11
The Ministry Journal records on September 7, 1866 that Horace
Holloway "goes to the world, is willfully insane." However he
appears a few weeks later in the New Lebanon journals, as we
shall see.


HARVARD, MASS.

I am indebted to Jerry Grant for the information about a case at
the Harvard community which reached the courts and the newspapers
in 1826. The "head men" of the Harvard Community were charged
with false imprisonment of Seth Babbit from 1823 to 1826, and
"having at sundry times during that period violently assaulted
and beaten him."

At the trial, a witness testified that, accompanied by the
Harvard selectmen, he had gone to the Shaker village and found
Seth "confined to a building, 12 by 18 feet, and separated from
the rest by a joist partition. It was very warm weather, & there
was no window open. A vault in one corner of the room made it
very offensive..." Babbit "sat on his bed with nothing but his
shirt on. I asked him if he could walk, but he did not reply.
We then raised him by his arms but, as he did not incline to
walk, we sat him down again. The door of his apartment was
confined by an iron bar." Another witness testified to the same
circumstances, particularly about the odor which made them leave
to have a conversation. He asked the Shakers "why they did not
let some air in, and then opened the windows in the front part of
the building." A third witness said he has asked why Babbit was
confined and was told that ""he was a dangerous man to be at
liberty."

One of the Shakers, Jonathan Clark, testified that he had roomed
with Babbit and "always found him a peaceable man." But one day
Seth Blanchard and John Orsment Jr. "Came into our room and
chained him down to the floor, beside his bed. He could get into
bed and put his feet to the stove with the chain on, but could
not take his pantaloons off. He often cried and complained of
his usage. I continued to live with him till one day he
requested me to unchain him, which I refused, telling him if I
took them off him, I should get chained myself. After I left the
room, Babbit turned the stove over and broke it in pieces, and
threw them through the window. I think this was in February. I
then took another room and the windows were boarded up and he was
kept through the winter without fire. My room was above and I
often heard them beat him and heard him cry. There were no
windows in the room where he was last confined and the stench was