A Pleasant Village

 

At its peak, the 3,000-acre Shaker village at Pleasant Hill consisted of over 200 structures. Today, the restored village contains 34 restored original Shaker buildings. 

This map gives us a bird's-eye view of the structures located in the heart of the village, from Trustee's Office to pigsty, and is reminiscent of the cartography style used by two Shaker men from the New Lebanon community who visited their brethren almost 200 years ago.

The map is found within the pages of Michael Capek's 2001 book "A Personal Tour of a Shaker Village" -- a book for kids in grades 4-7 described by one reviewer as being written "through the eyes of a fictional deacon, former slave, teacher, physician, and visitor to worship, readers learn about daily life, from waking rituals and food preparation to tanning chores, carpentry projects, and the care of silkworms." 

What the reviewer is apparently unaware of is that while the account of their daily life is historical fiction, the people that Capek highlights in the book are real: 

Benjamin Dunlavy (deacon)

Patsy Roberts Williamson (former slave)

Hortensia Hooser (teacher)

John Shain (physician)

The visitor mentioned in Capek's story had an experience that was likely similar to visitors Rufus Bishop and Isaac Youngs when they traveled through the Western Shaker communities in 1834, recording their observations and mapping fascinating pictorial renderings (in the LOC collection) of all that they saw at that moment in time.

Citation from Library of Congress:

Youngs, Isaac N, and George Kendall. Sketches of the various Societies of Belivers i.e. Believers in the states of Ohio & Kentucky. To which is added a slight sketch of Sodus Bay in the northern part of N. York. Also a map containing several of the states on which is laid out of the route of Bv. Rufus Bishop and Isaac N. Youngs New Lebanon while on a hour to visit these societies, in the summer and fall of. 1835. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2002622454/>.

A Village of Rare Beauty and Neatness

"Pleasant Hill is a small village of rare beauty and neatness situated on a commanding eminence about one mile from the Kentucky River, on the turnpike road from Lexington to Harrodsburg and seven miles from the latter place. It belongs exclusively to that orderly and industrious society called 'Shakers' and contained in 1870 a population of 362, divided into families from sixty to eighty each. Their main edifice is a large, handsome and costly structure built of Kentucky marble, the others, generally, are built of brick and all admirably arranged for comfort and convenience. The external and internal arrangement and neatness of their dwellings, the beauty and luxuriance of their gardens and fields, the method and economy displayed in their manufacturing and mechanical establishments, their orderly and flourishing schools, their sleek and well fed stock are all characteristic of this singular people and evidence a high degree of comfort and prosperity."

This is how, according to History of Kentucky, Vol. 5 (published 1922, Chicago) by Charles Kerr, a Kentucky historian writing circa 1870, described Pleasant Hill in his write-up of long time resident Dr. Pennebaker. Pennebaker was brought to the society as a boy by his uncle, Dr. Shain, after his parents both died within a week of each other. 

History of Kentucky expands on the description with: Outside of Mercer County this unique settlement is seldom heard of by Kentuckians, though at one time it was a thriving and prosperous community ... The first house was built in this settlement in 1805. The community supported its own flour, flax and saw mills, and was practically independent of the outside world. It was a community undertaking, and all the lands were owned and operated in common, and the products from the mills and looms were of a fine quality of wool, linen and cotton cloth. Today only a few of the old sect remain, the mills and shops having long gone to decay, though the houses of the village were built so substantially that they stand as firm as 100 years ago. 

Shaker records on Find a Grave

I've been working to make sure all of the Runyon relations who were Pleasant Hill Shakers are available and accurate on Find a Grave. While now part of Ancestry.com Find a Grave assures its members that its data will remain free and available to all.

To look up any Runyon, Badgett, Ryan, Sutton, etc. enter the last name below and click on search.

Many links to Phineas and Charity's non-Shaker descendants are starting to appear as well so that connections can easily be understood.

Remember that markers for individual Shakers were usually not placed in the graveyard (none exists for the Runyon family members) so requesting a photo will not result in a gravestone photo. 

Search for cemetery records in Shaker Cemetery, KY at by entering a surname and clicking search: Shaker Cemetery, KY (181 names)All of Find A Grave (146.0 million names) Restrict search to Surname

On This Date in 1846 ...

from "The Shaker Spiritual" by Daniel Patterson

Lucinda Shain (Schoen) received her song -- a typical Shaker gift --on March 22, 1846, from "Br. Vincent Runyon and others of our deceased friends, who played it on their instruments of music." Vincent, a believer of British and Huguenot stock, had died only five days before, at the age of fifty-six. Both he and Lucinda, who was then 44, had come to Pleasant Hill with their parents and their siblings in its first wave of converts. Through most of Lucinda's life, William [Runyon] was the dominant musician at Pleasant Hill. In the gift of singing he had no equal there. For more than fifty years his "shrill, melodious voice rang with clarion tones, through the consecrated halls & sacred sanctuaries of this holy hill, cheering the minds & thrilling the hearts of the pious worshippers & beholders."