Shaker Trustees' Building – Second Chance at Life

A small Shaker community, founded in 1826 in Sodus, New York, relocated a decade later to western New York’s Genesee Valley. The land there was part of the hamlet of Sonyea, in the southwest corner of the Town of Groveland in Livingston County (New York counties are divided up into smaller divisions called towns). 

1852 Smith & Gillett map of Livingston County showing Town of Groveland 

By mid-1838 the move was complete and the Shakers settled as East and West families, building shops, barns, residences, a gristmill and three-story sawmill, and, circa 1839, a new office building at Groveland for the Trustees of the East family. This Trustees' building was also known, not by the Shakers but later by the Board of Managers of the institution that acquired the property, as the "Chestnut." 

As was the case in all Shaker communities, Trustees were the men and women of the community who managed the economic affairs on behalf of the community. Their building often served multiple uses but primarily as an office where business with the outside world was conducted. Trustees' buildings often reflected the Shaker commitment to simplicity and practicality in architecture.

Article from 1987 shows the Trustee's building at its new site in Mumford, New York

By 1892, the Groveland community, once populated by as many as 150 individuals, had been reduced to just 34 and had to close its doors. Shaker brother Hamilton DeGraw wrote in the Mount Morris Union newspaper on Thursday, October 20, 1892 an article "intended as a farewell greeting to dear friends and neighbors." He said: "The final and crucial test of any organization whether religious, societal or political, lies not in its popularity but in the amount of actual work done for human development." He went on to acknowledge "deep feelings of gratitude that we all feel for the kindly manifestations of sympathy and love that have been expressed by the community since the knowledge of our removal was made public. We have many attachments that endear us to the people of the Genesee Valley and Western New York, and tho' removed in body our prayers and sympathy will be with the people here."

DeGraw and the remaining members moved to the Watervliet, NY community (aka Niskayuna). The Groveland property was sold, for charitable use, to New York State and from 1894 to the 1980s the land and buildings housed an institution for people with epilepsy. 

In 1984, Genesee Country Village & Museum, an educational institution established in 1966 with the goal of preserving the architecture of the Genesee Valley region in a recreated historic village, acquired the Trustee’s building and moved it about 24 miles north to their property at Mumford, Wayne County.  

The colonial style timber frame with wood clapboard siding had a symmetrical façade, with evenly spaced windows, chimneys at either end, and a central hallway with staircase. The building housed a kitchen, dining room, office, and store. The top floor attic space was reportedly used as an infirmary. The meetinghouse at Groveland, built in 1842 and destroyed by fire in the first half of the 20th century, was reportedly painted a light blue, deviating from the traditional white reserved for Shaker houses of worship. Instead, it seems, the Shakers at Groveland painted their Trustee's building white.

Groveland Shaker Trustee’s building, restored and painted white 

Since 1982, the New York State Department of Corrections has operated Groveland Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison for males, at the site of the old Shaker community.

Ringing in the New Year One Hundred Eleven Years Ago

The start of the new year, 1913, would have been a solemn one for the Shakers of Pleasant Hill. In that week they buried two members of the community; their numbers were quickly dwindling.

The sad occasion of Sister Jane Sutton's passing on December 29th (see the obituary) turned tragic with the passing of another beloved Shaker, John Pilkington, the next day. With two deaths so close together, the next and final day of 1912 was marked by their double funeral.

1912 - 1914 microfilm reel

As grim an occasion as that would have been, we should also consider that they had both been blessed with close to eight decades of life. More than that, they willingly and gratefully chose life as Shakers and died of natural causes having lived their utopian existence on Earth.  

Obituaries often contain clues that need to be followed-up and when I read that the Harrodsburg Herald, the paper that had covered the funeral, had also done an "extended sketch" on the life of Jane and that John Pilkington was "also mentioned" in the article, which reportedly appeared in the Herald two weeks earlier, I knew I had to track it down.

Over the course of two months, inquiries were made and a microfilm reel slowly made its way to me from the University of Kentucky, which I learned was the sole repository of the reel from 1912. While none of my nearby libraries maintain a microfilm reader any longer, I knew one still existed in my county's historical society research room. At last I was able to see for myself the "extended sketch." 

While I was hoping the article would reveal all sorts of Runyon / Sutton connections it does not. Rather, the article is more accurately described as an "extended sketch" on the life of John Pilkington that also mentions Jane Sutton. Still, it is genealogy gold and thrilling to find a description of a family member in print, beyond the details of occupation and when and where they were born or died. Jane -- the daughter of my first cousin five times removed -- was described as "loved by everyone" and a "natural leader" who "commands respect and a following."

Here is the complete article:

Three Shakers

Oldest in Village Are Very Ill and Facing the End.

Three of the oldest citizens of Shakertown are dangerously, ill, and for them life's shadows are growing long and purple, and it may be that soon the shadows will be blotted out altogether by the dark of eternity. The three who are facing the shadows are Sister Jane Sutton, Sister Sarah Nagel and Brother John Pilkington. Sister Jane is known and loved by every one. She has been one of the commanding figures of Shakertown for years, and is a natural leader who would command respect and a following no matter in what walk of life she had been placed.  There are many, even outside the Shaker village, who will grieve that her firm hand is beginning to tremble with the weakness of age. Sister Sarah Nagel is now ninety-seven. She joined the colony over sixty-eight years ago and her life has been a silent, simple benediction, just as even and peaceful as it is now that with resignation she is waiting for the end.

Brother John Pilkington is one of the most picturesque and interesting members of the shaker colony. He was formerly a thorough man of the world, highly educated for his day and at one time was the friend and private secretary of George D. Prentice. About the time of the Civil War ended he came to Shakertown, broken in health from the reckless life he had lived. In three years he was a different man, well poised, vigorous, clear of mind, and he went back to the world he had loved. But a year later the quiet village saw him again and took him once more to her peaceful bosom. He vowed never to leave the Shaker village again, and he never has. Later on his mother joined the colony and afterward died there. Brother John is well along in the seventies, now, and in spite of his secluded life he has always kept abreast of the times. He was a printer by trade, has been a great reader and a philosopher in his way, and even today his wit is keener than that of the average person. The history of Brother John's life there among the hills lying along Kentucky river, is touching in the extreme. From childhood he has always desired to be a great musician, yet his only audiences have been the quaint brother and sisters of the little colony. In the top drawer of the old bureau in his small bare room mare all the treasures that he brought from the outside world with him. They are his violin, his mother’s picture, and a faded daguerreotype that is never opened in the sunlight. It is the dearest of all his treasures for it is the likeness of the girl he loved many many years ago. "She was the sweetest girl I ever knew," Brother John would say when showing the picture, and his lips would quiver as he added, "She died." The violin is the second love of the aged Shaker, and despite his stiffened fingers he has never ceased to make his fiddle sing. Not the new songs - oh no! - but the sweet old melodies that will live in always in the human heart. "Annie Laurie," "Robin Adair," "Auld Land Syne" and "Ah, I Have Sighed to Rest Me!" Brother Pilkington will soon know the long long rest beside his comrades who are sleeping in the quiet God's Acre on the hill overlooking the peaceful village. At one time there were many to keep step beside him, but time and change and death have narrowed the little band to a mere handful, and soon there will not be one left to watch the sunset behind the green Kentucky hills along the river.

-published in the Harrodsburg Herald, December 13, 1912

Happy New Year everyone. May 2024 be a year of peace and contentment for you and your loved ones.

We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne.