Catherine Allen

Minnie Catherine Allen (September 3, 1851 – June 5, 1922) was a leader among the Shakers, active as a historian and activist as well as a member of the Central Shaker Ministry.

Biography Catherine Allen was born in Patriot, Indiana, to a clergyman, John Allen, and his wife, Ellen Lazarus, daughter of Rachel Mordecai Lazarus. The couple were perpetual joiners of communal societies, and had previously been members of Brook Farm in Massachusetts; at the time of Minnie's birth they were living at a similar community in Terre Haute, Indiana, which had been financed by Emma.

Allen soon gained a reputation as an outspoken supporter of the rights of women and animals and of women's suffrage, a role somewhat at odds with the Shakers' traditionally more reticent values. In 1897 she published A Full Century of Communism, The History of the Alethians, formally called Shakers, designed to explain the basic principles of Shaker life to a wider audience. She had intended to reinvigorate the Shaker movement when she took office, but she soon came to believe that many of the surviving members had lost interest, and felt that it could not be revitalized. Consequently, she helped to refocus the Ministry's efforts into the area of financial oversight, ensuring that valuable assets were not lost when their owners chose to return to secular life. In recognition of her preservation efforts, her name and image grace the bookplate used by the Shaker Literature and Manuscript Collection at the Western Reserve Historical Library.