Canterbury Tales

Henry Clay Blinn, born 1842, was just age 14 years old when he made the decision to join the Shakers. Blinn had learned about a Shaker man who was visiting near his home in Providence, Rhode Island and felt compelled to meet the man and find out about his lifestyle. 

After a meeting between Henry, his mother, and the stranger, and upon learning about the Shaker community at Canterbury, New Hampshire, Blinn made the decision that would change his life forever. 

Accompanied by his new Shaker friend, Blinn began the journey that would take him over 130 miles by train, stagecoach, and wagon to the village at Canterbury in Merrimack County. 

He described the journey in his autobiography, published after his death in 1905:

"On the day appointed for my departure from the city, I was hurrying at an early hour to the railroad station at India Point. It was the journey of a young Pilgrim, after many hurried farewells to dear friends, some of whom protested against the wild scheme of going amoung the mountains of New Hampshire to find a home, and to be entrusted to the care of an entire stranger, while others dismissed the case with and anxious hope for the better. 

"I was soon, however, on my way to Boston in company with the Shaker, Nathan Willard, as he had agreed to take charge of me. At Boston we took the cars for Lowell, the terminus of the railroad at that date, going north. From Lowell, we rode to Concord, N.H., in a stage, and then hired a private conveyance to Shaker Village. Our trip from Concord was over the pine plains, through Loudon Village and over Beck's Hill. On reaching this last elevated spot, the whole of the Church Family was presented to view, and the presentation was a beautiful picture on the mind. At that date, the white and light yellow houses with bright red roofs, heightened the beauty of the village very much and to my youthful mind, after a long and tedious journey, it seemed to be the prettiest place I had ever seen."

Photo from the Library of Congress collection:

Also from the LOC collection: Diagram of the south part of Shaker Village, Canterbury, NH

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.

Brooding Quiet of the Little Village Broken by the Death Angel

The final days of 1912 marked the last moments in the life of Jane Sutton, daughter of Polly Runyon Sutton and granddaughter of  Joseph and Jane Runyon. Jane's Shaker brother, J. W. Pilkington, died that same week and the Harrodsburg Herald was there to cover the double funeral:

Double Funeral

John Pilkington and Mary Jane Sutton
Buried Same Day at Shakertown - 
Service by Dr. Yeaman

The old Shaker Community in this county will in a short time, be reduced to its last member.  On last Sunday, and again on Monday, the brooding quiet of the little village was broken by the death angel and two souls answered the call and passed into "that bourne from which no traveler returns."  Sister Mary Jane Sutton, an extended sketch of whose life appeared in the Herald two weeks ago, and Brother John Pilkington, also mentioned in the sketch, died within a few hours of each other, and on Tuesday a sad little cortege wended its way from the village to the burying ground on the hill where the winter sunshine was slanting across two open graves.  There was one funeral service for both old people, and an impressive scene it was - the two caskets side by side in the hall of the Central House, while other members of the faith, neighbors and friends, gathered to pay the last tribute of respect.  It was pitiful to see the two with quiet, folded hands, but far more pitiful was the little group of mourners - the old "brothers" and "sisters" of the broken colony.  The service was conducted by Rev. M. V. P. Yeaman, of the Assembly Presbyterian church of Harrodsburg, who not only read appropriate selections from the Scriptures and offered prayer, but also made extended and touching remarks concerning the blameless and peaceful lives of the deceased.  Jane Sutton, one of the oldest and most beloved members of the colony, was in her eighty-first year, and had been a member of the Shaker community since her infancy.  She was born in Lexington, her parents being Isaac and Polly Sutton.  Her mother was a Runyan, a daughter of Joseph and Jane Runyan, and well connected.  J. W. Pilkington was in his 80th year.  He was born in Bullitt county in 1833, but lived in Louisville for a number of years, where he was connected with the old Louisville Courier, and also the Journal, before the consolidation of the two.  He was an intimate friend of, and was highly esteemed by, George D. Prentice.  The parents of the deceased were Abraham Pilkington and Indiana Skinner.  But seven of the Shakers now remain.  The colony has gradually dwindled till the halls of the great houses have become almost silent, and the hum of industry is no longer heard.  At one time, in 1864, there were as many a 146, and thousands have come and gone, and others into the great beyond.  The burying ground of the Pleasant Hill Community contains about four hundred graves.  Two of the remaining seven are old ladies, both over ninety years of age, sisters Sarah Nagle and Susan Murray.  It was a pathetic sight to see the two looking with tearful eyes upon the caskets containing the bodies of their life-long friends, and many and tender must have been the memories it stirred within them.  The passing of Shakertown seems a great pity and is regretted by many, as it makes one more of the several institutions to go that gave Harrodsburg a fame that is now so largely in the half-forgotten past.

-- Harrodsburg Herald, January 3, 1913

The Mysterious Case of the 1850 Census

Jane (aka Ginny) Runyon, wife of Joseph, was born December 12, 1766. Multiple journals from Pleasant Hill record her death on August 24, 1850. Jane lived the second half of her life -- a full forty years -- as a Believer, and spent those years at Pleasant Hill in its heyday, before attrition from death and young people leaving the society slowly began the community's decline.

The census for Mercer County, Kentucky was conducted on the 10th of September, 1850. So, I was surprised when I saw that Jane appears in the listing for Pleasant Hill.

Despite dying in late August 1850, Jane managed to be counted in the first and only census she could have been listed in individually by name. In previous years she would have been identified with a check mark under the column for females within the family by age range.

So how can a dead woman appear in the census? The census instructions for enumerators for the year 1850 tells us.

Every decade since 1790, census enumerators working on behalf of the United States government head out into their districts to count the people. And each year, those enumerators are given written instructions as to how to count. The traditional family unit is the typical unit that comes to mind -- a head of household, perhaps a spouse, children, an in-law, a boarder or servant, all in the same dwelling. But what happens when the enumerator has to count dozens, or hundreds, of people living in a larger institution?

"Dwelling houses [are] numbered in the order of visitation," reads the official instructions for 1850. "A widow living alone and separately providing for herself, or 200 individuals living together and provided for by a common head, should each be numbered as one family." 

Given their size and non-traditional living arrangements, I'm sure the counting of Shaker villages presented unique challenges for the enumerators. Luckily for the enumerators, there were just 19 Shaker villages to count in the United States, two of them in Kentucky.

It is in those instructions we uncover the reason why Jane Runyon, 18 days in the grave, made it into the record books in the year of her death: "Under heading 3, entitled 'The name of every person whose usual place of abode on the 1st day of June, 1850, was in this family,' insert the name of every free person in each family, of every age, including the names of those temporarily absent, as well as those that were at home on that day. The names of every member of a family who may have died since the 1st day of June is to be entered and described as if living, but the name of any person born since the 1st day of June is to be omitted."

The enumerator for District 1, Thomas E. Miller, must have not had the details of Jane's month and day of birth as the age recorded for her reads "84." She didn't quite make it to 84 but lived a long and remarkable life nonetheless.

Miller's listing for the Shakers of Mercer County spans nine pages, begins with no remarks and ends with the simple notation: "End of Pleasant Hill or Shaker Village"

Shakertown Inn

1897 - The Shaker Hotel was opened for boarders by Sister Jane Sutton in the East Family dwelling. It subsequently became known as the Shakertown Inn, an effort by the few remaining Shakers to keep financially solvent.
                                                         

You can see the embedded stone in the brick between the second and third floors. It reads 1817. The East Family dwelling was built of Shaker-made brick and in 1826, Mercy Runyon was living in the Elders room here. Amy Runyon worked here as a nurse and caretaker of girls; Betsy and Amy Runyon died here.

On This Date in 1895 ...

At age 4, James was brought to Pleasant Hill by his mother Polly Runyon Sutton.

Polly, daughter of Joseph and Jane, departed the Shaker village at age 17 and married Isaac Sutton. They had two children, Jane and James. We don't know her reasoning but apparently Polly thought life among the Shakers would be the best place for her children. She did not return.

James left Pleasant Hill briefly in his nineteenth year but returned less than a year later, living the remainder of his life as a Shaker and passing away at the age of 65.

The Shaker journals record his death simply as, "At 8:10 Mr. James Sutton departed this life suddenly after a brief illness."

On This Date in 1827 ...

Charity Coates, wife of Phineas Runyon, lived to be 82 years old and spent the last thirteen years of her life living as a Shaker after signing the church covenant in 1814. Prior to their arrival, she and Phineas had been married for 53 years and moved from New Jersey to North Carolina, then to Kentucky. She gave birth to fourteen children during her marriage. Of her children who lived into adulthood, four - with their own families - also chose a life among the Shakers.

Her passing was recorded in the Shaker journals with no elaboration: Charity Runyon died at Pleasant Hill

On This Date in 1852 ...

At 3:30 p.m. Nancy Runyon Ryan "died of epileptic fits" at age 65. She "had been subject to fits...was not able to take care of herself, had but little if any sense left, it was a great releasement to the family and a blessing to her no doubt." ~ Amos Stewart Journal

On This Date in 1884 ...

Demise, Elder George Runyon [age 88] at 8:40 p.m...united in this Society in spring 1810 at age of 14 & continued steadfast & unwavering to the end...an able minister.

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.

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.

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.

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."

On This Date in 1846 ...

Vincent Runyon [age 56] deceased. He was second Elder in the First Order from the 19th of Jan. 1824 till Dec. 20th, 1838.

On This Date in 1817 ...

March 8, 1817, Saturday - This day was a rainy day, Today Ephraim McBride mov'd from Lebanon to the Roben Denny farm, Today Betsy Baxter departed this life. I believe with old age, she was the Mother of Patience Runyon who joined this Society in 1813, her Mother came here to stay a little while with her daughter, and being so old and feble she slipped off; she never joined this Society.

On This Date in 1826 ...

Salome Badgett [age 28] deceased. 

Her hymn "A Pretty Lesson" appears in Paulina Bryant's hymn book

January 21 - On This Date in 1831

The Shaker journal entry recording the death of the oldest of the Runyon clan simply reads, "Phineas Runyon, age 87, dies at Pleasant Hill."

Very few headstones exist in the Pleasant Hill graveyard. Although no markers remain for them (if they ever existed), many members of the Runyon family are among those buried in the here.

The cemetery at Pleasant Hill, photo by Nancy Reddy

On This Date in 1866

Our highly esteemed and much beloved William Runyon died of pneumonia and liver complaint at the Center Family, aged 66 years the 12th day of last July. He filled the place of Family Deacon in the First Order, from the 14th of August 1827 till his decease, being upwards of 36 years. And a faithful steward & servant he was, devoting all his time & signal abilities to the duties of his calling, with a persevering industry & zeal almost unparalleled. Being called when a youth, he spent a long & useful life in support of this noble cause; & by his kindness, benevolence and goodness of heart, he was so firmly & deeply seated in the hearts & affections of the Society, that his untimely end was profoundly lamented in tears of sorrow. In the gift of singing he had no equal. For more than 50 years that 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. But that sweet voice we hear no more - it is gone to join in the music of angels in the brighter worlds above! James Parsley absconded from the East Family. What a contrast with the above! (Benjamin Dunlavy Journal 1856-1871)

On This Date in 1912

Jane Sutton deceased. Obituary published Jan. 3, 1913 lists Polly Runyon [who departed Pleasant Hill in 1825] as her mother and Polly's parents as Joseph and Jane Runyon (N-HH). 

"[Jane Sutton] was brought to Pleasant Hill by her mother. She faithfully served as Deacon, Elder, and Trustee. Her high degree of intelligence, zeal, and noble character well fitted her for the trusts imposed on her. Her business acumen equaled that of any of her co-workers. In the closing years of the community all accounts made by the Shakers were charged to Shelton & Sutton, Trustees." (Hutton, p.47)

On This Date in 1861

Betsy Runyon [age 60] died, among believers 47 yrs, 2nd Elds. First Order 15 yrs

~East Family Journal