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Shaker Communities
The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, the Shakers left that country for the English colonies in North America in 1774. As they gained converts, the Shakers established numerous communities in the late-18th century through the entire 19th century. The first villages organized in Upstate New York and the New England states, and, through Shaker missionary efforts, Shaker communities appeared in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern states. Communities of Shakers were governed by area bishoprics and within the communities individuals were grouped into "family" units and worked together to manage daily activities. By 1836 eighteen major, long-term societies were founded, comprising some sixty families, along with a failed commune in Indiana. Many smaller, short-lived communities were established over the course of the 19th century, including two failed ventures into ...
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South Family Building, Harvard Shaker Village MA
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz'' ("south"), possibly related to the same Proto-Indo-European root that the word ''sun'' derived from. Some languages describe south in the same way, from the fact that it is the direction of the sun at noon (in the Northern Hemisphere), like Latin meridies 'noon, south' (from medius 'middle' + dies 'day', cf English meridional), while others describe south as the right-hand side of the rising sun, like Biblical Hebrew תֵּימָן teiman 'south' from יָמִין yamin 'right', Aramaic תַּימנַא taymna from יָמִין yamin 'right' and Syriac ܬܰܝܡܢܳܐ taymna from ܝܰܡܝܺܢܳܐ yamina (hence the name of Yemen, the land to the south/right of the Levant). Navigation By convention, the ''bottom or down-facing side'' of a ...
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Watervliet (town), New York
Watervliet ( or ) was a town that at its height encompassed most of present-day Albany County and most of the current town of Niskayuna in neighboring Schenectady County, in the state of New York, United States. Just prior to its dissolution, the town encompassed the current towns of Colonie and Green Island and the city of Watervliet. History On March 7, 1788, the state of New York divided the entire state into towns, eliminating districts as administrative units by passing New York Laws of 1788, Chapters 63 and 64. This transformed the Western District of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck into the town of Watervliet. In the census of 1790, the town had a population of 7,419, which made it twice as populous as the city of Albany. The European settlement of Watervliet predated the creation of the town by almost 200 years. Fort Nassau on Castle Island was built by Dutch colonists in 1614 within the original boundaries of the town. It passed to the town of Bethlehem upon its c ...
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Harvard, Massachusetts
Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several non-traditional communities, such as Harvard Shaker Village and the utopian transcendentalist center Fruitlands. It is also home to St. Benedict Abbey, a traditional Catholic monastery. It is a residential town noted for its public schools, with its students ranking high in the state's English and math examinations. The population was 6,851 at the 2020 census. The official seal of the town depicts the old town public library on The Common prior to renovations that removed the front steps. History Europeans first settled in what later became Harvard in the 17th century, along a road connecting Lancaster with Groton that was formally laid out in 1658. There were few inhabitants until after King Philip's War, in which Groton and Lancas ...
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Ashfield, Massachusetts
Ashfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,695 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Ashfield was first settled in 1743 and was officially incorporated in 1765. The town was originally called "Huntstown" for Captain Ephraim Hunt, who died in King William's War, and who had inherited the land as payment for his services. The first permanent settlement was in 1745, by Richard Ellis, an Irish immigrant from the town of Easton. The town was renamed upon reincorporation, although there is debate over its namesake; it is either for the ash trees in the area, or because Governor Bernard had friends in Ashfield, England. The town had a small peppermint industry in the nineteenth century, but for the most part the town has had a mostly agrarian economy, with some tourism around Ashfield Lake. Ashfield is the birthplace of prominent director Cecil B. DeMille (whose paren ...
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Richmond, Massachusetts
Richmond is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,407 at the 2020 census. History Present day Richmond was first settled by Micah Mudge and Ichabod Wood in 1759. Mudge migrated up to Richmond from Connecticut via the Housatonic River, while Wood came from Rehoboth on the eastern seaboard. It is thought that the two did not make contact until after the first winter, as their initial settlements were separated by about three miles of dense wilderness. By 1762, as settlers continued to migrate to the area, Massachusetts was putting pressure on committees to organize all unmarked land into townships. Under The Act of 1762, the land encompassing present day Richmond, MA and Lenox, MA was purchased from two Indian Sachems named Yokun and Ephraim. Two distinct villages began to form, separated by the six-mile mountain ridge known today as Yokun Ridge—Yokuntown to the ea ...
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Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield’s population was 43,927 at the 2020 census. Although its population has declined in recent decades, Pittsfield remains the third-largest municipality in Western Massachusetts, behind only Springfield and Chicopee. In 2017, the Arts Vibrancy Index compiled by the National Center for Arts Research ranked Pittsfield and Berkshire County as the number-one, medium-sized community in the nation for the arts. History The Mohicans, an Algonquian people, inhabited Pittsfield and the surrounding area until the early 1700s, when the population was greatly reduced by war and disease, and many migrated westward or lived quietly on the fringes of society. In 1738, a wealthy Bostonian named Col. Jacob Wendell bought of land known originally as "P ...
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Hancock County, Indiana
Hancock County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. The 2020 United States Census recorded a population of 79,840. The county seat is Greenfield. Hancock County is included in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area Geography The terrain of Hancock County is low rolling hills, sloping to the south and southwest, carved by drainages. All available area is devoted to agriculture or urban development. The highest point is a small prominence in NW Shirley, at 1,040' (317m) ASL. According to the 2010 census, the county has a total area of , of which (or 99.67%) is land and (or 0.33%) is water. Adjacent counties * Madison County - north * Henry County - east * Rush County - southeast * Shelby County - south * Marion County - west * Hamilton County - northwest Major highways * Interstate 70 * U.S. Route 36 * U.S. Route 40 * U.S. Route 52 * State Road 9 * State Road 13 * State Road 67 * State Road 109 * State Road 234 * Sta ...
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Canaan, New York
Canaan is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Columbia County, New York, Columbia County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,570 at the 2020 census, down from 1,710 at the 2010 census. The town is in the northeastern part of the county. History The first settlers arrived around 1759. The town was founded in 1772 as "Kings District". The name was changed to "Canaan" in 1788. One of the oldest sections of Canaan is Frisbie Street, settled in 1770 by Gideon Frisbie, an immigrant from Canaan, Connecticut. Frisbie Street fronts what was once the Albany, New York, Albany-Boston stagecoach route. At approximately 1 p.m. (EDT) on August 28, 1973, an F4 tornado touched down in Canaan and moved in a south-southeast direction across the Massachusetts state line into the town of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It caused significant damage to the Berkshire Farm for Boys in Canaan then “obliterated” nearly every house in its path in West St ...
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New Lebanon, New York
New Lebanon is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States, southeast of Albany. In 1910, 1,378 people lived in New Lebanon. The population was 2,305 at the 2010 census. The town of New Lebanon is in the northeastern corner of Columbia County. The center of town is at the intersection of U.S. Route 20 and New York State Route 22. History New Lebanon was formed from the town of Canaan in 1818. New Lebanon was the main spiritual home of the Shakers. The Mount Lebanon Shaker Society had 609 members in 1864. The most historic structures now belong to the Shaker Museum , Mount Lebanon. Some of the other surviving buildings are home to the Darrow School. Still others have been converted into a Sufi retreat center called the Abode of the Message. The latter is the former residence of Vilayat Inayat Khan, and is now the home of the current Pir of the Inayati Order, Zia Inayat Khan. In addition to the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, the Church of Our Saviour, Donnelly Hous ...
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Watervliet Shaker Historic District
Watervliet Shaker Historic District, in Colonie, New York, is the site of the first Shaker community. It was established in 1776. The primary Shaker community, the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, was started a bit later. Watervliet's historic 1848 Shaker meetinghouse has been restored and is used for public events, such as concerts. The founder of the Shakers, Mother Ann Lee, is buried here.Landmarks of American women's history, Chapter: Watervliet Shaker Historic District, Page Putnam Miller, Oxford University Press US, 2003, pp. 36 ff. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and the listing was expanded later in the same year. Albany International Airport was constructed on the community's herb garden. At the time it was founded it was located in the Town of Watervliet, which went out of existence in 1896. Since then it has been in the Town of Colonie, not even close to the boundary of the modern City of Watervliet. Community The Shakers, who b ...
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Niskayuna, New York
Niskayuna is a town in Schenectady County, New York, United States. The population was 23,278 at the 2020 census. The town is located in the southeast part of the county, east of the city of Schenectady, and is the easternmost town in the county. The current Town Supervisor is Jaime Puccioni. History The Town of Niskayuna was created on March 7, 1809, from the town of Watervliet, with an initial population of 681. The name of town was derived from early patents to Dutch settlers: ''Nis-ti-go-wo-ne'' or ''Co-nis-tig-i-one'', both derived from the Mohawk language. The 19th-century historians Howell and Munsell mistakenly identified Conistigione as an Indian tribe, but they were a band of Mohawk people known by the term for this location. The original meaning of the words translate roughly as "extensive corn flats", as the Mohawk for centuries cultivated maize fields in the fertile bottomlands along today's Mohawk River.
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Watervliet, New York
Watervliet ( or ) is a City (New York), city in Albany County, New York, Albany County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The population was 10,375 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Watervliet is north of Albany, New York, Albany, the capital city, capital of the state, and is bordered on the north, west, and south by the Town (New York), town of Colonie, New York, Colonie. The city is also known as "the Arsenal City". History The explorer Henry Hudson arrived in the area of Watervliet around 1609. The area was first settled in 1643 as part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Rensselaerswyck patroonship, under the direction of Kiliaen van Rensselaer (Dutch merchant), Kiliaen van Rensselaer. In 1710, Derrick van der Heyden operated a ferry from the Bleeker Farm (near 16th Street) across the Hudson River to Troy. Troops during the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War used this ferry in 1777 on their way to Bemis Heights and Stillwater, New Y ...
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