The Incredible History Behind Canterbury Shaker Village

Celebrating the lives of the Canterbury Shakers

By Gail L.

Imagine for a moment that you are eleven again. It's Christmas time, the most magical time of the year. At least for most children.

But your father has been out of work for the last few months, and your mother has been in and out of the hospital fighting the last stages of a cancer that has ravaged her body.

One day you come home from school to find your father sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. Immediately, you know that the dreaded phone call has come. Your mother has died.

The next few days pass in a blur of tears, grief and hugs from a few assorted relatives you barely know. Then comes the day of reckoning. Your father pulls you to his side, wrapping his big arms around you. "My darling girl, you know how much I love you how much I loved your mother." A sob catches in his throat. You peer into his face expectantly, waiting for the words that are so hard for him to speak.

"I can't raise you alone," he says, tears streaming down his face. "I have no job, no money, nothing to offer you."

"Daddy!" you wail. "Don't say that. I won't ask for anything. I only want to be with you!"

It's enough to bring a lump to your now adult throat. But scenes just like the one painted above were played out numerous times during the 1700s on up through the Great Depression of the 1930s. In fact, many families became so desperate in their financial struggles that they often relinquished their children to a religious sect known as The Shakers, a group who formed colonies of communal living to embrace peace and live a Godly lifestyle. They devoted their "hands to work and hearts to God" while striving to make their villages an earthly heaven.

On a recent visit to Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire, I became acquainted (through a video production) with Alberta Kirkpatrick, an elderly woman who had been adopted by the Shakers as a child. Her father was forced to give her up after his wife had died, and he thought the Shakers might be the best option for his beloved daughter. Alberta is still alive and returns to Canterbury occasionally to give lectures on her fond memories of her life with the Shakers.

The Shakers originated in England and immigrated to American shores in 1774. Visionary Mother Ann Lee brought the original group of eight to New York and eventually settled near Albany, where they farmed the land. They were known as Shaking Quakers or Shakers because of their ecstatic and agitated movements during worship services. Over the years, the Shakers' membership grew through recruitment and adoption of children who otherwise would have been orphaned.

At their peak, there were 18 communities from Maine to Kentucky. By choice, the Shakers isolated themselves from the rest of the world. They were deeply committed to a celibate lifestyle and simple living. Like the Quakers, they believed in personal communication with a God who was both male and female. They lived in segregated dormitories, but gathered to eat, work and worship together.

Most of the settlements are ghost towns today, except for those in Canterbury, New Hampshire, and Sabbath Day Lake, Maine. Members live on small plots while the remainder of the land is devoted to historic preservation and museums.

A country road leading to Canterbury is hilly, winding and picturesque with its meandering icy streams veering off into the woods. Stark white buildings in the Shaker settlement, 24 in all, rise up against the gray-blue wintersky to meet visitors, their straight lines a testament to the simplicity of the people who lived in them. Trees, stripped of their leaves, are a grim reminder of the struggle to stand tall and firm in times of desolation.

The 24 buildings are carefully laid out over 694 acres of open fields, woods and ponds. Among the buildings are a one-room schoolhouse, chapel, bakery, bee house, dormitory and syrup shop. Initially, boys attended school during the winter and girls attended in summer. Eventually, both Shaker and Canterbury children attended together year-round. Besides learning the three R's, children such as Alberta were taught how to sew in what is called the Sister's Shop. They also learned how to make bread and other baked goods.

In the upstairs room of the gift shop, Alberta's life is on display in the form of letters she wrote to her beloved father. Though she received loving care at the hands of the Shakers, she missed her father deeply and kept their relationship alive through the written word. The letters are tender accounts of her life with the Shakers as well as her devotion to him. Shaker Village weaves past and present by offering a close-up view of life as it once was. To keep their skilled craftsmanship alive classes and events
are scheduled throughout the year for visitors to take part in.

A two-day session, for example, might be devoted to making a cherry jewelry box from scratch. The box includes hand-cut dovetail joints and solid brass hinges, as well as a dovetailed small sliding tray for the interior. Another workshop allows participants to join a snowflake-making class. These ten-inch, two-sided snowflakes are made of maple, cherry, black walnut or mix and match. They are meant to hang in a window or against a wall. Other workshops are scheduled throughout the year.

While touring the village, stop in at the gift shop to admire the handiwork of the Shakers. Here you will find dining table and chair reproductions, candlestands, oval boxes, peg rails, baskets, books, teas and herbs and a myriad of other items.

End your tour by dining at the Shaker Table for lunch or dinner where you sample homemade, wholesome food. Leave the madness of the world behind, if only for a day. Add a visit to Shaker Village to your wish list. Then pack up the kids and go.

Canterbury Shaker Village
288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, NH 03224
Tel. 603.783.9511