Whittemore Tavern and the Shakers
New Ipswich Historical Society
About the year 1784. a number of New Ipswich citizens gave credence to the divine mission of Mother Ann Lee the leader of the sect of Shakers. The leading man among the followers was Amos Whittemore who lived at the foot of Whittemore Hill. At his house their meetings were held .
They would assemble forty or fifty from New Ipswich and neighboring towns. As described in the Augustus Addison Gould History of New Ipswich their religious services must have interesting:
"Their exercises consisted of furious and long-continued whirling and dancing, exceeding in this respect anything in the annals of savage war-dances; they were performed with half naked bodies, and attended with singing, shouting and shrieking which could be heard for miles; and in short they resembled drunken bacchanals or raving wild beasts rather than rational beings." (Page 190)
After a year or two the Shakers moved to Harvard. Amos remained with them for a while but eventually returned to New Ipswich with Sarah his young daughter. He believed she possessed supernatural powers. Exerted upon his cattle and other subjects. When she died she was placed in a box of rough boards and denied the common rites of burial.
There is also a mention of witchcraft in the Augustus Addison Gould History of New Ipswich related to the group that would gather at the Whittemore House:
"There were several other dames who enjoyed the unenviable reputation of being witches. One especially, with her high cap, bible and yardstick, which she usually carried with her, and which regarded as her talisman, was looked upon with superstitious awe, not only by the youth of the neighborhood, but by some of the most pious and venerable men and women too. It was gravely asserted by a most excellent deacon, that on attacking a cat in his barn, with a pitchfork, it was suddenly turned into a human hand; another worthy man asserted that a cat came into the sawmill and placed her paw on the saw while in motion and instantly stopped it." (Page 191)
On this day - June 15, 1908
James Roger diary entry
15th (Monday)
Cloudy and warm. But no rain I trimmed lots in forenoon and Jim and me put in a row of peas and cleaned up garden. David finished at Club House today. He took Hamish to Greenville in morning.
I know the house well. Thanks for featuring it. Concerning Shakers, I had a close friend and academic colleague, Helen Upton who is known for her book The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984)., who made an annual trip to Canterbury, NH. Her house in Brunswick, NY was one occupied by Shakers and most of the furniture in it was Shaker. She slept on a Shaker rope bed & straw mattress. She died in 1993 and her estate sale brought in $4 million not counting the many pieces willed to the Shaker museum in Hancock, NY. Her dining room table was worth $100,000 in 1993, yet she drove simple VW Jetta, manual shift and handcranked windows. Friday afternoons Helen and I would talk history over a glass of Taylor Cream Sherry. I inherited her Jetta, drove it for a year and gave to a person that needed a car.
Witches in New Ipswich?! That's hard to believe.