The Shakers

The evangelistic religious group known as the Shakers, fled to the American colonies in 1774 to escape religious persecution in England and to establish a utopian society in the Americas. Their religious worship including shaking of the body and motions of the head and arms and they came to be called the “shaking Quakers’.  In time the name was shortened to Shakers.  The group’s official name, which they used after immigrating to the Americas, was the “United Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ”, but in the early years they usually referred to themselves as “Believers”.

When they arrived in New York, in August of 1774, they set about to find a place to settle while taking jobs in the city to earn their living.   There were eight in this first group and these early Shakers found a suitable site 8 miles northwest of Albany New York and settled there in 1776.  

The area was called Niskayuna. The name Niskayuan is said to be derived from the Connestigione Indians, who along with fur traders were the first occupants of this land.  In 1642 ,Kilian van Rensselaer ,a Dutch diamond merchant purchased the land and the area became known as Watervliet, which is a Dutch phrase meaning  “water flood”. 

 The first years of the settlement were difficult and the small group lived in primitive conditions. The land proved to be both swampy and covered in dense brush, and from the beginning the small group worked hard. They drained the land, redirecting and straightening the small stream that flowed through it and filling out the low spots.  Their survival was tough and the colony of 15 started gaining large numbers of converts by the early 1790’s. By the 1800’s there were 12 settlements across New York and New England.

Their primary foods were fish and the rice grown in the water laden land. In addition to producing their own food, they developed major businesses—the largest and most advanced of their time—selling vegetable seeds and medicinal herbs, which they grew, processed and packaged themselves and by the mid-1800s doctors were ordering hundreds of different herbs from the Shakers.

 During the years of 1801 to 1805 a revival of religion reverberated throughout New England, it was distinctly heard by the Shaker authorities and at a very opportune time three missionaries departed for the West. Issachar Bates, Benjamin Seth Youngs  and John Meacham were eminently qualified for their mission, possessing a neat appearance and possessed a  great boldness in their faith.    They left on the morning of January 1, 1805 and after traveling on foot a distance of 1233 miles they arrived at the residence of Malcolm Morley at Turtle Creek, Union Village, Ohio, on March 22, 1805. 

The fiery spirit of Shaker “camp meetings”   laid the foundation for a new community, 22 miles north of Turtle Creek , along the waters of the Beaver Creek, six miles southeast of Dayton.

Tis the gift to be simple, Tis the gift to be free

Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, 

And when we find ourselves in the place just right

Twill be in the Valley of love and delight

                                                              ……… Shaker Dancing Prayer

The site of the Shaker Village of Watervliet, Ohio in 1806 to 1900, is on land in Kettering, Montgomery County, and Beavercreek Township, Greene County Ohio. It was the second of four major Shaker settlements in Ohio in the 1800’s. Watervliet is 6 miles east of Dayton and was named in honor of the first Shaker settlement New York in 1776. 

John Patterson was among the first Dayton area settlers in 1799 and deeded some of his land for Watervliet in 1811. John Patterson, called "Shaker John" to distinguih him from  adjoining acreage was given to the group from John Houston the first Shaker convert from the area.   

The shaker land was on both sides of the Beavercreek and eventually totaled over 800 acres of very fertile soil with 643 acres in Montgomery county and 160 acres in Greene County currently the Bergamo Center. 

The new settlement of Watervliet, by the mid-1800s had approximately 100 members. In addition to the three communal family dwellings there was a meeting house, the Miller’s house, the tannery barn, the office for the salt and grist mills,  a print shop,  a yarn factory and the prime industry was the making of all stockings.  Other income came from the sale of garden seed, printed material, small wooden wears and produce that was sold at the Dayton Market House.

After the Civil War, because of mounting debts at Union Village, Elder Joseph Singerland abruptly closed the Shaker settlement and Watervliet, Ohio and all of the residents were moved to the Union Village Shaker settlement in Lebanon, Ohio.  The buildings and land left behind, became a farm for a nearby mental health facility known simply as the “state farm”. In 1981 the land was deeded to the Miami Valley Research Park of Kettering Ohio.

Although the Shakers and Watervliet village are only memories now , they left behind a vast wealth of inspiration to the new generations of Dayton, and more specifically to Belmont. Some of the family names have been part of everyday life and live in silent honor.

Do you know these names?  Pelham, McNemar, and Eastwood ….. they are just some of the names in Belmont’s rich history.  .

It was under the direction of Richard Pelham in the 1840s that wool mills were established, producing a good income for the community.

 In the 1830s Richard McNemar came from Union Village as elder for Watervliet.  A print shop was organized, and extensive Shaker printing was produced at Watervliet by McNemar.

Moses Eastwood went on peddling trips selling stocking yarn when he was not tending his orchards and gardens.