In answer to the question of children. Shakers were supposed to be celibate. Families with children did convert so there would have been children joining with their parents early on. They also did take orphans in. I suppose some of those 'orphans' could have been actual children of the community members.

By late in the 19th century there we not many new conversions from outside the community. Many children raised by Shakers also did not join, so by the mid 20th cent. the numbers had dwindled considerably. A Shaker scholar who was here recently, metioned that during the 20th cent. adoption practices changed & states usually tried to place children with families of their mother's religious preference. The practice of placing children in the homes of unrelated families rather than orphanages was also a late 19th & early 20th century development that worked against children being placed with Shaker communities.