On Sunday, July 26, the Historical and Cemetery commissions of Harvard celebrated the restoration of the Shaker Village Cemetery on South Shaker Road (see story above). The following is an address delivered to attendees by Roben Campbell, an independent scholar of Shaker life and a former docent at the Fruitlands Shaker building.
The Shaker Cemetery is looking terrific, better than I have seen it look in 30 years. I am so happy to be part of this celebration. Restoration is an essential element to preservation. Too often the various elements needed for restoration to happen don’t fall in place, but when they do, it’s like a blessing.
The Harvard Shaker Cemetery is one of a kind. It is the only one with cast-iron metal markers, and it is one of only a few that still has individual markers. In the few minutes I have I would like to review its history to increase your appreciation.
Roben Campbell addresses the audience at the clebration of the newly restored Shaker cemetery. (Courtesy photo)
Harvard set aside a square acre of land for a cemetery in the early 1790s. It was cleared, leveled, and surrounded by a stone wall. In 1799 a gate was placed at the entrance. With the very first burials in the cemetery, we can see an order emerging. Burials were in two locations. Looking at the cemetery as it is today, we see there is a promenade dividing the 10 rows in two parts. These rows run north to south, with the oldest at the northern end. The more pure and dedicated members were buried west of the promenade, and those who still had some ties to the world were buried east of the promenade. All the markers face west. When distinct families emerged by 1819, Church family members were buried in the western side, and the North, South, and East families were buried in the eastern side. Also by 1819, rows were separated by gender on each side. The two inner rows next to the promenade were for the brethren, and the three outer rows for the sisters. As above, so below—the cemetery follows the unique social arrangements of the Shakers.
A call for cast-iron tablets
This order was kept until the 1870s when the sister rows began to run out of space. In fact most of the Shaker burying grounds, as they called them, were in need of attention and extra maintenance. To make matters worse, there were differences of opinion about what should be done. The lead village at Mt. Lebanon, New York, felt the need to circulate a letter addressing the problem, restating Shaker standards of equality, modesty, and simplicity in the cemetery. Some months later, in an effort to address the high cost of stone, the Mt. Lebanon brethren designed a modest cast-iron metal marker with a simple inscription as a low-cost solution. Harvard, though, became the only village to take full advantage of the innovation and make a complete renovation using the cast metal tablets. This is how it all happened: In 1878 a brush fire swept through the cemetery, leaving a mess. Later that year a much-honored eldress, Caroline King, died. She was laid to rest in a graveyard that was not clean and tidy, which was against the Shaker way. We know from the day journal of Susan Channel, Eldress Caroline’s companion and roommate, that Sister Susan made a New Year’s resolution to do something about the mess in the cemetery. By the end of that year, the crumbling and tarnished markers had been replaced with metal markers. Most of the other villages did not undertake any restoration and continued to deteriorate.
A single stone monument
In 1884, to simplify maintenance, the village of Sabbathday Lake, Maine, became the first to replace its individual stone markers with a single stone monument. One by one the other villages followed suit. The Shaker village of Shirley, now on prison grounds, placed a single stone monument in 1927. This monument is visible as one drives along the main road from the town of Shirley to Route 2. In Harvard, the hurricane of 1938 uprooted a large tree, destroying dozens of markers and damaging more. It was the custom for United Society of Shakers to retain ownership of the cemeteries when villages closed and were sold. At this point the United Society could easily have replaced these markers with a single stone monument, but the town of Harvard purchased the cemetery and took charge of the cleanup and further maintenance.
More recently, Hurricane Sandy in 2008 wreaked havoc. Several large pines came down, and quite a few metal markers were damaged. Gradually both the Historical and Cemetery commissions realized this was an opportunity to pull all the markers and clean them of rust and the many coats of paint. All the metal markers were powder-coated, a method that had been tried some years before. I thank the Historical and Cemetery commissions for all the work they have done to preserve this site for future generations and make today truly a day to celebrate.
The United Society of Shakers made a generous donation to the Cemetery Commission to support efforts to clean up after Hurricane Sandy. I would like to close by reading a note from Brother Arnold of the Sabbathday Lake Shakers in response to my invitation for the Shakers to attend.
Letter from Sabbathday Lake
My dear Friend: I am delighted that you are now able to dedicate the site anew, but I regret that I cannot make it as it as a Sunday and Meeting never concludes before 11 and I am also the cook so I have to be on board to serve dinner and therefore would not be able to leave before 1 and so I could not possibly make the dedication. We could send a written piece if you would like and I would love to see the cemetery and all of Harvard again as it has been so long. Home duties are great and dear Sister Frances at 88 has a lot of issues and she seems to need me close at all times. The farthest I go is Gray (the next town) once a week to do all the errands and shopping needed and I get a minimum of two calls asking when I will return. I am so proud of all the hard work you have done to make all of this possible! Thank-you from the bottom of our hearts! [Signed] b. Arnold
