This was published 7 years ago
Shakers down to two as sect of celibate wood turners loses its 'spiritual centre'
By Jess Bidgood
New York; She arrived at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine, in 1937 as a 10-year-old, and brought a measure of mischief to the regimented life there: She drew other girls into tiny rebellions, like snatching a pail of maple sugar candy from a workshop, and even spit in one of her caregivers' teacups after being punished for passing notes with a friend.
But by the time Sister Frances Ann Carr died of cancer on Monday at 89, she had become a pillar of the Shaker faith, one of three members in the lone active village of the Christian sect whose members have lived communally in the United States since the late 1700s.
Sister Frances Carr, one of three remaining Shakers, has died at the age of 89.Credit: AP
"In the recent decades, Sister Frances has been a kind of image for the power of this tradition," said Stephen J. Stein, a professor emeritus at Indiana University who has written about the history of American Shakers and paid many visits to Sabbathday Lake.
"She lived it, and was the spiritual centre for many, many people who came and visited, and for the community that just shrank."
Sister Frances' death at the village, which was announced by the Shakers, leaves two surviving Shakers: Brother Arnold Hadd, 60, and Sister June Carpenter, 78.
The Shakers, a separatist religious group that practices celibacy, arrived in America in 1774 and established their first religious community in upstate New York in 1776. By the middle of the 19th century, the group had between 4000 and 5000 members, in villages that dotted the Northeast and even extended into parts of the Midwest.
The villages drew Americans in search of spiritual enlightenment and offered a home to children or families with nowhere else to go.
They lived communally, although the genders were usually separated, and adults worked together to raise the village's children.
They were a hardworking and innovative group that used technology (today they use cars and have put their teachings online), and they became known for their simple furniture.
But the Shakers' new recruits declined as American life became less agrarian and religious – and as the rise of social services gave poor children other options – and, of course, members themselves could not reproduce.
The Sabbathday Lake village, a collection of 18 buildings on a picturesque hillside in central Maine, endures.
Sister Frances, who might be seen strolling the grounds in a deep purple traditional dress or singing "Simple Gifts" at the Sunday meeting, was, with others, a driving force behind the revival of the village's commercial herb garden and livestock farm, the educational outreach that has drawn thousands of visitors, and the formation of the Friends of the Shakers, a volunteer and fundraising group that helps to sustain the village.
"There's probably been no other Shaker in history that was such a goodwill ambassador of the Shaker Church as Sister Frances," said Michael Graham, the director of the museum and library there.
Evangeline Annie Carr was born to a poor family in Lewiston, Maine, in March 1927, and was sent by her ailing mother to live at Sabbathday Lake, following some of her older siblings, where she took the name Frances Ann.
Although her siblings left the village, she decided, at 16, to sign the Shaker Covenant and commit herself to the group.
In 1985 she wrote a book, Shaker Your Plate: Of Shaker Cooks and Cooking. Ten years year later she wrote another volume about her childhood, Growing Up Shaker.
She is survived by many nieces and nephews and their children.
Sister Frances, like the other Shakers, always hoped new members would join the community and welcomed visitors. At one Sunday meeting two summers ago, she rose to her feet and beamed as she looked at between one and two dozen visitors.
"It is so gratifying to look around this room and see it filled with so many people," she said.
"You will always, always find a place of love here."
New York Times