Darlene Baumgarten, age 15, of Champaign, I11., for her question:

WHO WERE THE SHAKERS?

A religious sect called the United Society of Believers was started in England about 1706 as an offshoot of the Quakers. Members of the group were called Shakers.

A young woman named Ann Lee joined the society in 1758. In 1770, the members of the sect recognized her as the leader of the Church of God on Earth. The Shakers called her Mother Ann.

In 1774, Mother Ann led a group of Shakers to America and organized a society at Watervliet, N.Y. This became the first communistic organization in the United States since all property belonged to the community as a whole.

Society members were called Shakers because during religious services their intense emotion caused them to quiver and shake.

Shakers do not marry.