Living Well 60+ November – December 2014 | Page 24

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NOV/DEC 2014

storage. The Shaker sisters also
had the benefits of machinery for
doing laundry by horse power.
What the Shaker community
brought to worship remains a
key part of reenactments today.
The Shakers were members of
The United Society of Believers
in Christ’s Second Appearance.
Shakers today are mostly known
for their cultural contributions
(especially their style of music
and furniture), celibate and communal lifestyle and their model of
equality of the sexes, which

Shaker Village of Pleasant
Hill
History, culture and warm hospitality
combine for a wonderful visit
by Dr. Tom Miller,
Staff Writer

A treasure trove
of history and an
ideal venue for
understanding the simplicity of
earlier life in Kentucky awaits
visitors to Shaker Village near
Harrodsburg, the former home of
the Pleasant Hill Shakers.
The Kentucky Shakers were
a modest group of farmers who

sought religious freedom and a
simple life in the rolling hills of
Central Kentucky. The Pleasant
Hill community was known for
its excellent livestock. They once
kept about 500 head of wellfed cattle and bred them with
imported cows to improve their
herd’s milk production.
The Shakers’ use of selective
breeding and scientific agriculture
made them unique to Kentucky.
Among their livestock were sheep

from the
Saxony
region
of England. From
these sheep, the women of the
community culled wool, which
they spun and wove into cloth,
garments and simple household
furnishings.
The Shaker men had engineering skills that provided the community with a municipal water
system that preceded similar
systems for the regional towns
and cities. This system provided
pumps in the kitchens for the
sisters’ convenience in cooking,
baking and food preservation.
These early engineers also developed power utilizing a mill that
had an elevator for moving grain
to the upper levels of the barn for

Yellow/ Wildcat Cab
Now offering
wheelchair accessible vans

Since 1934 Yellow/Wildcat Cab has been growing with the community
As always we are looking forward to serving you

they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s.
Pleasant Hill, which had once
had almost 500 members, slowly
dwindled away. The Pleasant Hill
Shaker community was extinct
by 1810. But the village lives on.
Shaker Village offers visitors an
opportunity to “Learn & Grow”
by discovering unique tips about
the garden or the land that they
can use in their own backyard
gardens. Visitors can also visit
the farm where modern organic
SHAKER Continued on Page 31