Whitewater Shaker Settlement
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Whitewater Shaker Settlement
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Meeting house at the settlement
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| Nearest city | New Haven, Ohio |
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| Coordinates | 39°17′40″N 84°44′34″W / 39.29444°N 84.74278°WCoordinates: 39°17′40″N 84°44′34″W / 39.29444°N 84.74278°W |
| Area | 384 acres (155 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 74001518 |
| Added to NRHP | January 21, 1974 |
The Whitewater Shaker Settlement (also known as White Water Shaker Village) is a former Shaker settlement near New Haven in Crosby Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Established in 1824 and closed in 1916, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as a historic district.
The origins of Whitewater trace back to a small group of settlers in southern Butler County, Ohio, who gathered together as Shakers in 1822, possibly earlier. In 1823, the members of three prominent Butler County families joined, and this community (which had no formal name) moved to a larger farm. Undoubtedly at the urging of an early convert, Miriam Agnew, the Union Village ministry increased its spiritual and material support for Whitewater, culminating in the first purchase of land for White Water by Union Village trustees in 1824. The newly gathered Believers were joined in 1824 by the Darby Plain Shakers, whose former New Light and Farnhamite preacher, Nathan Burlingame, was the first to arrive at White Water from that abandoned central Ohio community.
The first years were difficult because their few acres were forested and poor for farming. Noting the deprivations of the group, Calvin Morrell wrote later at Union Village, "It was Lent with them nearly all year round." In 1825, however, the Shakers were able to purchase 215 acres (0.87 km2) of good land for a mill seat on the Dry Fork of the Whitewater River, and the new community moved again to the site of the White Water North Family. Union Village brethren arrived in 1826 to help establish the family. The brick Meeting House was completed in 1827, the same year that the Shakers' sawmill on the Dry Fork commenced operations. That year membership swelled when West Union was dissolved. In 1835 there were 42 females and 35 males, including children, in spite of defections during years just past.
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