Romance at Pleasant Hill: A Historical Romance Novel

By Allen F. Harrod

Romance at Pleasant Hill is a love story that blossoms in a very difficult setting. The main characters are fictitious, but it is set within factual Shaker history. Sarah Miles, on her seventeenth birthday, attends a Shaker worship service that changes her life forever. A young man named David Matthews captures her attention. Amid a dangerous civil war, a restrictive society bound by celibacy and separated by two very diverse religious beliefs—love finds a way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543468328

Allen F. Harrod

Allen F. Harrod was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky where the Shaker culture was common place. He is a Baptist Minister, Husband of 57 years and Father of four daughters. It wasn’t until during retirement that he began to spend time in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky (Shakertown) where his love for the culture and people grew. As most people do during retirement; he began to reminisce of his tenure of raising four giggling, beautiful daughters where the word “romance” was often the topic of conversations in his home. There he began to put both loves on paper. Graduate Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Georgia. Author: DECEPTION BY DESIGN - The Mormon Story. ROMANCE AT PLEASANT HILL

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ROMANCE

at

PLEASANT

Hill

A Historical Romance Novel

51747.png

Allen F. Harrod

Copyright © 2017 by Allen F. Harrod.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2017918097

ISBN:                   Hardcover                              978-1-5434-6830-4

                            Softcover                                978-1-5434-6831-1

                            eBook                                      978-1-5434-6832-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Rev. date: 02/21/2018

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dedicated

to

our daughters

Carol Jean, Cheryl Lea,

Elizabeth Ann and Teresa Lynn

PREFACE

I T IS MY privilege to live a short distance from Pleasant Hill on Route 68 traveling west toward historic Harrodsburg, Kentucky. I was permitted to do research at the Village, but I also held a membership that permitted me to walk the halls of the different buildings seeking to get the feel of what it was like to grow up as a Shaker.

Before part of the East Family building was divided up into apartments, I was able to visit many times imagining David Matthews, Henry DeVoe, and Randall Blevins living there.

On the way to Pleasant Hill I crossed the Historic Valley View Ferry, located on Tates Creek Road, between my home in Richmond and Pleasant Hill. The bronze sign reports that the ferry, established in 1785 by a perpetual and irrevocable franchise from the Virginia legislature to John Craig, is the oldest continual business in Kentucky. The area is filled with the sound of ducks, geese and chirping birds of many species. Today it is powered by a large gasoline motor, whereas in earlier times it was guided across the Kentucky River by rope as was the now extinct Shaker Ferry below the Village at Pleasant Hill.

Although it was a different Ferry at a different time in history, occasionally I imagined Sarah Miles speaking to the shy Shaker boy David Matthews, busy at work on the Ferry. As a celibate Shaker, he was forbidden to converse with the opposite sex, and even limited in conversation with men of the world. I envisioned him nervously fumbling with the ropes to tie off the boat without looking directly at the beautiful young Sarah Miles. But romance finds a way!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

M Y SPECIAL THANKS to the staff at Pleasant Hill who, in the tradition of the original Shakers, was always helpful. Former Historian and Second Vice-President Larrie Cury endured many questions on details concerning Shaker life and beliefs. Dixie Huffman, long time employee of Shaker Village, was an immense help in providing original journal source materials in the library, particularly from the East Family dwelling, including Benjamin Dunlavy ’s East Family Journal (1856-1871), John Dunlavy’s Manifesto and Benjamin S. Youngs Testimony of Christ’s Second Appearing . As a transcriber of these original diaries, she also shared interesting stories and insights.

In addition, these books by Edward Deming Andrews, The Community Industries of the Shakers: The People Called Shakers, Shaker Furniture, and Work and Worship: The Economic Order of the Shakers; James Archambeault, The Gift of Pleasant Hill; Thomas D. Clark, Pleasant Hill in the Civil War and Pleasant Hill and Its Shakers; Clarke Garrett, Origins of the Shakers-From the Old World to the New; Gerald F. Ham, Shakerism In the Old West and Pleasant Hill-A Century of Kentucky Shakerism (1805-1910), unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Kentucky; Michael Horsham, Shaker Style, Journals of the East Family; Daniel Mac-Hir Hutton, Old Shakertown and the Shakers; Julia Neal, The Kentucky Shakers; Thomas Parrish, Restoring Shakertown: The Struggles to Save the Historic Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill; James C. Thomas and Samuel W. Thomas, The Simple Spirit; Stephen J. Stein, Letters from a Young Shaker: William Byrd at Pleasant Hill, and his masterful work, The Shaker Experience in America, provided factual insights into Shaker life and beliefs.

A special thanks to Melissa Brown, who drew the sketches of the Shaker Ferry and the discussion rock in front of the East Family House as illustrations for the book. And to Susan Keig, for permission to use the June 2004 Shaker calendar picture of the ferry, approaching Shaker Landing. She has over 3,000 Shaker pictures in her collection and has produced the Shaker calendar for 48 years with original pictures. For my daughter Beth who made valuable suggestions and corrections in formatting the book.

The main characters in the novel are fictitious, but in relating the history of the Shakers I use historical characters associated with their Society. At all times, I have tried to be faithful to the best scholarship available to represent them accurately.

INTRODUCTION

T HE SHAKER MOVEMENT in America had its roots in Manchester, England, with some religious enthusiasts led by James and Jane Wardley. They were known as the Shaking Quakers, a term reflecting their style of worship where they danced, swooned, twirled, fainted, and often broke out in tongues. After joining the Wardley group, Ann Lees emerged as a prophetess, leading a few people, including her husband and brother, to New York in 1774. Sometime later, another small group followed. They ultimately settled near Albany, New York, known by the Indian name of Niskeyuna.

Mother Ann, as she became known, was virtually uneducated, and led her followers by visions. Joseph Meacham, along with a group from the New Light Baptist Church at New Lebanon, Ohio, visited Niskeyuna to investigate this strange new religion. Becoming convinced that Ann Lee (the s being dropped from her last name when she came to America) was a true prophetess, they joined the movement, enlarging their membership. America was in the throes of the Revolutionary War, and the Shaker position of pacifism caused great suspicion and persecution from loyal American patriots. The Shakers surrendered their possessions for the better good of the society and practiced celibacy in their communal living.

Their worship, like the Wardley group, was composed of singing, dancing, and visions accompanied by gifts of the spirit, but limited in preaching and prayer. And, they never practiced baptism or observed communion. The members labored at odd jobs and farm work until they could purchase a large piece of land on which they built a home, barn, and buildings necessary for an agrarian lifestyle. Forced to meet in homes for two years, they finally built a meetinghouse for their worship. The Shakers multiplied by adoption of children, taking in the desolate, abandoned, indigent, and interested adults. On September 8, 1784, Ann Lee died at the age of forty-eight, preceded in death by her brother William, by a couple of months. James Whittaker, one of the original English witnesses and a member of the triad leading the group composed of Ann, William Lee, and himself, became the natural heir to leadership of the Shakers. At first, the society fragmented under his leadership with the loss of a few members, but through Whittaker’s skillful administration, the society ultimately grew. He consolidated members across New England, establishing a new order.

In August 1801, the Great Revival broke out at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians (10,000 to 20,000) gathered and camped out in wagons, tents, and on the ground. The fires of revival fell upon the four-day meeting, resulting in many spiritual conversions. As with any fire, there was the possibility of wildfire. Excessive emotional outbursts accompanied some of the meetings, with people barking, laughing, and fainting. The excess became fertile soil for three Shaker missionaries that culled a few converts from the revival.

Eleven Shaker Villages had been established when missionaries John Meacham, Benjamin Youngs, and Issachar Bates came to Kentucky preaching a gospel of equality for the sexes, celibacy as a means of overcoming fleshly lusts, separated communal living, and the need of confessing one’s sins to each other. By 1806, their numbers at Shawnee Run, Kentucky, expanded. This Kentucky settlement began on the 140-acre farm of Elisha Thomas, not far from where the Village of Shawnee Run would be permanently settled and named Pleasant Hill. There they flourished, establishing five communal families: the Centre, East, and West families in the Village proper, and the North and West lots nearby.

A few defectors published testimonies and questionable exposés of their strange experiences. James Smith, having resided at Pleasant Hill for a time, published two scurrilous pamphlets about them. Smith charged them with inciting the Indians to violence, opposing the national government, and practicing perverted and immoral activities. They indeed held a heterodox theology, but were likely innocent of many charges by apostates.

Their furniture was functional with clean, orderly, straight lines, just like their lives. Self-sufficient, they grew or made almost everything they needed. Large orchards produced revenue for the Shakers, as did the production of wooden containers and flat brooms. They also profited from their silk industry. Women and children gathered leaves from the Mulberry trees and placed them in trays for silk worms to feed on. Under the skilled hands of the Sisters, handkerchiefs, linens, and other items were produced. Straw hats and bonnets became very desirable. Among other things, they were builders, furniture makers, inventors, and farmers. As they grew in number and became more established in the community of commerce, they became more accepted. When they made improvements or invented items, they shared their innovations with the world outside their Village.

Despite the Shakers of Pleasant Hill being celibate in their living arrangements, there were some blossoms of romance. Their honest journals reported departures of those romantically inclined from time to time. An undated love poem written in a plaster window jamb of the Old Stone Shop at Pleasant Hill bears testimony that some could not be spiritual eunuchs.

Dost ever thou think O Darling

fair loved one of first we

stood linked in each other’s embrace.

Dost think as thou goest on the

Way of that time when my heart

Was so full of love over flowing

That I spoke not but kissed thee

And sent thee away.

Before the War Between the States began, the Shakers experienced financial setbacks from the drought in 1854. A national financial panic, the black quarter disease took its toll on the cattle, and early freezes destroyed some crops, affecting the feed supply in 1857. The purchase of more land over a five-year period, extended loans to individuals within the Shaker Family, most of them being unable to repay, and investments, like the purchase of 250 shares of a Nevada gold mine stock by Benjamin Dunlavy, brought financial woes to Pleasant Hill.

After the Civil War, the Shakers began to mellow somewhat in their views toward other denominations. They became regular participants at High Bridge pavilion in non-denomination revival meetings, a few miles from their Ferry landing on the Kentucky River. There the famous Methodist Evangelist Sam Jones preached at the pavilion. One Shaker journalist wrote, He was a very fine Shaker, no doubt because of his stringent preaching against sin and worldliness. T. DeWitt Talmage, a famous Presbyterian minister and evangelist of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, also preached at High Bridge several times. The renowned revivalist Billy Sunday conducted meetings at High Bridge. Among the 10,000 to 12,000 that attended the meeting, many traveling by train from the surrounding cities, were Shakers from Pleasant Hill that traveled by wagon and horseback to the revivals. These, and other noted preachers, often made their stay at Shaker Village while speaking at High Bridge.

Years of disease, desertion, and the death of numerous elderly reduced the Shaker ranks, along with their heterodox beliefs, the opening of official state orphanages, bad investments, and their insistence on separating the sexes, depleted their numbers. The second industrial revolution, following the Civil War, brought improved railroads; the invention of the steam engine made it very difficult for the Shakers to market their products as quickly and as cost effective as big businesses. These things would spell the ultimate demise of the peaceful Shaker community of Pleasant Hill.

For 104 years Pleasant Hill continued until its doors were closed in 1910. The last Pleasant Hill Shaker died in 1923. Attempts were made to open a tearoom, a church, and a gas station on the property, but all failed. It was closed for fifty-one years. Several sections of the nearly 4000 acres of land had been sold off, 270 of its 300 buildings deteriorated until a non-profit corporation was founded on the evening of August 9, 1961, to restore Pleasant Hill. Today, the property has thirty beautifully restored main buildings, with industries, boarding facilities for visitors, a wonderful place to eat, and an abundance of intriguing history.

CHAPTER ONE

A SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY request would change the life of Sarah Miles forever. Providence would be written into this event, beyond all she could imagine. Her parents had concerns from the beginning.

It was a striking mid-Summer evening in 1862 at Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. The Miles family’s black buggy rambled over the rough country road running from the Ferry Landing to the Village. Along the wooded road, redbud and dogwood trees were losing their blooms. Songs of meadowlarks and spotted tanagers filled the air, as mockingbirds flitted playfully on the road ahead of the buggy. Goldenrod and purple thistle grew out of the banks on both sides of the road.

As Sarah Miles sixteenth birthday approached, her father asked her what she would like to do for the occasion. She surprised everyone in the family by saying that she would like to attend a Shaker worship at Pleasant Hill. Reluctantly, her father and mother consented. Several months had passed since her birthday on February 2, but today she would claim her wish.

Sarah held up a newspaper clipping from the Harrodsburg News Sentinel to the dangling kerosene buggy lamp. Amidst the alternating cadence of the tinkling of a small brass bell on the horse’s bridle, she supplied information on the Shakers to her best friend, Mary Ann Bennett.

Did you know that Shaker missionaries first visited our area in 1805, and that by 1806 twenty-one adult believers established themselves on the 140-acre farm of Elisha Thomas?

No, I didn’t, said Mary Ann, curling her hair with her finger as she listened.

According to this article, the new converts were immature in their beliefs and desperately needed instruction, she continued excitedly without waiting for a reply. They had a difficult time establishing in this wilderness area because bands of thugs threatened and harassed them and stole their property.

I can’t imagine! said Mary Ann, rolling her brown eyes.

It says that the Harrodsburg community is generally suspicious of them and their beliefs. Their rock fences not only keep their animals in, but they also keep the outside world out, and serves as a stubborn reminder of their separation from the world’s people.

Strange.

The writer says that they are celibate in their living and pacifist in their belief. She read on breathlessly, running her fingers down the page in search of other bits of information before the shades of night eliminated her ability to see the print, And they have other strange beliefs brought down from their eastern commune in Mount Lebanon, New York.

Mary Ann leaned over. That’s all very intriguing, she said with a hint of mischief in her low voice.

Pleased with Mary Ann’s interest, she forged ahead, Lots more, she said unfolding another newspaper clipping. The Kentucky legislature, knowing the Shakers were pacifists, attempted to limit their growth by passing an act that required military service under penalty of fine. By 1808, the struggling Society of Believers at Pleasant Hill, established under the able leadership of John Meacham, Samuel Turner, Anna Cole, and Lucy Smith, was growing. And listen to this!"

Sarah, you’re overloading Mary Ann with information, protested her father.

It’s alright, Mr. Miles, I really am quite interested in every tidbit.

Sarah looked to her father for approval to continue. He smiled and nodded. Somewhat concerned about her enthusiastic interest in the Shakers he listened. Had they done the right thing by agreeing to take her to the meeting?

Holding the article to the light of the buggy lantern swaying back and forth over the bumpy road, she continued, In a further attempt, the Legislature passed a law to guarantee that the spouse of William Boler, who refused to join the Shakers, would receive their property and child. Before a court decision could be determined, William took his son to one of the eastern societies and deeded his land to the South Union Kentucky Society, a second Kentucky Shaker Village in Logan County, Kentucky.

So, there is another group of Shakers in our state. I never knew that.

Yes, another lawsuit claiming recompense for money and property given over to the Society by a man who had signed the covenant was overturned in later court hearings. Pausing to find her place in the article, she read When you sign the Shaker Covenant, you become a full member in submission to the Society, explained Sarah. An additional statute denying the Shakers representation in the courts was later repealed. Despite the hardships and resistance by the state and the people of the community, the Society grew to 128 Believers by 1814.

What I don’t understand, said Mary Ann, is how they got the name Shakertown.

Thomas Miles picked up the conversation. They named their community Pleasant Hill, but the people of the area called it ‘Shakertown,’ because of the way they worship. Their official name is ‘The United Society of Christ’s Second Appearing.’ In the beginning of the movement, they were called Shakers in derision, which became a designation they ultimately embraced.

Thomas continued, At the store I heard them refer to themselves as ‘The Society’ or ‘The Family.’ They don’t come in often, and when they do they only buy certain items, things they don’t grow or don’t make themselves. They refer to each other as Brothers and Sisters, except for the titled members of the Family, such as Elders, Deacons or Deaconesses; with the title always preceding the individual’s first name.

I love to hear your father’s voice. It sounds like a frog down in a well when he talks. It is kind of mysterious, whispered Mary Ann.

Sarah smiled and nodded.

We were talking about the Shakers at our sewing circle yesterday, commented Sarah’s mother, Frances Miles, a soft spoken, thinly shaped, short in stature woman. These creative and inventive people have been credited with inventing the circular saw, clothes pins, the flat broom, wrinkle resistant and water repellent clothes, a four-wheel dump wagon and an early version of the washing machine. Two brothers, William and Frances Pennebaker, invented the dump-wagon. While trying to sell it, they brought one to our farm. Thomas thought the price too high. I understand they only built a few, because they did not bring in enough money to justify their continued production.

Amazing! said Mary Ann, I am so excited. Thank you for inviting me to go with you tonight. My dad had reservations, but he knew he could trust Mr. Miles to watch over me.

As they drove down the center of the village, Thomas Miles continued, Their buildings here are magnificent in their simplicity, structure, and beauty. On your right that water tower was developed under the direction of Shaker architect Micajah Burnett. I met him at the stockyards last year and he told me all about their new water system.

He pulled to a stop in front of the Centre Family dwelling and pointed to a two-story, mustard colored, wooden water tower. Horsepower pumps water underground from a spring over the hill to the large cypress tank inside that building. It is gravity fed to the bathhouses, kitchens, cellars, stables, and warehouses of each Family unit. It is said to be the second system west of the Alleghenies.

I have another article here about Micajah Burnett, said Sarah as she searched through some clippings. Here it is! At the age of seventeen years old, he came with his parents to Pleasant Hill in 1809. Hesitating as the lantern bounced back and forth, she read, When he was only twenty-five, he began to lay out the Village plot with its different buildings: family houses, the meetinghouse, barns, sheds, a tannery, bathhouses, shops, and toilets.

Losing her place momentarily, she continued, Although he had no formal training as an architect, with the help of mostly untrained labor, simple tools, and materials provided from the area, he led in the construction of these magnificent buildings. Using the architectural guidelines set forth by the Mount Lebanon, Ohio Ministry, he produced unique buildings out of his own creative genius. Greatly influenced by the Federal style, the structures have large open spaces, immense basements, and spacious attics for utilitarian functions.

Utilitarian means usefulness. The structures are designed to be practical," injected Sarah’s mother.

He not only became architect of the principal buildings, but also a surveyor, mechanical engineer, traveling deacon, and postmaster, continued Sarah.

Since Sarah had expressed interest in attending the Shaker meeting, Thomas and Frances Miles read everything they could about them. Her parents were glad that Sarah had an inquisitive mind, but they realized she could be vulnerable to false teaching.

Pulling to a stop, Thomas maneuvered his long legs out of the buggy and escorted his wife from the carriage.

This is going to be exciting, said Sarah stepping properly to the ground and adjusting her new yellow dress. Mary Ann followed suit, stepping from the back of the buggy.

Thomas Miles shot a questioning glace at Frances as he tied the horse to the rustic rail.

CHAPTER TWO

T HE PLAIN CLAPBOARD meetinghouse, even with its freshly whitewashed picket fence, in many respects was the least impressive of all the buildings. Inside, however, it was a marvel in creative design, constructed to withstand the rigors of the extreme force of the elements and the extended dancing of two hundred or more Shakers. With no inside supports, it was laid firmly upon a limestone foundation. Heavy interlocking cantilever type trusses supported the roof.

Tonight, the Shakers were opening their worship service to non-members from the surrounding area, a limited practice they permitted at various times. Although their deacons had traded with the peoples of the world in and beyond their community, there was always a mystery surrounding their activities in the Village. One reason for open meetings was as a proselytizing tool for prospective members, which was seldom successful, and to dispel any rumors of immorality taking place in their services. Strange as their religion was, the Shakers were decent, clean, hardworking people. Only three young people from the surrounding community, sixteen to