Comments

Originally published in ,Communal Societies, Volume 14 (1994), pp. 113-122. Communal Societies is published by the Communal Studies Association. Image used with permission of the Kentucky Library and Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Abstract

On a January day in 1817 three men rode from South Union, Kentucky to a place in nearby Warren County called "the point." From the bluff above the creek, they could see the meandering waterway, fertile bottomlands, abundant timber, and the promise of a prosperous new enterprise. Seventeen days later they purchased the site and 300 surrounding acres. They represented the religious society known as the Shakers. With the Drakes Creek procurement, the main community’s South Union leaders planned to establish an outlying farm and operate a gristmill and a sawmill in Warren County.

Disciplines

History | Religion

drakescreek.jpg (186 kB)
1818 map shows the location of both the Shakers' Drakes Creek mill (middle right, designated with an arrow) and Shakertown in Logan County (left). (Kentucky Library and Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky)

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