In early August of 1847, Brother Zachariah Burnett wrote in his journal that "Visitor Tuntstill West from Monticello, Ky came to see his relations viz Runyons, Suttons, & Ryons."
I have not yet been able to discover the connection between Tunstal West and the Runyons but the year of his visit, Jane Runyon (who with her husband and children were the first of the Runyons to join the Shakers) would have turned 80 years old. Her husband Joseph had been dead for two years. Her son Vincent, a devout Shaker, had died the previous year.
Zachariah mentions Runyons, Ryans, and Suttons, but not Badgetts, Baxters, or Burtons, so unless the connection goes farther back to Phineas and Charity (who are both long dead by this visit), the relation does seem to be with Joseph's line.
Pleasant Hill is about an 80 mile wagon ride from Wayne County where Tunstal Quarles (T.Q.) West lived, so it would have been a significant trip, especially for a farmer during the growing season. According to his Find a Grave memorial, Tunstal Quarles "T.Q." West was born Jan 10, 1806 to Isaac West and Margaret Russell.
Tunstal's first wife was Sarah Elizabeth Wray West. The two had several children together before Sarah's death in November 1841. Less than a year after his 1847 visit to Pleasant Hill, Tunstal married a second time. On March 31, 1848 in Wayne County, Kentucky, he wed Sophia Wilson, 13 years his junior. Sophia may have been a widow, and her maiden name was possibly Wright.
Shaker records tell us that Jane "Ginny" Runyon was born in Fairfax County, Virginia. Isaac West's father Soloman was reportedly born in Virginia and migrated to North Carolina.
Margaret Russell's parentage is a bit fuzzier but they are in South Carolina or North Carolina, before Margaret ends up in Wayne County, Kentucky.
Joseph Runyon migrated from New Jersey to Rowan County, North Carolina with his parents. There, he marries Jane about 1784, and their first four children are born there before they migrate to Fayette County, Kentucky.
Could Shaker Jane, wife of Joseph, have been a sister of either Isaac West or his wife Margaret Russell?
If so, Tunstal would have been able to visit his Aunt Jane, cousins Charlotte, Vincent, George, William, and Matilda Runyon, cousin Nancy Runyon Ryan, and his cousin Polly's children, Jane and James Sutton.
................... Our Shaker Heritage ~ research on the Runyon family at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky ... and more!
3/07/2018
3/03/2018
Divorce, Shaker Style
I recently finished reading The Great Divorce : A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times by Ilyon Woo and it made me more curious about the life of Nancy Runyon Ryan.
Nancy, at age 20, had married Thomas Ryan in 1807. Within a few years the majority of her family had joined the Society at Pleasant Hill and Nancy and Thomas were busy with twin boys Lawson and Wesley, born in 1808. An interview conducted in 1835 reveals what happened next.
"Mr. Crouch had a sister that married a Ryan. That sister's son, living in Mercer [County, Kentucky] married into a family of Runyons. Runyons lived on this side of the Kentucky River, between there and Lexington. The whole family 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."
The interview certainly paints Nancy as a woman who has abandoned her babies but the Shaker journals help explain. They tell us that Nancy became a Believer in 1810, so Thomas' run-in with the brethren must have happened in 1810 when the twins were still quite young. Perhaps they had visited Thomas to proselytize, hoping to persuade him to try the Shaker way of life. The journals also tell us it was another five years before Nancy was able to live among the faithful at Pleasant Hill.
Having given birth to a daughter (Nancy Jr., born in 1812) during those years we can speculate that she soon returned to Thomas' household. Was she trying to convince her husband to join with her? Did the Church leadership offer Nancy help or advice based on similar experiences in other communities? Did Thomas die during this time? We know only that she arrived in the Spring of 1815, and that her children joined her there in May of that year. Who brought the children?
We will likely never know the specifics but, like the protagonist in The Great Divorce, it seems Thomas was vehemently opposed to the idea of joining a celibate commune.
While Nancy's saga was taking place in Kentucky, Mother Lucy Wright was consulting with the Elders at the community of Watervliet outside Albany. There, James Chapman had left his family to become a Believer. He soon returned home for his children against his wife's wishes. Eunice Chapman, had no legal rights to their children but was not going to give them up without a fight. This is the subject of The Great Divorce. In the NPR clip below, the author explains how women of this period, upon marriage, became "civilly dead."
At Pleasant Hill, Nancy Runyon Ryan lived to age 65 and died a Believer. Her three children were raised among the Shakers, presumably with no further objection from their father. Each left Pleasant Hill separately while in their teens.
I'll leave it for you to discover whether James Champman and his children remain Shakers or "go to the world."
Listen to a 6-minute NPR interview with the author here:
Nancy, at age 20, had married Thomas Ryan in 1807. Within a few years the majority of her family had joined the Society at Pleasant Hill and Nancy and Thomas were busy with twin boys Lawson and Wesley, born in 1808. An interview conducted in 1835 reveals what happened next.
"Mr. Crouch had a sister that married a Ryan. That sister's son, living in Mercer [County, Kentucky] married into a family of Runyons. Runyons lived on this side of the Kentucky River, between there and Lexington. The whole family 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."
The interview certainly paints Nancy as a woman who has abandoned her babies but the Shaker journals help explain. They tell us that Nancy became a Believer in 1810, so Thomas' run-in with the brethren must have happened in 1810 when the twins were still quite young. Perhaps they had visited Thomas to proselytize, hoping to persuade him to try the Shaker way of life. The journals also tell us it was another five years before Nancy was able to live among the faithful at Pleasant Hill.
Having given birth to a daughter (Nancy Jr., born in 1812) during those years we can speculate that she soon returned to Thomas' household. Was she trying to convince her husband to join with her? Did the Church leadership offer Nancy help or advice based on similar experiences in other communities? Did Thomas die during this time? We know only that she arrived in the Spring of 1815, and that her children joined her there in May of that year. Who brought the children?
We will likely never know the specifics but, like the protagonist in The Great Divorce, it seems Thomas was vehemently opposed to the idea of joining a celibate commune.
While Nancy's saga was taking place in Kentucky, Mother Lucy Wright was consulting with the Elders at the community of Watervliet outside Albany. There, James Chapman had left his family to become a Believer. He soon returned home for his children against his wife's wishes. Eunice Chapman, had no legal rights to their children but was not going to give them up without a fight. This is the subject of The Great Divorce. In the NPR clip below, the author explains how women of this period, upon marriage, became "civilly dead."
At Pleasant Hill, Nancy Runyon Ryan lived to age 65 and died a Believer. Her three children were raised among the Shakers, presumably with no further objection from their father. Each left Pleasant Hill separately while in their teens.
I'll leave it for you to discover whether James Champman and his children remain Shakers or "go to the world."
Listen to a 6-minute NPR interview with the author here:
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