The Marvelous Women of Canterbury Shaker Village

Eldress Bertha Lindsay knew the Shaker way of life was coming to an end by the 1960s. It wasn’t ending because she was elderly, but rather the changing times of the world were leaving the old ways in the dust.

Likely Bertha was saddened, yet philosophical by the facts: No potential members were knocking on the door and asking to join the religious group. The truth was, the only way to survive, was to graciously accept the end of the religious group in Canterbury, New Hampshire, and ensure the actual buildings remained to be enjoyed by others into the future.

Bertha Lindsay came to the Shakers as a little girl. It was the early 1900s and Bertha’s parents had passed on. An elder sister arranged to transfer Bertha to the Shakers, knowing they took in orphans and raised them up with kindness.

Resisting this drastic change in her life at the outset, it wasn’t long before Bertha settled down and wrote later that she felt she had come home. The adult Sisters were kind to Bertha and that made the transition to her permanent home much easier.

It was indeed her home, and she lived the rest of her life, from childhood until she died in 1990, at Canterbury Shaker Village. According to information in Simple Gifts A Memoir of a Shaker Village by June Sprigg, once she reached the age of 21, Bertha had the choice to leave the Shakers and go into the world, but she decided to stay.

Bertha signed the Covenant and stepped into a life of meaning and commitment to God. Becoming a Shaker meant no spouse (the Shakers were a celibate sector), and no children, but those who joined the Shaker religion did so knowing the sacrifices as well as the gains.

Bertha was among the many outstanding and talented women who became Shaker Sisters. In her older years, Bertha was elevated to Eldress, one of the highest-ranking positions in the Society. Although she held power, kind-hearted Bertha was modest and never saw herself as above her fellow Shakers.

Over the years the community was thriving, the Shaker women shared their talents in cooking healthful and delicious meals, gardening, keeping the rooms of the big buildings spotless, raising the orphaned children that came into their care with compassion, and pursuing hobbies such as photography, herbal cures, painting, fiber work, and much more.

Bertha’s close friend, Sister Bertha Lillian Phelps, arrived at Canterbury Shaker Village in the latter part of the 19th century. Lillian was from a Boston family and was encouraged to pursue music from a young age. When illness overcame her as a teenager, Lillian’s parents decided a summer at Canterbury Shaker Village to rest and recover would be just the thing. They had no idea they were changing the course of their daughter’s life. At just 16 years of age, she chose to join the Shakers and stayed with them.

At some point, Lillian and Bertha crossed paths at Shaker Village and became lifelong friends. Each had special talents. Bertha excelled at baking bread and was elevated to head baker and cook, feeding the many Shakers who were at one time part of the Society. Much later in life, Bertha put her recipes into a popular cookbook, Seasoned with Grace: Recipes from My Generation of Shaker Cooking, (with forward by Mary Rose Boswell). Lillian was a talented musician, playing the piano at many Shaker services.

As a loving community, the Shakers welcomed everyone and were accepting of differences. According to A Shaker Family Album by David R. Starbuck and Scott T. Swank, in 1895, Edith M. Green was admitted to the North Family of the Canterbury Shakers.

Edith was of mixed racial heritage and her father was a sailor from St. Thomas in the Dutch West Indies. Her mother was from Maine. Edith lived with the Canterbury Shakers and signed the Covenant in 1914. She stayed with the community the rest of her life and found peace among the Shakers where skin color meant little and being a good person meant everything.

Like many of the Shaker women, Edith brought her talents to the community. She was put in charge of the Shaker Creamery and canned a great deal of the food consumed by the Shakers. Edith passed away in 1951.

The Shakers seemed to be able to do just about anything and used their skills to make such items as poplarware and oval-shaped boxes. Both sold well in the Canterbury Shaker gift shop and are desired by collectors even today.

A beloved and independent Shaker was Gertrude Soule, one of whom relocated from the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community in the 1960s. She loved children and talking about the Shakers, and she remained at Canterbury until she died in 1988. As talented as many of the other Shakers, Sister Gertrude was a dab hand at knitting and gardening, although she was not much of a cook.

Sister Marguerite Frost was born in Massachusetts and arrived at Canterbury Shaker Village in 1903 when she was 11 years of age. A serious and studious child, she embraced religion and by the time she was in her 20s, Sister Marguerite was the assistant teacher in the Shaker school. Amazingly, she also served at Canterbury Shaker Village as the community’s doctor in the 1940s. She was interested in herbal cures and wrote about the use of such herbs in medicine. Her talents were also musical, and she led a band in the community playing the saxophone, as she loved the old Shaker songs.

Due to her skills and upstanding work in the community, Marguerite was appointed Lead Minister of the United Society and served as such until she died in 1971. Similar to Eldress Bertha, Sister Marguerite likely saw village membership dwindle, and was active in the creation of the Canterbury Shaker Village Museum, which now offers programs and tours to the public.

Over the decades, the many women who came to call Canterbury Shaker Village home brought unique talents and backgrounds with them. Some were artists, writers, or teachers while others were musicians, photographers, chefs, or dabbled in medicine. Whatever their talents, the marvelous women of Canterbury Shaker Village shared their gifts with the community and in turn, with the outside world.

For a schedule of seasonal events and tours at Canterbury Shaker Village, visit www.shakers.org. or call 603-783-9511.

Photo: Eldress Bertha Lindsay among flowers at Canterbury Shaker Village. (photographer: Charles “Bud” Thompson; courtesy Canterbury Shaker Village)

Weird Stuff In Lakes Region Towns and Villages

There was a community with a wealthy resident who peppered the area with war monuments and created an impressive arch as his final resting place; a lakeside area where it is said a giant of a Native American man once rested and even a tiny Lake Winnipesaukee island named for a young lady.

These stories are (mostly) fact while a few may be fiction, but there is no doubt some Lakes Region towns have interesting stories and plenty of “weird” things to entertain.

Should you travel through Melvin Village on Rt. 109 near the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, you will see the Melvin Village Community Church. The pretty building has been there for years, but long before it was around, a discovery took place in about 1808 or 1809. At that time, a group of men were digging a pathway to Lake Winnipesaukee near the Melvin River. They came across a grave with a male skeleton. The man was about 7 ft. tall, and it was surmised he was Native American. Thus began the mystery of the grave by the lake; no one could tell how long he had been buried there or his name. 

According to town historian, Mary Hunter, “There are two stories: the first was that the Indian was found buried in a sitting position, looking out over the lake. The other story is that he was encapsulated in stone. I like to think he was sitting, gazing over the lake. I also think he was likely a person of some distinction; due to his height and the place he was buried.”

Over the years, as the area of Melvin Village/Tuftonboro grew, in 1834 a cemetery was added in back of the church. Years went by but the story of the Grave by the Lake was not forgotten.

The story became a legend and after the Civil War, well-known poet John Greenleaf Whittier summered in nearby Center Harbor. He heard the story of the 7 ft. tall Indian and was inspired to write a poem about him and the discovery of his body. The poem was called The Grave by the Lake, and it is likely this that gave greater exposure to the legend.

Fast forward to the 1950s, when the story caught the attention of Harold Ley. A resident of the Bald Peak homes near the golf club/course in Moultonborough, Ley saw the potential for tourism in the area and he was interested in helping attract visitors. 

Ley bought and paid for a stone marker which was placed at a corner of the graveyard by the church. Ley also ordered and had placed by the road in front of the church, a bronze silhouette/sign of an Indian. It is an attractive piece, featuring an Indian in feathered headdress. He is shooting an arrow, and the image has an aura of strength and beauty.

 Perhaps Ley surmised a memorial to the Grave by the Lake and the unnamed native person would be of interest to tourists, or maybe he was simply intrigued by the story.

There was a dedication ceremony when the marker was placed in the summer of 1955, and it was a big deal event. At the ceremony, New Hampshire Governor Lane Dwinell and his wife attended, as well as other local and state officials. A group of young men from the nearby caddy camp at Bald Peak Colony Club put on a skit. To add to the drama, they arrived by canoe from the Melvin Village river. Also at the dedication was an Abenaki Indian chief who traveled from Canada to be there.

It is up to each person who hears the history to decide for themselves if, long ago, a native man was buried overlooking Winnipesaukee, or if it is just a story. Many people like to think the man in the Grave by the Lake was someone special to his tribe. One local person surmised, “I imagine him buried sitting up and looking out over the lake; what could be better than that? I believe he was a man of importance.”

There is no way to know how long the grave of the man was around, undisturbed until the early 1800s. Perhaps it was hundreds of years before the grave was found. There also is no way to know if the man was a leader among his people, or what tribal community and area he called home.

The questions are many, with no real and solid answers except the belief that a man who once lived and probably loved the area, made use of Lake Winnipesaukee for water, food and travel. We don’t know his name, or when he was born or how he died. 

We know only that if not for him, there would be no Grave by the Lake. He has captured our imagination and will continue to do so for years to come.

If you own a boat or take a boat ride with a friend in the summertime, you might spot a tiny (and it is truly tiny) island on the lake. There is an equally tiny house on the rocky island known as Becky’s Garden.

The tale and the island home/garden came about many, many years ago. At one time land was ripe for picking in the Lakes Region – even the hard-to-access lake islands - were free for the taking. A young woman named Becky lived with her family in the area and while her father probably had no claim to the land, he offered Becky an island as a token versus actually owning some of the Winnipesaukee islands.

But Becky’s spoiled sisters wanted a matching gift from their father and made their displeasure known. After finally relenting to their insistence on owning an island apiece, Becky’s father gave his favorite daughter the first pick. This did not sit well with her sisters, and kindhearted Becky chose the smallest of Winnipesaukee’s islands. Her choice was no more than a rock jutting from the lake.

The story has a happy ending because a wealthy young man who had a prosperous farm heard the tale of Becky and her garden/island. He wanted to meet unselfish Becky, and when he did so, he found her to be beautiful and sweet. After wooing her, they were married. The moral of the little story is that an unselfish act and a kind heart, in the long run, can have positive results. Becky’s Island might be small, but it belonged to a woman with a big heart. Becky’s Garden Island is adorned with a mini house that offers every detail including a flagpole with an American flag.

Millionaire Charles Elliott Tilton created an ornate mansion overlooking the town of Tilton. The mansion was built in 1864 and had three stories. Charles Tilton was wealthy and well known; he hosted Civil War generals William Tecumseh Sherman and President Benjamin Harrison at his majestic home.

Charles Tilton made his fortune in the Gold Rush as a supplier of the tools the miners needed to search for gold. As his fortune increased, Tilton bought land, got into banking and invested in the railroad. He was born in New Hampshire and returned after making his fortune. The village of Tilton was named for Charles.

Tilton used his money and influence to erect many statues in the town. Some of the statues were, Asia, a delicate white stone work of art; a large granite stone base upon which a statue of a soldier stands; Chief Squantum, a statue of a powerful looking Native American chief; America, the statue that seems to survey everything going on in Tilton; and Europe, a sort of welcome-to-town statue near the entrance to Tilton Island Park.

No tour of the statues and the town is complete without mention of the Memorial Arch of Tilton. The hulking Arch sitting high upon a hill seems to tower over the area and is reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Charles Tilton commissioned, in 1882, the Arch in memory of his ancestors who had helped settle the town. The arch was modeled on the Arch of Titus in Rome, according to www.wikipedia.org. At 55 feet high by 40 feet wide (according to www.tiltonnh.org), the stone arch is eye catching, even more so because Charles had an idea that it would be the site of his final resting place.

Charles had a huge stone mausoleum built just under the Arch for this purpose. He supposedly saw the monument in Rome when visiting there in around 1880 and got the idea to construct a similar structure in his hometown.

However, the Arch was actually built on land in Northfield, the village next to Tilton. Some hoped Northfield would eventually become part of Tilton, but the plan never came to fruition; Northfield remained a separate town and did not become part of Tilton. Charles chose not to be buried in Northfield.

Alton Bay has a long history of catering to vacationers. Kids must have loved Alton Bay, with water and boating fun and a reptile-friendly museum. Vacationers, however, probably never expected to see a reptile zoo in Alton Bay! The museum had living reptiles, animals and curios.

But the biggest attraction was probably “Maggie the Baby Chimpanzee”. Kids could watch the chimp ride a bicycle before going to see the snakes, lizards, turtles, and even the Bird Eating Spider! Open all day and into the evening during busy summers, admission was 20 cents per adult and 15 cents for each child.

Today the museum is gone but the memory of all the reptile museum offered remains in the minds of those who once vacationed in Alton Bay.