West Union (Busro), Indiana facts for kids

West Union, also known as Busro, was a village where a religious group called the Shakers lived. It was located in Knox County, Indiana, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Vincennes, Indiana. The Shakers lived there from 1811 to 1827. Even though it didn't last long, West Union was the Shakers' village farthest to the west.

How West Union Started

By 1808, Shaker communities in New England and New York were doing well. The Shakers wanted to share their faith with people living in the western parts of the United States, especially after big religious gatherings like the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky. So, Shaker leaders sent missionaries like Issachar Bates and John Dunlavy to the "West."

These early Shaker missionaries walked about 1,200 miles (1,931 km) to spread the Shaker message in the Ohio Valley. Soon, many people joined their faith. New Shaker communities started in Kentucky and Ohio, including Pleasant Hill and Union Village.

The Shakers had unique ideas. They believed in sharing everything, that men and women were equal, and in living a life without marriage (called celibacy). They also worked together to help each other. Many new settlers liked these ideas, especially because life on the frontier was hard.

However, not everyone welcomed the Shakers. Some people were worried that the Shakers' way of life would break up families or compete with other churches. When Issachar Bates and other Shaker missionaries came to Indiana around 1809, some settlers even tried to use violence to keep them away.

Issachar Bates was a pacifist, meaning he believed in peace and did not fight. He was also known for being a "merry singer of ballad tales." He managed to avoid being tied to a horse and forced out of the area. Bates was a very dedicated missionary. Some stories say he walked about 38,000 miles (61,155 km) in eleven years and helped 1,100 people in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana become Shakers.

In 1809, a large group of new Shakers from Union Village, Ohio, moved to Indiana. Many of them were free African Americans. They loaded their belongings onto boats and traveled down the Ohio River. They were heading to a new settlement called "Big Prairy" on Busseron Creek, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Fort Knox near Vincennes. French boatmen helped them on the river. Their farm animals were herded overland. By the summer of 1811, about 300 Shakers had settled there. They called their new home Busro, after the creek, but it was officially named "West Union." Other Shakers also came from Kentucky and Ohio.

Samuel Swan McClelland, a Shaker who kept a diary, wrote that one of the first buildings was a "hewed-log house... with 4 rooms." Things seemed to be going well. A map from the 1820s shows that West Union had about 1,300 acres (5.3 km²) of land, with 400 acres (1.6 km²) being used for farming.

The main building was a two-story brick house, 50 by 45 feet (15 by 14 meters), with 14 rooms. This was called the Center Family House. Around it were a kitchen, doctor's shop, weave shop, and wash house. A large two-story meetinghouse, 50 by 40 feet (15 by 12 meters), was across from it. There were also barns and two apple orchards with hundreds of trees. The community had a sawmill, a grist mill (for grinding grain), and a fulling mill (for making cloth) along Busseron Creek.

McClelland's diary shows that Busro was a diverse place, with many free Black people among the Shakers. In June 1811, he wrote about the first death in the community: "Anthony Tann a colored man departed this life, having Peggy his wife a white woman and 6 children among the believers." Many Shakers who settled here had also been soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.

Early Challenges

Anthony Tann's death from fever was the first of many problems that hit Busro in its early years. Samuel Swan McClelland's diary, which he kept until 1827, quickly became a record of these difficulties.

War of 1812

The Shakers soon realized they had built West Union on an old Native American trail and war path. This path was used for communication and attacks against white settlements like Vincennes. In the summer of 1811, rumors of a coming war with Native Americans scared people in the Wabash Valley. This conflict later became part of the War of 1812.

In August 1811, William Henry Harrison, the military governor of Indiana Territory, met with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in Vincennes. McClelland noted that "the Indians went away about as ill humor'd as they came."

In September 1811, Native Americans (likely Shawnee) stole four of the Shakers' best horses. Three Shakers, including Abraham Jones, a Black man who could speak Native American languages, went to get the horses back peacefully. They did not carry any weapons. After two and a half days, they found the Shawnee, but the Native Americans would not give the horses back and seemed angry. The Shakers quickly grabbed the horses and ran. They ran for about 7 or 8 miles (11 or 13 km) through a prairie. They had to leave their tired horses, saddles, and supplies behind to escape.

In the autumn of 1811, Harrison's army of 1,400 men marched past West Union on their way to Prophetstown. They were going to fight the Native American confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison's soldiers took the Shakers' crops, wagons, and horses. McClelland wrote, "Our affliction on this occasion cannot be easily described." After the battle, the soldiers returned, many wounded and tired. The Shakers helped them as much as they could.

New Madrid Earthquakes

In the winter of 1811, a series of very strong earthquakes happened in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, located in Missouri and Arkansas. The Shakers at West Union felt these powerful quakes.

On December 10, 1811, Samuel McClelland wrote, "the whole nation was suddenly awakened at 2 o’clock in the morning by the shaking of the earth." There were more shakes later that day. The buildings at West Union did not suffer much damage, even though the earthquakes and aftershocks continued through the winter.

McClelland also wrote about the widespread fear and feeling of doom that lasted for months. People were scared, and some thought it was a sign of the end of the world.

The biggest problem for West Union from the earthquakes was the Wabash River. The shaking caused the river to flow backward and flood the land. This was a huge problem in winter, as the water turned to mud and ice. Like other floods, it also led to more diseases like malaria in the spring and summer. In June 1812, McClelland wrote, "The fever began to invade the society in different quarters, and some begin to get very sick."

Leaving Temporarily

During the earthquakes and fever epidemic of 1811–12, West Union still had many people. McClelland reported that 75 boys and 56 girls were at the schoolhouse, along with many adults.

However, the problems from the War of 1812 returned. The Shakers were pacifists and refused to arm themselves or build a fort. This made them and their property unsafe. They also faced problems from the Indiana territorial militia, who were often their biggest bother. Armed settlers camped near West Union and took the Shakers' food, cattle, and hogs. McClelland wrote that the soldiers "butchered and destroyed in a most savage wasteful manner." When soldiers were rushing to help Fort Harrison at Terre Haute, which was under attack by Native Americans, they "seized some of our horses, some saddles and some axes."

The Shaker community decided it was better to leave West Union for a while rather than be bothered by the militia or attacked by war parties. In mid-September 1812, they loaded their belongings onto boats and went downstream. About 300 Shakers and their children, 250 sheep, 100 cattle, 14 wagons, and several boats took shelter with other Shaker communities in Kentucky and Ohio until 1814.

While they were gone, their homes in Indiana were used by territorial militiamen. A few Shakers stayed behind to watch over West Union, but "the Army was soon increased to 1000, our houses were converted to Barracks, our nurseries to horse lots and our fields to racing grounds." The place looked like a disaster.

Moving and the hard winter were tough on many Shakers. But some were already thinking about returning to Busro by the summer of 1813. In January 1814, two Shakers went to Pittsburgh to get building materials like iron, nails, glass, and paint. Over forty Shakers set off for Indiana again in March 1814, with more following later.

Decline and Abandonment

As time went on, the first generation of adults who joined the Shakers at West Union faced a challenge. Many of them had brought their own children into the celibate Shaker society. Now, these children were growing up and often chose to leave the faith. Shaker rules encouraged children to become full members at age 18, but they were not forced to.

A tornado hit the community in May 1819, damaging some buildings and much of the Shakers' orchard. Fevers, likely cholera and yellow fever, continued to affect the settlement because it was located near the wetlands of the Wabash River. In February 1820, someone tried to burn down one of the dwelling houses. Spring floods in 1820 also damaged the Shakers' mills.

By September 1826, the Shaker Elders at West Union and in other communities decided that the settlement should close. The community was finally abandoned in the spring of 1827. The land and buildings were sold. The Shakers loaded their movable property onto wagons and boats and moved to the same communities in Kentucky and Ohio where they had stayed during the War of 1812. The new Whitewater Shaker Settlement in Ohio, started in 1824, grew stronger with the arrival of Shakers from Indiana.

Historian Stephen J. Stein notes that West Union's closing was a big setback for the Shakers. They had put a lot of effort into making it successful, as it was their best chance to expand further west. Its importance as their westernmost community might explain why they didn't give up on it right after the War of 1812.

There seemed to be some connection between the West Union Shakers and the German Rappite community that settled near New Harmony, Indiana, also on the Wabash River. In February 1817, McClelland wrote that "Father David with all the Elders" visited the Rappites. In 1824, just a few years before West Union was abandoned, the Rappites moved back to Pennsylvania. They sold their land to Robert Owen, a Welsh thinker who renamed the site New Harmony. Owen was inspired by the Rappites and Shakers and started a famous socialist experiment there, but his colony also failed over time.

What Remains Today

The land where the Shakers once lived is now active farmland and is privately owned. The site is on an unmarked county road a few miles northwest of Oaktown, Indiana, in the far northwestern part of Knox County, near the Sullivan County line. An Indiana historical marker on U.S. 41 near Oaktown is actually a few miles away from the exact site. The only Shaker building that lasted into the 20th century was used as a private home before it was torn down.

A local historian, John Martin Smith, has found archaeological remains of other buildings in the area, but they are not marked and are hard to find. The mill was on the Illinois side of the Wabash River, just south of the iron bridge, but no remains are visible there today.