They used to make wooden ware. Their dairy brought them
in $2300 last year. They employ nine hired men.
The buildings of this society are not in as neat order as those of
Groveland or others eastward. I missed the thorough covering of paint,
and the neatness of shops. They have no steam laundry, and make no
provision for baths. But they have the usual number of "shops," among
them an infirmary, or in Shaker language a "nurse-shop." They have a
small library, and take two daily newspapers, the New York _World_
and _Sun_. They read the Bible "when they have a gift for it," but
depend much upon their own revelations from the spirit-land.
They owe no debts, and have a fund at interest. They make a detailed
annual report to the presiding ministry. They have never suffered
serious loss from mismanagement and defaulting agents or trustees.
_Watervliet and Whitewater_.
The two societies of Watervliet and Whitewater, in Ohio, I did not
visit. They are small, and subordinate to that of Union Village.
The society at Watervliet has two families, containing fifty-five
members, of whom nineteen are males and thirty-six females; and seven
are under twenty-one. They own thirteen hundred acres of land, much of
which they let to tenants.
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