Issachar Bates: A Shaker’s Journey

6. “Thorns and thistles did abound”: The Growth of the Shaker West

104 } chapter 6 “Thorns and thistles did abound” the growth of the shaker west Moved on at God’s command, Till they reached this western land, Where a wilderness they found, Thorns and thistles did abound. —Sally Eades, “New Year’s Hymn” As 1806 began, Issachar Bates and the other eastern Shakers were optimistic about the prospects of Shakerism’s expansion into the western frontier of the new country. During worship with the “young believers”— the term given to the new western converts—on Christmas Day, they had all experienced prophetic signs of the gospel’s increase, “particularly towards the South and West.”1 Rumors circulated that a mob was being raised to drive the “old believers”2—the term used for the three original Shaker missionaries who had arrived in March 1805, along with the three additional easterners who joined them from New Lebanon that summer—out of Ohio and back where they came from. But at the same time, the Shakers took persecution as a sign that they were doing God’s work in challenging the sects of the area. With a strong base of young believers in Richard McNemar’s Turtle Creek congregation, allies in other places, financial and material support from the eastern Ministry, and a promise of still more easterners arriving to help with the work, Issachar and his fellow old believers had every reason to be confident . For Issachar, the next several years were an exciting period of near constant travel and creative endeavor, punctuated by danger and by encounters with colorful figures, as he poured his whole self into building up the spiritual edifice of Shakerism in the region. Between the Miamis The table is spread3 WiththemoneyIssacharBateshadbroughtbackfromNewLebanonatthe end of 1805, the six old believers in Ohio set about purchasing the southwest quadrant of Section 24 in Turtle Creek Township of Warren County, about threemileswestofthecountyseatatLebanon(figure6.1).4Theyfeltfortunate to acquire land that was adjacent to that of Malcom Worley, their first Turtle Creek convert, virtually at the center of the Turtle Creek neighborhood, and in an area of great agricultural potential. As one early-nineteenth-century ge- growth of the shaker west { 105 ographer and western traveler put it, “The country between the two rivers Miamis is said to be one of the most fertile in America.”5 The purchased land was registered in the name of David Meacham, Deacon and Trustee of the United Society. During the early months of 1806, the old believers prepared to build themselves a house, conscious of the need to withdraw from living in close quarters with the Worley family. A letter written to New Lebanon in March reported progress on a two-story frame house, thirty feet by forty feet, with chimneys at each end, whose interior floorplan would be “something in the form of the East house at New Lebanon.”6 The spacious house, they said, would allow them to accommodate the eastern Shakers whose arrival they expected later that year, as well as the many inquirers who came to Turtle Creek. They wrote of using the winter months for preparing shingles and clapboard siding for the house. Meanwhile, the old believers’ influence over the Turtle Creek converts continued to broaden. The male converts wanted to mimic the dress of the old believers, whose garb appeared quaint and old-fashioned, somewhat like the traditional dress of Quakers. They say they want no other manner, form, or colors than was first sent to them from the Mount—even from the crown of their hats to the soles 6.1 “Section that the Old Believers Bot,” circa 1807. (Courtesy of the Shaker Museum|Mount Lebanon, New Lebanon, New York) 106 } issachar bates of their shoes—They say that the outward dress that the first Brethren appeared in was as great pleasing to them as their word & testimony. It witnessed to them that they were the true followers of Christ—& had forsaken the course & fashions of the world.7 Some converts assumed new names to match names of prominent eastern Shakers, such as Asenath Edie, who adopted “Asenath” to match the name of a popular young eldress at New Lebanon. So eager were the converts to learn about Ann Lee and the struggles of the first Shakers that the old believers wrote home for clarification to make sure they had their facts straight.8 Babies continued to be born to women who had been pregnant at the time...