Union Village Shaker settlement

The signers, separated according to sex, included these brethren: David Darrow, Daniel Mosely, Solomon King, Peter Pease, Archibald Meacham, Benjamin Seth Youngs, Issachar Bates, Elisha Dennis, Barachah Dennis, Ross Morrell, James Hodges, Nathan Sharp, Henry Morrell, John Carson, and Joseph Lockwood.

Every bishopric's ministry was supposed to oversee the Shaker societies under their jurisdiction and keep an eye on the leaders of all the families, but this system did not always work as intended (see Joseph Slingerland, below).

From 1812 to 1821, David Darrow and his assistant Solomon King were the Ohio bishopric elders, serving with Ruth Farrington and Racel Johnson,[5] In 1830, the Ohio bishopric ministry included Solomon King and his assistant Joshua Worley on the brethren's side, and Rachel Johnson and Nancy McNemar on the sisters' side.

[14] In 1818, Union Village was one of the largest Shaker settlements, with a population over 600, but by the 1830s there was a significant reduction in adult membership,[15] which was exacerbated in 1838 and 1839 due to strife among the members over ideological differences and accusations during the early years of Mother Ann's Work, also called the Era of Manifestations.

Even so, by the 1870s the community did not have enough adult members to do the work required to support the village's farms and industries which included broom making, garden seeds, medicinal herbs and extracts.

He spent about $500,000 on property purchases, improvements, and renovations, including building an ornate trustees' Office, now called Marble Hall.

In December 2004, United States Senator from Ohio, Rob Portman, and Cheryl Bauer published a book on the 19th century Shaker community at Union Village.

At the end of the twelfth chapter, "An Eternal Sabbath, A Restless Peace," Portman summarizes the dual aspects of Shaker impacts at the close of their way of life at Union Village as both warming to mainstream worldly culture and detrimental to long established order: Intentionally or unintentionally, the Believers were influencing society in many ways.

The Believers were no longer the radical group that attracted people who hungered for a different kind of faith; they were becoming a part of mainstream society.