THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



\16 



many times represented the town of Sutton iu 

 ^thc Legislature. Old and apparently scrliuled 

 from the world as he was, he knew all of his re- 

 lations ahroad, then- condition and connexions in 

 life to the most minute circumstance. He com- 

 menced whh the Sliakers at Knficid in the year 

 1782, soon aller leaving the army, and came to 

 Cauterbiu-v, where he had enjoyed uninterrui)ted 

 health and' peace of mind in that belief which 

 had been his stay and support, and where in the 

 pursuit of daily personal labor he had assisted in 

 procuring these abimdunt means of sustenance 

 and comfort which the society possess. He had 

 served long enough in the army of the revolu- 

 tion to be entitled" to a full pension; hut he had 

 never applied for it because he had enough for 

 for his support — he said he brought nothing into 

 the world, and he rejoiced that he wanted noth- 

 ing, to cany out of it. He had enjoyed for a 

 long time tliat peace which the world cotdd nei- 

 ther give nor take away. His familiarity witli 

 the language of the holy scriptures was surpris- 

 ing : he worked alone, and he had imdoubted- 

 ly enjoyed full commimiou with his Maker and 

 his Saviour by those inspiring thoughts which his 

 frequent reading and hearing of the scriptures 

 suggested. On being asked wliether the Sha- 

 kers now had the same enthusiasm as when they 

 first formed themselves into a society sixty year? 

 ago, he said they had not. Being further asked 

 how he accounted for the diminution of zeal, he 

 said he would answer only for one — "When I 

 was a cliild, 1 acted as a child, and I spake as a 

 child ; but now I am old, I put away childish 

 thmgs." 



OTHER VETERAN OCTOGENARIANS. 



On our way back to the office at the end of the 

 fust half day's travel, we were introduced to other 

 veteran pioneers of the Shaker first family. Of 

 these the olde.^t man is Josiah Edgerly, aged 

 ninety yer.rs ; he has been of the hard' workei s 

 of that community who have enjoyed unilbrm 

 .sound health, peace of mind — all those earthly 

 blessings which temperance, diligence, benevo- 

 lence and sti-iet integrity bring in their train. — 

 Nathaniel Sleeper, aged eighty-seven years, 

 is another worker of the society: he is employ- 

 ed in the Botanic garden. He said he was bn- 

 ginally a farmer, wliicli business he followed until 

 he was employed for twenty years as one of the 

 society's tradeVs. He had forgotten his farming 

 until his youthful recollections were all revived 

 and his first love returned in hearing read to him 

 as it arrived the successive numbers of the Far- 

 mer's IMonthly Visitor. He never expected, he 

 said, to have his appetite sharpened with a desire 

 to be again in the field. His work was in the 

 Botanic garden, where plants were cidtivated to 

 be manutiietured into medicine. He had been in 

 good health all his lite,.and seldom had occasion 

 to take medicine : he believed medicine killed 

 more than it cured ; and it sometimes pained 

 him to think his labor was producing what was 

 killing so many of the human race. 



preparations of VEGETABLE MEDICINES. 



The Botanic garden and Herbiaiy at the Sha- 

 kers' first flunily contains probably a greater 

 variety of the useful medicinal plants than any 

 other establishment of the kind in New- 

 Eno-land. This garden was commenced by 

 Thomas Coreett, one of the family and a self- 

 taught botanist and physician, twenty-four years 

 ago; it has been enlarged by the introduction of 

 new species and new varieties until it covers a full 

 acre and a half. We have before us a catalogue 

 of Medicinal Plants and Vegetable Medicines 

 prepared in the United Society of Canterljury, N. 

 H. ("printed at Shaker Village" for they print 

 there as well as perform almost eveiy other me- 

 chanical business) consisting of about two hun- 

 dred varieties. When this business was first 

 commenced by Dr. Corbett the editor of the Visi- 

 tor well remembers the aid he gave him in the 

 sale of his vegetable preparations in connexion 

 with the celebrated Rocking Truss invented by 

 the same self-taught disciple of iEsculapius. The 

 trusses liavc since become extensively used, and 

 are one of the very best articles of the kind that 

 were ever invented to alleviate the pains of hu- 

 manity. The vegetable preparations have grown 

 o-i-adually into an establishment probably more 

 extensive than any other in the United States. 

 The vegetables were introduced in the shape 

 of dried l<iaves pressed into a solid cake weigh- 



ing a specific quantity, in shape like a brick. 

 When these articles of difterent kinds, such as 

 chamomile, coltsfoot, elecampane, goldthread, 

 horehound, johnswort, rose flowers, saffron, sage, 

 summer savory, and the like, were first introduc- 

 ed and left at the apothecary stores in Boston, 

 they were the food of merriment to some of the 

 regular physicians. Gradually, ho\\cver. Dr. 

 Corbett has succeeded in their introduction until 

 the prejudice of the doctors has been so liir con- 

 quered that nrany of the faculty are constiintly 

 applying for them. The medical establishment 

 at the Shakers is not confined to articles raised 

 by themselves — they purchase all the varieties of 

 vegetable articles of extensive use in the materia 

 medica. As a single item of purcliase at one 

 time was mentioned six tons of the ulmtts fidva, 

 or bark of slippery elm, which was procured 

 from the northern part of Vermont and Canada. 

 This article, like many other barks and roots, is 

 pulverized into fine flour and pressed into pound 

 cakes ; it is a most valuable medicine to be used 

 in inflammations of the mucous membrane, in ca- 

 tarrhs, influenza, pleurisy, dysentery, strangury, 

 and inflammation of the stomach aud bowels. 



Not only as medicine, but as articles of exten- 

 sive family use in cooking, are the preparations 

 of vegetables invented by the Shakers, two of 

 which are of great value to the inhabitants of 

 cities ; there are sage and summer savoiy, two ar- 

 ticles of vegetable growth which impart the fin- 

 est flavor to various items of cookery. They 

 are preserved and pressed into that coiniiact form 

 that they may be carried any where and used 

 with as much convenience as a compressed hand 

 or roll of manufactured tobacco. 



In all these productions and preparations, as 

 in almost every other entei-prise they undertake, 

 the Shakers find their account to be a constant 

 gain. If others undertake to imitate their inveii- 

 tions and improvements, by the time their arti- 

 cles are finisiied, they will find the United Breth- 

 ren in advance of them in some other improve- 

 ment which always makes theirs to be prefer- 

 red. 



WILLIAM TRIPURE THE BOTANIST. 



who has the ijersonal charge of the Botanic 

 Garden, and who at the same time practices 

 physic in the Shaker families, the individ- 

 uals of which seldom need medicine of any 

 kind, was taken by the Shakers when very young, 

 .1 poor boy from "Elliot in the State of 3Iaine. 

 Probably there is not the second individual in 

 the United States of his age who has so extensive 

 a practical knowledge of botany as this young 

 man. There is not u plant in the herbiary that 

 he cannot give both its common and its botani- 

 cal name with a description of its peculiar quali- 

 ties. This young man takes upon himself a 

 lar^e share "of the personal labor of the Botan- 

 ic garden ; he excused himself tor the few weeds 

 that had recently got undei- way in it by saying, 

 that as they were short-handed on the farm he 

 had been at work haying a greater part of the 

 time for four weeks. 



The Botanist is making the experiment on his 

 garden of the efficacy of the oil manure. 

 He had i)lanted side liy side, three Iiills of 

 medicinal beans. One hill he manured with 

 peat and a solution of potash — another with vault 

 mainire — and the thirtl with oil ; the second hill 

 was larger and more vigorous than that manured 

 with peat; and the hill manured with oil was 

 three times as large as either of the others. 



THE GARDENER. 



James Otis, a young man who come to the 

 Shakers when a child from Portsmouth, is the 

 principal gardener at tlie first fiimily. The main 

 garden embraces a plat of three acres. This gar- 

 den always appears better than almost any other 

 we see in any part of the country : it was free of 

 weeds and embraced the usual vegetables in a 

 kitchen garden. The onions, beets, carrots, &c. 

 were all of vigorous and large growtli, having 

 apparently suffered little from the severe drought. 

 An acre and a half of this garden set with seed 

 onions was as beautiful as any thing that could 

 be imagined ; the stalks and heads seemed to be 

 of a larger size than any onion yard we had ever 

 before seen. 



FINANCIERS AND BUSINESS MEN. 



To the two distinguished young men just nam- 

 ed, we niv add the names of David Parker aad 



William Willard, both of whom were taken 

 when very young, educated and trained for bus- 

 iness at the first family of Shakers in Canterbury. 

 As business men we know of no two of their 

 age who can go before them. Deac. Winkley, 

 who may well feel proud of these young men as 

 his own trained children) showed us their books 

 of accounts which were kept with an accuracy 

 and neatness that would do credit to the first 

 mercantile establishment in the countrj'. The 

 hand writing of the young men shows that this 

 part of education has been there much better at- 

 tended to than it is in many of our high schools 

 and academies ; and the construction of their 

 sentences in their letters of business proves? 

 them to be better scholars than most of the young 

 men of the country educated for business. 



The former of these young men, at a very ear- 

 ly age, has become of that distinguished consid- 

 eration as to be chosen a spiritual leader for 

 bodi the Canterbury and Enfield liimilies. 



THE accomplished SCHOOL-MISTRESS AND HER 

 FAMILY. 



Not the least gratifying exhibition was the visit 

 which we made in company with the Rev. Mr. 

 T. with our wives, at the school embracing the 

 young females of the three families. The school 

 is kept three months in winter for boys ; the pres- 

 ent schoolmaster for the boys is Dr. Tripure, the 

 botanist, who carries one of the most pleasant 

 and intelligent faces we have ever seen upon the 

 head of mortal man. The school-mistress teach- 

 ing the females is Mary Whitcher, twentj-five 

 years of age, the grand daughter of the original 

 settler of the hundred acre lot on which the vil- 

 lage of the first family stands. There are four 

 persons of this family, a brother and three sisters, 

 now resident with the Shakers. John Whitch- 

 er, an uncle of these, has been known to us for 

 more than twenty years as a man of no common 

 attainments : he "was born and educated upon 

 this ground ; and there are few men in the state 

 who could better indite an essay or speak upon 

 any subject than this man. The two sisters and 

 brother of Mary Whitcher are intelligent beyond 

 what might be expected of persons in their con- 

 dition of life : in expression of face and in man- 

 ners there is a pecidiarity and a dignity that mark 

 high native talent and superior intellect. As for 

 Mary herself her male visitors were not her only 

 admirers : our wives united with us in the opin- 

 ion that there were few ladies in the country, 

 whatever might have been their opportunities, 

 at her time of life, that in ehher mind or man- 

 ners would be placed in a class above lier. Her 

 school consisted of thirty-two scholars, females 

 from four years to sixtee"n or eighteen years of 

 age. Her system of instruction was partially 

 that of tbe la"te Joseph Lancaster ; and the fe- 

 males composing the school would have done 

 credit to the instruction of the best academies in 

 the State. In questions on geography and on 

 history sacred or profane, the answers were 

 perfect— in reading aud spelling the smaller 

 scholars were uncommonly accurate. The himd 

 writing of the instructress would do honor to tho 

 best writing master ; and several of the scholars 

 well imitated the hand of the mistress. 

 The books selected by the Shakers for their 

 schools, and indeed their whole course of instruc- 

 tion, are of that practical nature that will lead 

 the pupil on to usefulness in afler life. The 

 school was closed by the scholars uniting in some 

 of the enchanting hymns which the Shakers use 

 in their social worsliip. The school house floor 

 and seats, stained like the inside of tlieird wellings, 

 was such a pattern of neatness as no common 

 school house in the State can cxliibit ; it was fit- 

 ted, as every building on their premises, wheth- 

 er erected for man or beast, is fitted, for the con- 

 venience and the comfort of its occupiers. 



THE GREAT BARN. 



The principal barn of the firat family, it is be- 

 lieved, is the largest building of the kind in the 

 State ; it is two hundred feet in length, thirty-five 

 feet in width and twenty-two feet posts. This 

 barn is unlike that of the Shakers at Alfred, the 

 entrance to which is on the gable end ; but the 

 immense amount of hay with which it is filled is 

 raised from the load in the floor by means of an 

 iron grapple moved by a tekel and falls with 

 horse power. The machineiT applied to a large 

 load of hav will dispose of it in less than a fourth 



