Many of my ancestors came to the New World seeking religious freedom. Many were Reformed Protestants—Huguenots, Puritans, Presbyterians, and Dutch and German Reformed. These so-called Calvinists, whose roots trace back to the teachings of John Calvin, held a dim view of human nature and mistrusted concentrated power in the hands of kings and bishops. Instead, they believed in leadership by representatives chosen by their congregations. These ideals would later help inspire the American Revolution and shape American governance.
Other ancestors were shaped by the evangelical movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some early immigrants were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), products of the Evangelical Awakening in Britain (paralleling the First Great Awakening in the colonies), and were among the founders of William Penn’s colony in Pennsylvania. Others, especially those who moved westward, away from established churches with highly educated clergy, were drawn in by the circuit riders of the Second Great Awakening—Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. In fact, my ancestor John Jay Fast, during his moves from Ohio to Illinois to Missouri, became a founding member of the Free Will Baptist Church in Barton County.
One of the more surprising turns in our family’s religious story is our connection to the Shaker movement. Formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, the Shakers were founded in England in 1747 by Ann Lee. While Reformed theology emphasized a return to the early church, the Shakers took a more radical approach. They formed separate communities, held goods in common, and prepared fervently for the Second Coming of Christ, which they believed was imminent. As part of that preparation, they embraced celibacy and strict separation of the sexes. Their emotional, ecstatic worship—featuring singing, dancing, and shaking—earned them the nickname “Shakers.” Yet despite their radicalism, they were known for their industriousness, egalitarianism (especially in gender roles), and forward-looking simplicity.
So where does our family come into this?
When Mother Ann Lee came to the colonies in 1774, she began recruiting new members and founding villages in New York and New England—areas already settled by Puritan families. As the movement spread west, Shaker missionaries arrived in Warren County, Ohio, and the Bluegrass region of Kentucky in 1805. These regions had been settled by my Huguenot and Dutch Reformed ancestors. The missionaries found three willing hosts: Elisha Thomas, and brothers Samuel and Henry Banta. They were soon joined by their brother John Banta and their families. The new colony was formally established on Elisha Thomas’s farm in 1807.
The Bantas were sons of Hendrick (Henry) Banta, a leader of the 1780 Ohio River migration from the Conewago Dutch colony in Pennsylvania to Kentucky. His sister, Wyntie Banta—my 5th-great-grandmother—had married Samuel Durie, who was the father-in-law of Pieter Cossart, and leader of the the Wilderness Road migration, also in 1780. These groups joined together and became the Low Dutch Colony of central Kentucky.
Those early years were challenging. The settlers faced war and food insecurity and had to convert contested Indian hunting lands into farmland. Perhaps it was this trauma, and the absence of Dutch Reformed churches on the far side of the Appalachians, that made families like the Bantas receptive to the Shakers’ promises: shared goods, mutual support, and spiritual purpose. The Dutch settlers were certainly seeking their own pastors rather than falling under the influence of revivalist preachers from the Second Great Awakening.
Maybe the idea of a utopian frontier appealed to the Bantas—a way to keep family together in the face of constant westward movement. Whatever the reason, they became key players in the founding of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky’s earliest and largest Shaker village. Yet the community was not immune to hardship. Disease, especially tuberculosis (consumption), took its toll. Some, like Samuel Banta, eventually left the sect. And with a celibate lifestyle, Shaker growth depended entirely on recruitment, so the number of Bantas at Pleasant Hill declined over time.
Still, Pleasant Hill thrived for a time. Shakers were known for their functional architecture, their finely made furniture, and even for inventing the flat broom—sparking a broom-making boom across the country. But eventually, as with many idealistic movements, decline set in. The society at Pleasant Hill closed in 1910. Its last member died in 1923. Yet the buildings were preserved, and Pleasant Hill became a historic site.
An unexpected discovery: while living in Kentucky, we visited Pleasant Hill and were drawn to the beauty and simplicity of the place—never suspecting that we had deep family roots there.
One final note: the other 1805 Shaker settlement, Union Village, was established in Warren County, Ohio. That region became a haven for families moving north from Kentucky, including Hendrick, son of Pieter Cossart, and his mother, Maria Durie Cossart. When reviewing Turtle Creek Township’s farm plots and censuses, you can spot several Bantas—descendants of Henry Banta, the great patriarch. The Shaker story, it turns out, is another unexpected chapter in our family’s long religious journey through America.
Reference: Murray, Joan England, The Bantas Of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky: Their Ancestors And Descendants, Heritage Books, 2010.
Photo Credit: Photograph taken by Tom Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168622
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