Christmas In Shakertown

Every December the Shakertown Museum at South Union holds a Shaker Christmas. This

year it will be held Dec.6-7, 9a.m.to 4 PM. on Saturday and noon to 4 PM. on Sunday. The price

of admission is a canned food item which will be donated to the Auburn Fire Department. The

museum, located along Hwy. 68-80 in Logan County, will be decorated as it was in the Victorian

age. A Christmas tree will stand in the meeting hall. It will be decorated with candles and candy

canes. Garland will cover the staircases, and candles will be lit. There will also be wreaths and

knitted decorations. Booths will also be set up by dealers selling antiques, arts and crafts, and food.

Saddler Taylor, assistant director at Shakertown, couldn’t remember how long the Shaker

Christmas has existed but he said it was a long time tradition. The reason for its continuance, Taylor

said, is that people seem to enjoy it. It is unknown what the Shakers would think of this, but Taylor

said they did recognize Christmas. The Shakers saw it as a festive time of the year. “The Shakers

were a religious sect first organized in England at the inspiration of Ann Lee,” according to

information from Shakertown Museum. “In 1774, she and a few others escaped the persecution

they had suffered for the unorthodox beliefs in England and came to America. Ann Lee, or

Mother Ann as they called her, was considered the second Christ, a manifestation of the Holy

Spirit in the form of a woman. While married, Ann Lee bore four children, all of whom died in

infancy. She interpreted their deaths as a sign from God that lust of the flesh was the original

sin and that celibacy was God’s intention. This celibacy was one of the four foundation

principles of the Shaker religion. The others were confession of sins, communal ownership of

property, and withdrawal from the world.” They were officially known as the United Society of

Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but most people called them Shakers from “the fact

that their worship included a kind of dance, similar to folk-dancing…” according to Edward

Coffman in his book, The Story of Logan County. This dancing made them look like they

were shaking, and so the name stuck. The South Union colony was started in 1807. It was

called South Union because it was “south” of the Shaker Ohio village known as Union. “The

main house at South Union,” Coffman wrote, ” were brick, well constructed and several stories

high, of plain but imposing Georgian architecture.” The men lived in one side of the house and

the women lived on the other — they didn’t even use the same doors. Of course, there were several

rural churches in Logan County which had two doors — one for females and the other for males to

use. The Shakers were not true isolationists. “Worldly” people were allowed to attend their services.

They even entertained guests in the area. The most famous guests were President James Monroe

and General Andrew Jackson who dined at South Union on June 17, 1819. The Shakers also sold

stuff, especially their seeds and herbs. Coffman wrote: “Although quite conservative in many

ways, the Believers were very progressive in outlook and adaptation to modern progress.

They were among the first to have sewing machines, corn shellers and lightning rods. In the

early 1900s they adopted the use of telephones and had bathrooms installed at South Union.

On April 27, 1915 they purchased an automobile which was of great help to the few

remaining members in the colony.” Known for fine furniture, the Shakers were active in many

other things. “Although farming was the principal activity of the Logan County Shakers,”

Coffman wrote,” they also engaged in fruit making, preserving, and had a fulling mill, brick

kiln, sugar factory, hat factory, tailor shop, bakery, stone quarry, meat packing plant,

whiskey distillery, clock factory, flour mill, broom factory and they engaged in spinning,

sewing, and weaving…. ” The Shakers also brought in silk worms and made silk goods, some of

which is still in existence (Coffman’s book was published in 1962). Seed raising was one of their

main industries. The seeds were made into packages and carried by Shakers through the country as

far as New Orleans and sold along the way. The Shakers would buy fruit, such as peaches, apples,

cherries and pears. They would gather the fruit and take it to South Union to be preserved. The fact

that they practiced celibacy ensured the Shakers were a dying religion. In 1911, South Union only

had 17 members and only nine when the property was sold in 1922. In 1949 the Benediction

Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church purchased the northside of South Union to as a monastery

known as St. Maur’s Priory. The Shaker Museum started in May of 1960 in the nearby city of

Auburn. It was later moved to South Union into the authentic home of the Shakers. Shakers still

exist today but there are none, to my knowledge, from South Union. But their faith and history still

live on at the museum. Taylor invites everyone to attend the Shaker Christmas Dec. 6-7.