The Water House

From Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky by Clay Lancaster

In addition to the major buildings at Pleasant Hill, Micajah Burnett built a number of utilitarian structures. Of special interest is the water house (1833), northeast of the third stone Centre Family. It is a small, square, two-story frame shell containing a round cypress tank perched on high stone piers. Gravity caused the water to flow through iron pipes to residence kitchens and washhouses.  A floating gauge extending up through the roof could be seen from the Tanyard spring, so when the water level was low, the horse-powered pump could be started to fill the tank. This was one of the earliest water-supply systems in the West. 

The Water House

photo by artist Deb Ward

On This Date in 1845 ...

Joseph Runyon [age 80] deceased. Was an assistant Trustee awhile, and an Elder in the Gathering Order three or four years.

The Runyon Shaker Genealogy

Joseph. Mercy, Martin, and Emley were the four adult children of Phineas and Charity Runyon who, along with their 30 children, joined the Shakers at Pleasant Hill in the early 19th century. Members who remained with the Shakers are shown in red; those who departed (or, “went to the world”) are shown in blue.

Phineas Runyon b: February 13, 1744 + Charity Coates b: December 23, 1744
and their children and grandchildren...

Joseph Runyon b: January 24, 1765  +Jane (aka Ginny) b: December 12, 1766
and their children...
    Charlotte (aka Sally C.) Runyon b: July 25, 1785
    Nancy Runyon b: May 27, 1787 + Ryan (left husband to live at PH)
        -Lawson Ryan  b: November 24, 1808 (twin), arrived PH May 1815
        -Wesley Ryan b: November 24, 1808 (twin), arrived PH May 1815
        -Nancy Ryan b: January 12, 1812, arrived PH May 1815
    Vincent Runyon b: August 16, 1789
    Marcy Runyon b: August 21, 1792
    George Runyon b: September 13, 1795
    William Runyon b: July 12, 1799
    Guilford D. Runyon b: January 8, 1802 (departed, returned, was expelled)-read more
    Matilda Runyon b: July 27, 1804
    Polly Runyon b: August 4, 1807 m. Sutton
        -Jane Sutton b: February 14, 1832 brought by her mother to PH June 7, 1834
        -James Sutton b: February 14, 1830 in Fayette Co., KY, brought by his mother to PH May 1834, departed Shakertown December 1849 and returned October 29, 1850
    Benjamin Runyon b: May 16, 1809

Mercy Runyon b: December 23, 1768 + John Badgett b. Nov. 23, 1766and their children...
    Charity Badgett b: October 15, 1791
    Prudence (aka Sally) Badgett b: October 14, 1794
    William Badgett b: November 15, 1795+Janie Hover
    Salome Badgett b: January 14, 1798
    John R. Badgett, Jr. b: April 3, 1800 + America Bosley
    Ginny (aka Jinny or Jane) Badgett b: September 13, 1802 +James C. Hutton
    Polly Badgett b: November 16, 1805
    Hardin Badgett b: January 19, 1808
    Katherine (aka Kitty) Badgett b: June 11, 1811
 
Martin Runyon b: April 20, 1778 +Patience Baxter b: September 17, 1782and their children...    
    John Runyon b: May 7, 1800
    Betsy (aka Elizabeth?) Runyon b: October 12, 1801
    Matilda (aka Rebecca) Runyon b: June 24, 1803 +Lewis Gillespie
    Asa G. Runyon b: June 20, 1805 +Mary F. Arthur
    Silas Baxter Runyon b: November 22, 1807 + Rebecca Tye + Cynthia Ann (aka Sintha) Cornelius
    Charity C. Runyon b: August 2, 1809 +Isaac N. Hawkins
    Peggy Runyon b: June 11, 1810
    Sally Runyon b: August 22, 1813 +? Philips  died Aug 24, 1876, age 63 in Garrard County, KY; listed in Vital statistics of Garrard as a "female, married, housekeeper, daughter of Martin & Patience Runyon, died of unknown causes.

Emley (aka Embly) Runyon b: September 22, 1784 + Lydia Burton  b: September 12, 1788and their children...
    Lawson Runyon b: October 10, 1807 +Emily Ross
    Amy Runyon b: August 25, 1809
    Robert (Comstock) Runyon b: February 4, 1812 + Betsy Thompson

Order in Everything

It comes as no surprise that the Shakers, who were so fastidious about order and practicality, would invoke those same ideals when designing and planning their communities.  The main buildings at Pleasant Hill were built perpendicular to each other with those used as communal dwellings oriented to maximize the southern exposure. 

In ENCOUNTERING THE SHAKERS OF THE NORTH FAMILY LOT, UNION VILLAGE, OHIO: A Clean and Lively Appearance—Landscape andArchitecture of the North Family Lot, commissioned for the Ohio Department of Transportation in 2009 the authors compare Pleasant Hill with the the Ohio Shaker community called Union Village.

At Pleasant Hill, an evolution took place in the architectural style.  Early buildings dating to ca. 1810 have the typical horizontal proportions and the small, boxy, widely spaced windows  of the Western Shaker vernacular. While shop buildings continued to be constructed in this style at Pleasant Hill, subtle high-style Federal influence appeared in the communal dwellings at an early date. Several communal houses built from 1816 to 1822 at Pleasant Hill have tall, vertical, closely spaced windows, giving the houses more of the feel of the high style Federal aesthetic.

By 1824, Micajah Burnett, a Shaker builder and engineer at Pleasant Hill, was experimenting  with Federal architectural forms that included high-style Adamesque elements. Pleasant Hill shop buildings continued to be built in a plain, conservative style with small widely spaced windows well into the 1840s. At the same time, Burnett’s designs for dwellings took on more grand and worldly Federal architectural features. Pleasant Hill buildings with these features include the fourth Center Family House (1824–1834) and the Trustees’ Office (1839–1841). These two buildings have features like arched and three-part windows, mullioned fanlights, sidelights, balustrades, interior barrel vaults, and other graceful ornamental features typical of the Federal style.

Early map of Pleasant Hill (view, download, and zoom in at the LOC site)

On This Date in 1831 ...

Charity Runyon [age 21], daughter of Martin and Patience, departed Pleasant Hill.
 
Charity, undoubtedly, was named after her grandmother, Charity Coates Runyon, wife of Phineas, patriarch of all the Runyon family members of Pleasant Hill. Charity married Isaac N. Hawkins in Madison County, Kentucky on October 25, 1837. Isaac and Charity had five children: John Martin, James, Silas, Mary Ann, and Matilda.

159 Years Ago ... the "Swede Stampede"

"No better opening had presented itself for the proselyting of new members than the Swedish community," wrote Clark and Ham in Pleasant Hill and its Shakers.

In 1855, Benjamin B. Dunlavy and George Runyon went to Bishop Hill (Henry County near Galesburg, Illinois) as missionaries. There they preached the sanctity of a female Messiah, and the doctrine of celibacy and were rewarded for their efforts by the conversion of Andrew Bloomberg and his family. In turn, Bloomberg became a missionary and over brought many converts to Pleasant Hill.

In his book The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers, Stephen J. Stein notes that Bloomberg later served as an Elder in the West Family and in 1866/1867 traveled to his homeland of Sweden to prepare a number of families who had accepted Shaker ideals. 

Ten months later, Bloomberg returned with several Swedish converts. Others followed, but most stayed a short time. The ministry journal refers to these departures as the “Swede Stampede."

On This Date in 1879 ...

Demise Charlotte (Sally) Runyon 20 minutes before 1pm at Center Family in 94th yr since 25th of last July & thus another bright Star hath disappeared from our firmament she embraced the faith at the age of 24 in Sept 1809 & has stood unshaken.

On This Date in 1826 ...

A family was established at the grist Mill chiefly composed of the former North Family the lot of Elders being the same (namely) Elder Brother William Shields and John Congleton, Elder Sister Marcy Runyon and Mariah Saylor.

194 Years Ago ...

Photo by artist Deb Ward

The Meeting House, the spiritual center of the community, was completed. Worship services were held here with the first floor constructed free of pillars to provide room for dancing. Second floor apartments housed the village ministry which included George Runyon.

"The Ministry, who are the central executive of the whole order, consists of two brethren and two sisters."

The buildings at Pleasant Hill are a variety of colors but the Meeting House would have been white, as prescribed by the Millennial Laws. In the Historical Dictionary of the Shakers, author Stephen J. Paterwic notes that non-Shakers often misinterpret the name Millennial Church - the name by which the Shakers of the early 19th century often referred to themselves as. Rather than gathering to await the second coming of Christ, the Shakers saw themselves as the living embodiment of the second coming.

The Enigmatic Guilford Runyon

Shoemaker, doctor, or both?

Guilford Runyon, brought to the Pleasant Hill community by his parents Joseph and Jane Runyon in March 1810, was just eight years old when the family arrived. He would be one of four siblings who would leave the Shaker community.

From the Center Family journal:

Guilford D. Runyon, a shoemaker at Pleasant Hill, raised there from a child, departed May 18, 1829. He returned and was admitted to the Junior Order the following June. Was expelled in 1839 from the Society because of his plans to marry Kitty Ferrell of New Orleans. She died before they could be married and he lived in the town of Harrodsburg the remainder of his life.

Kitty had died of malaria and never lived in the house that Guilford was building for them. Guilford called the house Honeysuckle Hill.

Photo from the Kentucky Digital Library collection

From Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky by Clay Lancaster:

The unique suburban house of substantial size at 712 Beaumont Avenue, Harrodsburg, was built for Dr. Guilford Runyan [sic]. He had been the physician in the Shaker village at nearby Pleasant Hill, but “returned to the world” in 1839 and purchased the thirty-five-acre tract for his home. He intended to marry a lady from the lower Mississippi region, but she died before the wedding…

After Dr. Runyan’s death, his sisters sold the house and returned to the Shakers. In 1881, the new owners built a service ell at the rear, incorporating the detached kitchen. Subsequently, the name Honeysuckle Hill was changed to Fair Oaks.

The Kentucky Shakers

"In the State of Kentucky there are two societies - one at Pleasant Hill, about seven miles easterly from Harrodsburg, and 21 miles southwest from Lexington, Mercer County, which contains between four and five hundred members. The other is at South Union, Jasper Springs, about 15 miles northeast from Russellville, Logan County, and contains between three and four hundred members."

~Shakers Compendium of the Origin, History, Principles, Rules, and Regulations, Government, and Doctrines of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance by F.W. Evans, 1859

Travel Back in Time ...

from the Kentucky Farm Bureau

179 Years Ago ...

1835 - "Mr. Crouch had a sister that married a Ryan. That sister's son, living in Mercer married into a family of Runyons. Runyons lived on this side of the Kentucky River, between there and Lexington. The whole family (of Runyons?) joined the Shakers, and younger Ryan's wife thought she must go too. She left twins lying in the cradle and went. This brought Ryan into conflict with one, whom he beats himself severely. Another one, that came to his house, he beat nearly to death. The man thought to go to the law but the magistrate advised him to keep away and let Ryan alone. For the more minute details in this account I am indebted to Mrs. Crouch. Little things are erased from men's minds, while they are retained by women." (David Crouch Interview c. 1835 [portion], Draper Collection Manuscripts Vol 12CC225-29)

Shaking Quakers

D.W.Kellogg lithograph, ca. 1838

It was a merging of both Quaker and French Camisard beliefs that created the Shakers. The Quakers were founded in England in 1652 by George Fox. Stressing the "Inner Light of Christ," the early Quakers taught that direct knowledge of Christ was possible to the individual without a Church, priest or book as the final word of revelation. While no official creed holds the Quakers, or Society of Friends, together, the belief that God exists in all people caused many Quakers to be sensitive to injustice and degradation. They have a long history of pacifism, and this belief was found also among their spiritual descendants, the Shakers. During the 1740s, the Quakers changed their process of worship where their violent tremblings and quakings, from which they derived their name, predominated. One group in Manchester, England, retained this form of worship, and it was during the 1740s that the "Shaking Quakers," or Shakers, came under the influence of some exiled French Camisards. This group split off from mainstream Quakerism in 1747, and developed along their own lines, forming into a society with Jane and James Wardley as their leaders. Ann Lee, the founder and later leader of the American Shakers, and her parents were members of this society.

Read more here

On This Date in 1829 ...

Robert (Comstock) Runyon [age 17] departed Pleasant Hill.

This Month in 1859 ...

As early as 1811 the Pleasant Hill society had joint ownership with Union Village of the bull named Shaker. They also used Buzzard.  Both of these animals were prominent in the herd books of that time. In April 1859, when William Runyon and C. Todd went to Alexander's [local cattle sale] to get Sirius, it was presumably not to purchase but to make arrangements for stud service. 

from The Kentucky Shakers, Julia Neal, 1982

On This Date in 1841 ...

Charity Badgett moved in new office as cook

~Center Family Journal