Mariam McKee (1794-1869)

Mariam McKee was born 2 Feb 1794 in Pennsylvania, daughter of James McKee and Sarah Guess. She was the fourth child of nine, and my son-in-law’s 5th great-grandmother. Her father had supposedly come from County Tyrone, her mother from Wales, but the exact dates of their immigration are not known. Their first known child is born in 1783 in Bullskin Township, PA. But soon they move on, the child after Mariam is born in Butler County, OH.

Mariam married Joseph B. Agnew, whose family had also come from Ireland. They have eight children in ten years (1812-1822). In 1820 they are living in Morgan County, OH; they still there are in 1830, however they are now in a Shaker household of 39 people, Joseph being the head of the household, and so the only one enumerated by name.

The Shakers were an interesting sect. Officially known as  “United Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ,” the movement started in England. Ann Smith, the founder, came to America in 1774, and first settled in Watervliet, near Albany, NY.⁽¹⁾ As they were convinced the second coming was near, they did not believe in marriage or procreation; they lived in communal villages, with men and women separated. Not a great way to sustain a movement.

Miriam and Joseph joined before 1830 (the movement came to Ohio around 1824). It is unclear, how many of their children also lived in the Whitewater Settlement, as it became known.

 

There are quite a few letters known from the family with lots of information about who was where. Joseph’s mother also joined the movement with her second husband. However, Miriam at some point left the movement and divorced her husband (or vice-versa); she and her second husband Providence White are enumerated in Franklin Township, Ripley County, IN in 1850, two doors down from your youngest son William W. Agnew and his family.

I wish I could find them in the 1840 census, but I can find neither Miriam and Providence, nor Joseph Agnew, Sr. (Joseph Agnew, Jr. does show up in 1840 in Ripley County). And as only the head-of-household is listed, they are impossible to find if they are not living with relatives. Joseph is enumerated in 1860 and 1870 in the Shaker Village in Crosby Township. He died there shortly after the census.

This communal living is fascinating to me. While I couldn’t do it (I need my space), I can see the appeal. Whether Shaker, hippie, or kibbutz, being surrounded by like-minded people in a joint endeavor can be incredibly comforting and sustaining. But not everyone can handle it forever; Miriam is an example of that. But while she left the movement, the relationship with her husband, and other relatives who stayed, seems to have been loving, judging from the letters that were exchanged (and generously shared by other researchers)

(1). Shaker Heritage Society. Origin of the Shakers. See also Shaker entry at Wikipedia and Whitewater Shaker Village.