Whitewater Shaker Settlement

About this property

The Whitewater Shaker Settlement (also known as White Water Shaker Village) is a former Shaker settlement near New Haven in Crosby Township, Ohio, United States. Established in 1824 and closed in 1916, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as a historic district. The origins of White Water trace back to a small group of settlers in southern Butler County, Ohio, who gathered together as Shakers in 1822, possibly earlier. In 1823, the members of three prominent Butler County families joined, and this community (which had no formal name) moved to a larger farm. Undoubtedly at the urging of an early convert, Miriam Agnew, the Union Village ministry increased its spiritual and material support for White Water, culminating in the first purchase of land for White Water by Union Village trustees in 1824. The newly gathered Believers were joined in 1824 by the Darby Plain Shakers, whose former New Light and Farnhamite preacher, Nathan Burlingame, was the first to arrive at White Water from that abandoned central Ohio community. The first years were difficult because their few acres were forested and poor for farming. Noting the deprivations of the group, Calvin Morrell wrote later at Union Village, "It was Lent with them nearly all year round." In 1825, however, the Shakers were able to purchase 215 acres (0.87 km2) of good land for a mill seat on the Dry Fork of the Whitewater River, and the new community moved again to the site of the White Water North Family. Union Village brethren arrived in 1826 to help establish the family. The brick Meeting House was completed in 1827, the same year that the Shakers' sawmill on the Dry Fork commenced operations. That year membership swelled when West Union was dissolved. In 1835 there were 42 females and 35 males, including children, in spite of defections during years just past. During this time the White Water Shakers established a cemetery located between the South and Center Families. The upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery is now the responsibility of Crosby Township. Another group that added to the ranks of the White Water Shakers were followers of William Miller. He predicted the exact moment in April 1844 for Christ's Second Coming. People wound up their earthly affairs, dressed in ascension robes, and waited. Miller set another date six months later, but that final judgment day passed, too. His disappointed followers, the Millerites or Second Adventists, were courted by the Shakers who convinced the Millerites that the Shakers had already experienced the Second Coming in a spiritual sense.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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