the mud; and finally lay down in the mud himself & refused to
return. The Brethren get assistance at the North family & with a
waggon take him home this morning. Dr. Wright bleeds &* physicks
him thoroughly." He apparently left and then in 1832 was trying
to get "another privilege." He pleaded and "tries to cloak
nearly all his bad conduct under mental derangement; but that is
about the same as to say he has been crazy nearly the whole time
since we became acquainted with him." Two weeks later he
threatened the life of his sister, Mary, had to be confined, and
was carried to Hudson (I presume to the State Mental Hospital)for
safety. His sister, Mary, finally came back in 1857 and asked to
be readmitted. She claimed she went to take care of her father
and brother, Oliver, who was insane a considerable part of the
time. "He is now dead and she is released from him." She was
admitted but is not in the cemetery.

The Journal kept by Elder Amos Stewart of the Lebanon Ministry
tells a strange story of Oliver's end. After being rejected he
resided in Lebanon Hollow and "in one of his crazy turns," he
exclaimed that "at his funeral the floor would give away and they
would all go down to hell together & the stove on top." When he
died & the funeral took place at his home, after the service
those present who wished to view the corpse were invited into the
room where it lay. About 30, mostly women, were so gathered when
the floor gave way "and down into the cellar they went with the
stove & the coffin which burst open, partly spilling the corpse."

Betsey or Eunice Robbins came to the Watervliet Shakers as early
as 1816 but in 1825 was on the list of those whom they were
supporting, aged 40 "Taken as a poor child, is a lunatic subject
to fits of delirium." In November 1830 the journal records that
"crazy Eunice shut up." A week later they moved her "to the
cheese house." In 1831 the brethren were looking for her because
she had wandered off. Two days later when the brethren went to
cut broom corn on an island below Troy, they found Eunice and
brought her home. She finally died in 1845 at the age of 62.
How did they manage her all those years? At the time she came in
"a poor child", were her parents aware of her condition and just
wanted to get rid of her? Were the Shakers then so eager so get
young converts that they didn't screen her carefully enough?

Catherine Dampf (also called Runnells or Reynolds, so presumably
had been married) joined in 1831 when she was 30 years old. In
1858 "she jumped or slid herself" out of an upper story window in
the dwelling house. She lived about two hours after she was
found. When asked why she had done so, "she said she had come to
a great precipice and fallen off."