Shaker Pedia Savoy,MA
From Shaker Pedia
(From Paterwic Dictionary, p 183):
SAVOY, MASSACHUSETTS (1817-1821). In 1810, a notorious preacher named Joseph Smith started a church in the remote, mountainous town of Savoy. His enthusiasm diminished, however, after his first wife showed up, much to the consternation of the woman he had just married. He left the congregation in haste and it was left to flounder without a leader until Shaker missionaries Morrell Baker and Calvin Green came to the area in 1817. There are two accounts of how the Shakers came to send missionaries to this wild region. One is that a spirit dressed as an old woman called at the Office of the Second Family at New Lebanon. While the sisters fed her, she spoke of a religious revival that was taking place in Savoy and that the people needed assistance. Soon after, the Shakers at New Lebanon received a letter from Elisha Smith, a member of New Lebanon's Back Order. He said that while on business, he stopped at the home of a Baptist leader in Savoy who told him a revival was going on in the town, and that he did not seem to be able to help them. He figured the Shakers could do some good for them. When the Shaker missionaries arrived, they found a ready audience. By 1819 there were 48 Shakers and the property had grown to 1,500 acres. A Meeting House had been built against the side of Shaker James Cornell's house, and all seemed well. A two-year drought (1820-1821) and a plague of grasshoppers, however, reduced the community to complete dependence upon other Shaker villages for food for themselves and their animals. The new Ministry of New Lebanon that took office in 1821 decided that the community at Savoy should be dissolved, and that its members move either to Watervliet or New Lebanon. A high percentage of the 80 Savoy Shakers remained faithful. The Lewis, Haskins, Rice, and Cornell families, to name a few, greatly enriched New Lebanon by their presence for most of the 19th century.
From A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE "NEW STATE REVIVALS" AND THE SHAKER SOCIETY AT SAVOY, MASSACHUSETTS By David D. Newell