{"id":27931,"date":"2017-12-28T10:41:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T15:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=27931"},"modified":"2017-12-28T10:41:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T15:41:47","slug":"her-story-really-touched-me-shaker-marie-frances-burgess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/her-story-really-touched-me-shaker-marie-frances-burgess.html","title":{"rendered":"Her Story Really Touched Me: Shaker Marie Frances Burgess"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in a previous article, I have many ancestors<\/a> who lived in the small town of New Gloucester, Cumberland County, Maine.<\/p>\n

The anchor photograph for that essay on the Haskell family \u2013 a photo of the old Shaker meetinghouse there in town \u2013 got me to thinking.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Shaker Meetinghouse, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, New Gloucester, Maine. Credit: Gerda Peterich; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, ME,3-SAB,1-1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Digging deeper, I came across a Wikipedia<\/a> article that mentioned that New Gloucester is home to the last active Shaker village in the U.S., the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village:<\/p>\n

\u201cSabbathday Lake Shaker Village was founded in 1783 by the United Society of True Believers at what was then called Thompson\u2019s Pond Plantation. It was formally organized on April 19, 1794. Today, the village is the last of formerly nineteen religious societies, stretching from Maine to Florida, to be operated by the Shakers themselves. It comprises 18 buildings on 1,800 acres (7.3 km2) of land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Wikipedia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: section of Shaker Village, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, from an old postcard. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I know that my 2nd Great-Grandfather Warren D. Huse (1836-1910) married again after his first wife died. He married \u201cGreat-Grammie Tuttle\u201d \u2013 Agnes Eleanor Evans (1872-1965)<\/a> \u2013a Shaker who, along with her parents, was a leader at the Canterbury Shaker Community in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

I wanted to know if I might be related to any of the Shakers in New Gloucester, so I searched GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> for the keyword \u201cSabbathday Lake Shaker Village.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This search led me to a 2001 obituary for one of the world\u2019s last remaining Shakers: Marie Frances Burgess (1920-2001).<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank, State (Columbia, South Carolina), 20 June 2001, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to her obituary:<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Gloucester, Maine \u2013 Sister Marie Frances Burgess, one of the world\u2019s last members of the Shaker sect, has died. She was 81.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe died of natural causes Monday at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, leaving the religious group\u2019s only remaining community with six members.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bingo \u2013 by looking for her on FamilySearch I discovered that Marie Frances Burgess<\/a> is my cousin.<\/p>\n

I did a Google search for her name and found this AP report<\/a> about Marie and the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village that included a YouTube<\/a> video of her making bread and being interviewed. She had joined the Shakers when she was 19 years old and remained active in the faith and community for the next 62 years, until her death.<\/p>\n