The members are mainly Americans, but they have some Scotch, Germans,
and Welsh. A considerable proportion of the present membership came in
as adults, and these were, before becoming Shakers, for the most part
Adventists, some however coming from the Baptist and Methodist
denominations. The elder of the Gathering Family was a Baptist, and the
leading minister was an English Wesleyan. The people are mostly in
middle life. The health of this society has always been good; the
_average_ age at death, I was assured, ranged for a great number of
years between sixty to sixty-eight. One sister died at ninety-three, and
other members died at from eighty to eighty-six.
Their home farm consists of about eighteen hundred acres; and they have
besides a farm in Michigan, and another in Massachusetts. Their living
is made almost entirely by farming; and they have drained very
thoroughly a considerable piece of swamp, which yields them large crops
of hay. They make brooms, have a nursery, and press and put up herbs;
and employ sixteen or seventeen hired laborers.
They have a small library, but "do not let books interfere with work;"
there is a school, but no musical instrument; most of the people eat
meat, and drink tea and coffee; and a few are indulged in the practice
of chewing tobacco.
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