Most of those who came in
as adults were farmers. They are long-lived--living to beyond seventy
in a considerable number of cases.
They eat meat, drink tea and coffee, and some aged members who came in
late in life, with confirmed habits, are allowed to use tobacco. One
sister smokes.
They have a school, and a good miscellaneous library of about four
hundred volumes, in a case in the dwelling-house of the Church Family.
They sing finely, but are opposed to the introduction of musical
instruments. In some of their evening meetings they read aloud, and the
last book thus read was Mr. Seward's "Journey around the World."
They do not adopt as many children as formerly, and experience has
taught them the necessity of knowing something of the parentage of
children, in order to make judicious selections.
"Formerly we had one or two physicians among our members, and then there
was much sickness; now that we have no doctor there is but little
illness, and the health of the society is good."
One of the families is in debt, through an imprudent purchase of land
made by a trustee, without the general knowledge of the society.
Moreover they have suffered severely from fires and by a flood. Once
seven of their buildings were burned down in a night.
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