While the Swedish brother was, in answer to my questions, giving me some
account of himself, to us came Elder Frederick, the head of the North or
Gathering Family at Mount Lebanon, and the most noted of all the
Shakers, because he, oftener than any other, has been sent out into the
world to make known the society's doctrines and practice.
Frederick W. Evans is an Englishman by birth, and was a "reformer" in
the old times, when men in this country strove for "land reform," the
rights of labor, and against the United States Bank and other monopolies
of forty or fifty years ago. He is now sixty-six years of age, but
looks not more than fifty; was brought to this country at the age of
twelve; became a socialist in early life, and, after trying life in
several communities which perished early, at last visited the Shakers at
Mount Lebanon, and after some months of trial and examination, joined
the community, and has remained in it ever since--about forty-five years.
He is both a writer and a speaker; and while not college bred, has
studied and read a good deal, and has such natural abilities as make him
a leader among his people, and a man of force any where. He is a person
of enthusiastic and aggressive temperament, but with a practical and
logical side to his mind, and with a hobby for science as applied to
health, comfort, and the prolongation of life.
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