched Shaker
bonnet and gown of blue, peered over
the counter in the Lebanon Shaker
store which caters to the tourist trade,
and reminisced over the days when
she, like Geraldine Moore, was child
In a Shaker school.
Things were different then" she
said, gazing across the way at vacant
building that once served as a Shaker
dormitory, but We Shakers know that
God taught that That which has
beginning must have an end"