Great men visited to learn what they could from our ways. George Washington. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thomas Jefferson wrote of the Shaker faith, “If their principles are maintained and sustained by a practical life, it is destined eventually to overthrow all other religions.” We believed the world was coming undone. War, greed, suffering. Lust. All were signs that the end was near. And yet we gave every bit of ourselves to our work. To the weaving and sewing and washing, to the gardening, the farming, the creation of buildings and bonnets and bottled herbs.
