Nor must it
be forgotten that the Shakers still, with great good sense, teach each
boy and girl a trade, so as to fit them for earning a living.
_Pleasant Hill._
The Pleasant Hill Society lies in Mercer County, seven miles from
Harrodsburg, on the stage road to Nicholasville, and near the Kentucky
River, which here presents some grand and magnificent scenery, deserving
to be better known.
They have a fine estate of rich land, lying in the midst of the famous
blue-grass region of Kentucky. It consists of four thousand two hundred
acres, all in one body. They have five families; but the three Church
families have their property in common. In 1820 they had eight families,
and between 1820 and 1825 they had about four hundred and ninety
members. At present the society numbers two hundred and forty-five
persons, of whom seventy-five are children or youth under twenty-one.
About one third are males and two thirds females.
Pleasant Hill was founded in 1805, and "gathered into society order" in
1809; at which time community of goods was established.
The members are mostly Americans, but they have in one family a good
many Swedes. These are the remnant of a large number whom the society
brought out a number of years ago at its own expense, in the hope that
they would become good Shakers.
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