Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: "Now here's my faith I'll speak it plain" "Signs and Wonders": Early Life, Spiritual Preparation, and the Coming of the Shakers "Take the bloody track of war": A Fifer in the American Revolution "I'm journeying with those who I love in the flesh": Issachar Bates as Husband and Provider "A testimony as hot as flames": Shaker Conversion and Early Travels "Like God's Hunters": Seeking Kindred in the West "Thorns and thistles did abound": The Growth of the Shaker West "What trials yet before us lay?": Tribulation on the Wabash "And with much animation we lived at Busro": An Elder in Indiana "Remnant of the tribe of Issachar": The Bates Kinship Network in the Shaker East "The Cockatrice still wants a place in Zion's lovely regions": Transformations in the Shaker West "Tribulation Worketh Patience": A Bitter Close in the West "So I'll relinquish all demands": Journey's End at New Lebanon Epilogue: "Elder Issachar seems to be continually at hand" Appendixes Appendix 1: Bates Family Tree Appendix 2: Songs and Poems by Issachar Bates Appendix 3: Songs by Issachar Bates's Children Notes on Sources Notes Bibliography Index.