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INTRODUCTION TO THE QUAKER RECORDS PROJECT*

by Willard C. Heiss

Origin of the Society of Friends and Its Spread in America

The Society of Friends or Quakers (the terms are synonymous) had its beginning in the

middle of the seventeenth century in England. It was in this period of religious and political

turmoil and uncertainty that George Fox and others discovered “Truth” as they saw it.

Quakerism was but one of the new sects that grew out of those unsettled times. This Society

thrived on adversity, grew strong, and left its imprint on subsequent generations. For example,

civil rights and religious liberty that we now enjoy can in a small way be attributed to the

Quakers’ firm belief in human equality. The trials, sufferings, and persecutions of these early

Friends that these rights might be established are beyond belief.

Fox swept aside all the clutter and trappings that weighed down the Established Church

and put emphasis on personal ethics as they were embodied in the teachings of the original

Christians. But he was not content with personal virtues only. Just as Jesus called for a change in

the life of a nation, so Fox was concerned with the evil blight that was on England in his day. He

urged judges to act justly, protested the low wages paid to laborers, proposed that palaces and

manor houses be given to the underprivileged, and that the rich abbeys become orphanages or

homes for old people. He demanded that Quaker shopkeepers be honest in weight and measure

and that they place a single price on each piece of goods to be sold. He urged abolition of capital

punishment and insisted that Friends live a life that took away the occasion for war.

George Fox wrote in his Journal, “Some thought I was mad because I stood for purity,

perfection and righteousness.” Friends believed that with Divine help a man might here and now

become perfect, if he were to be wholly obedient to the will of God as “inwardly revealed.”

Friends held there was no need for priests and others to mediate between man and God but that

there is an indwelling Light from God in the heart of every man that can speak to him and guide

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

his actions. Friends live in response to that “Inner Light,” which they believe is also to be found

within their fellowmen.

One of the central testimonies of the Friends was on the matter of simplicity—in all

positions of life. The rituals and sacraments (baptism, communion, and so on) of organized

religion were discarded as being only “outward forms.” The Friends meeting for worship was a

gathering of silence and waiting on His presence, which might or might not be made vocally

manifest.

Quakers first appeared in the American colonies as early as 1656. Within two years

monthly meetings were established in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In 1661, the first yearly

meeting in America was opened and held at Newport, Rhode Island. Within the next thirty years,

five more yearly meetings were established where there had come to be large centers of Friends.

These meetings were New York (1695), Philadelphia (1681), Baltimore (1672), Virginia (1671),

and North Carolina (1698). It was one hundred thirteen years after the establishment of North

Carolina Yearly Meeting before another yearly meeting was required.

Due mainly to the Appalachian barrier, population stayed on the Atlantic seaboard. The

migration pattern of Quakers generally was to move south from Pennsylvania into northwestern

Virginia and then farther south into the Carolinas. Due to the decline of the whaling industry,

Quakers from Nantucket moved directly to the Carolinas. Prior to the Revolutionary War, a few

Friends had started moving westward and had settled in what is now eastern Tennessee. By

1800, there were several settlements of Friends in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio;

settlements also were being founded in southern and western Ohio. The distance was so great

and communications with Baltimore Yearly Meeting were so difficult that in 1813 Ohio Yearly

Meeting was set off. It was first held at Short Creek in Jefferson County, Ohio, and later at

Mount Pleasant in the same county.

The Society of Friends in Indiana

When we now survey the position of Friends in Indiana in relation to an overall pattern of

their history, we usually think of them as the link between southern and eastern Friends in their

migrations to the West. We almost forget that this was once the West. In the summer and fall of

1806, Jeremiah Cox and family, John Smith and family, Elijah Wright, Frederick Hoover, and

perhaps others settled on the Whitewater River at what is now the site of Richmond. Here they

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

cleared land and built cabins that were a great distance, in that unbroken wilderness, from the

nearest Friends settlement at West Branch, Ohio. It seems incredible, but that same year the

settlement was visited by John Simpson, a minister from Philadelphia. He was traveling under a

concern to visit the Indian chief Tecumseh and his followers. Upon leaving the Whitewater

settlement, he journeyed some thirty miles north to Fort Greenville.

As the settlement of Friends grew there was a need for a monthly meeting closer than the

one at West Branch, Miami County, Ohio. In 1809 Whitewater Monthly Meeting was

established, and it is from this meeting that all meetings in Indiana descend. While Indiana was

yet a territory three monthly meetings were set off from Whitewater, namely New Garden

(1815), Wayne County; Lick Creek (1813), Orange County; and Blue River (1815), Washington

County.

Following the War of 1812, the migrations of Friends from the Carolinas and Tennessee

increased, and more monthly meetings came into existence: Silver Creek (1817), Union County;

West Grove (1818) and Springfield (1820), Wayne County; Driftwood (1820), Jackson County;

Honey Creek (1820), Vigo County; and Cherry Grove (1821), Randolph County. The above

named monthly meetings along with some others in Ohio belonged at this time to Ohio Yearly

Meeting, which was held at Mount Pleasant, Ohio. It is apparent that if representatives from the

Richmond area going to yearly meeting faced a hardship, then those going from the southern and

western part of the state were confronted with an even greater hardship. It was concluded to

divide the yearly meeting.

*A revision of an article published in Indiana History Bulletin, 39:51–82 (March–April

1962), under the title “Guide to Research in Quaker Records in the Midwest.”

Indiana Yearly Meeting

On the 8th of Tenth Month, 1821, the first sessions of the Indiana Yearly Meeting were

held in Richmond, Indiana, with some two thousand Friends in attendance. Women Friends met

in a log house used by Whitewater Monthly and Quarterly Meeting, and the men used a shed

nearby. In the 1820s a large brick meetinghouse was completed, which was used until the present

meetinghouse on East Main Street was built.

Besides the meetings named above, all the meetings in southwestern Ohio were also a

part of the Indiana Yearly Meeting.

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As the central part of the state was opened for settlement, Friends not only continued to

arrive from the southern and eastern states, but they also moved on from the previously

established settlements. By 1835 there were substantial communities of Friends in Henry, Grant,

Morgan, Marion, Hendricks, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Parke counties. The westward

expansion stretched the yearly meeting to include meetings established in Illinois and Iowa.

About seventy monthly meetings were within these limits in the 1850s. Again, the distances

representatives were required to travel to attend the yearly meeting at Richmond became a

hardship, and a division was made of Indiana Yearly Meeting.

Western Yearly Meeting

Plainfield, Hendricks County, Indiana, was chosen as the location for the new yearly

meeting. Large numbers of Friends were located in the adjoining counties, and Plainfield was

geographically somewhat closer to points west. Western Yearly Meeting was established, and the

first session held on the 29th of Ninth Month, 1858, with some six hundred Friends in

attendance. The meetings in the eastern and northern part of the state remained with Indiana

Yearly Meeting. The meetings in the central, western, and southern part were included in

Western Yearly Meeting. The meetings in Howard County were at first with Indiana but later

transferred to Western. This arrangement has continued to the present day.

Indiana Yearly Meeting (Hicksite)

In 1827 and 1828, a controversy that involved most of the Society of Friends, with the

exception of Friends in the Carolinas and New England, finally caused an irreconcilable split.

The names that came to distinguish the two groups after a separation took place were Hicksite

and Orthodox. The former label was given to supporters of Elias Hicks (1748–1830), the Quaker

minister from Long Island who was at the center of the controversy. The Hicksites, as one

historian has put it, “held doctrines, not as essential to Christian faith but as fruits of it.” The

doctrine of the “Inner Light” continued to be their central belief. Rufus Jones comments that “for

a whole generation, the Society had tacked, like a ship sailing against the wind, in a curious

zigzag, back and forth from Scripture to Inner Light and from Inner Light to Scripture.” The

Orthodox group emphasized the centrality of the divinity of Christ and the authority of Scripture.

These differences were aggravated by a procession of traveling English Friends who might have

served the “Cause of Truth” best by staying in England.

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This controversy affected Indiana Friends, splitting many monthly meetings. The

Hicksites, the minority, held the first session of their yearly meeting in Waynesville, Ohio, in the

last week of Tenth Month, 1828. The annual sessions then alternated between Richmond and

Waynesville. Hicksite monthly meetings established in Indiana at the time of the separation were

Whitewater and Milford in Wayne County, Honey Creek in Vigo County, and Blue River in

Washington County. Hicksites later established other monthly meetings.

A great source of confusion lay in the fact that both groups, Hicksite and Orthodox,

continued to call themselves Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends. In 1975 the Hicksite group

changed its name to Ohio Valley. Since 1900, Hicksites have become generally known as

General Conference Friends, while the Orthodox have identified themselves as Five Years

Meeting or Friends United Meeting Quakers, for associations to which yearly meetings the two

bodies belong.

Indiana Yearly Meeting (Anti-Slavery)

If the separation of 1828 left a divided Society, the next controversy left a mutilated

Society. The English Friends continued to avail themselves of the audience of the Orthodox

Branch of the Society in America. New England Yearly Meeting had not been seriously affected

by the earlier schism, but it was here the English Evangelicals widened an incipient crevice. A

staunch defender of traditional practices and beliefs of Friends in New England Yearly Meeting

was John Wilbur. The leading proclaimer of the new theological approach was Joseph John

Gurney of Norwich, England. A separation occurred in New England in 1845.

Indiana Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) was not notably affected by the Gurneyite-Wilburite

controversy as it was involved in internal conflict of its own. All members of the Society were,

to some degree, committed to the opposition of slavery. Differences came in the application of

this belief. There were members who flagrantly violated the Fugitive Slave Law, joined anti-

slavery societies that were not under the influence of Friends, and opened meetinghouses to

conferences of these societies. To conservative Friends this was unsound, and as a consequence

the two groups diverged. On the 7th of Second Month, 1843, Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-

Slavery Friends was organized and met annually at Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana. In a

few years the attitudes of the larger body changed, and by 1857 there had been effected

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somewhat of a reunion of the two groups. The damage was considerable since many valuable

members were permanently lost.

Western Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

Following the Civil War, changes in attitudes assumed by some members in the Western

Yearly Meeting and to a limited extent in Indiana Yearly Meeting, coupled with an influx of new

members into the Society who were not concerned with traditional Quaker doctrines and

practices, brought about some startling changes in many of the meetings throughout both yearly

meetings. The Society of Friends had become rather static, but a movement by concerned

Friends to revitalize the Society had been overwhelmed by the leadership of such ex-Methodists

as Frame, Clark, and Updegraff. Esther Frame once implied that the main reason she came to

join the Friends was that the Methodists did not allow women in the ministry. In any event, by

the 1870s, what might be aptly characterized as the “Wesleyan influence” provoked such

questions as conversion, conviction for sin, salvation, and sanctification into heated discussions.

All of these were unrelated to the traditional doctrines of Friends.

The contemplative silence of meetings for worship was replaced by hymn singing and

programmed church services. The interiors of meetinghouses were gutted as the galleries and

partitions were ripped out and rostrums and pulpits installed for the hired ministers. There was

no rest on the part of the innovators until the soughs from the reed organ had been added to the

off-key harmony of unfamiliar hymns. The final desecration was the introduction of the “revival

meeting” and its attendant emotionalism—the singing, shouting, and writhing at the “mourner’s

bench.”

This movement developed rapidly, and, as more stable members of the Society were

unable to stem the tide, most of these retired from the fray and on the 14th of Ninth Month, 1877,

established Western Meeting of (Conservative) Friends, which included one meeting from

eastern Indiana and two in western Ohio. This yearly meeting was held at Sugar Grove, south of

Plainfield. If previous separations had been tragedies, this one was a disaster as the Society was

divided into two extreme positions, whereas if the division could have been avoided, the

leavening effects of both groups would have greatly influenced and helped the Society of Friends

in the Midwest. This yearly meeting was laid down on the 3rd of Ninth Month, 1962.

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Later Divisions of Yearly Meetings

Iowa Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) was established by Indiana Yearly Meeting in 1863.

Salem Monthly Meeting had been established in 1838. It is important to note that all certificates

of removal for Friends moving to Iowa prior to 1838 were deposited with Vermilion Monthly

Meeting, Illinois, that being the nearest monthly meeting to the Iowa settlements. There was a

separation in Iowa due to causes similar to those given above, and in 1878 Iowa Yearly Meeting

(Conservative) was established.

Kansas Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) was established by Indiana Yearly Meeting in 1872

and met at Lawrence. A separation, due to the same reasons as stated in the sketch of Western

Yearly Meeting, brought about the establishment of Kansas Yearly Meeting (Conservative) in

1879. Their annual meetings were held in Emporia, Kansas, the last being in 1929 when the

Yearly Meeting was laid down. The surviving members were attached to Iowa Yearly Meeting

(Conservative).

In 1892 Wilmington (Ohio) Yearly Meeting was set off from Indiana Yearly Meeting

(Orthodox). It included nearly all the meetings in western and southern Ohio.

The Indiana Yearly Meeting (Hicksite) was divided by setting off Illinois Yearly Meeting

in 1874, comprising southern Indiana, all of Illinois, and also meetings in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Organizations Structure of the Society of Friends

Yearly Meetings

The final authority for decisions in the Society of Friends rests in the body of the yearly

meeting. As the name implies, this is an annual meeting composed of representatives from the

quarterly meetings that comprise the yearly meeting. Any member of the Society may attend and

is free to express his views, but the representatives are appointed to ensure the attendance of

some persons from all parts of the yearly meeting. A clerk presides over these sessions, which

last for several days, and all decisions are made from a “sense of the meeting.” Reports from

various committees are read, statistics are compiled, and so on. This information, together with

the minutes of the meeting, are compiled and published. Collections of these printed minutes are

to be found in many libraries: the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College and

Haverford College Library probably have the most complete sets. Earlham College, of course,

has a complete set for Indiana Yearly Meeting, Guilford College for North Carolina, and so on.

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The original manuscript minutes as they exist are found in the archives of the respective

yearly meetings. For the past decades many yearly meetings have been sending minutes and

reports directly to the printer and have not compiled a manuscript record—hence in many

instances the printed record is all that exists.

The importance of these minutes varies, depending upon the interest of the researcher.

From the earliest days there are committee reports of the Indian, Temperance, Education, and

other committees. Through these minutes, it is possible to follow the changes of attitudes of the

Society on matters of discipline and theology. (Friends do not admit a theology.) These attitudes,

advices, and regulations were collected from time to time and published in a “Discipline.”

Although these advices have existed almost from the beginning of the Society, it was not until

the latter part of the eighteenth century that they were put into print. Many revisions have been

made since that time.

Of importance to the genealogist are the death notices of ministers and elders that appear

in the printed yearly meeting minutes. The number of notices varies; in 1842 there were eight in

the Minutes of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends; two examples:

Ann Cox, an elder, and member of White River Monthly Meeting, died twelfth month

4th, 1841; aged 65 years, wanting 5 days.

Exum Elliott, an elder, and member of West Grove Monthly Meeting, died tenth month

8th, 1841; aged 76 years, 5 months and 29 days.

Before leaving the matter of yearly meeting records, I would like to draw attention to the

minutes of the “Meeting for Sufferings.” In America, these records exist from the mid-eighteenth

century and consist of a record of the matters that came before a representative body (in effect,

an executive committee) that met and functioned for the yearly meeting when it was not in

session. These meetings contain much material concerning the resistance of Friends to wars as

well as other matters relating to meetinghouses and graveyards.

Quarterly Meetings

These meetings for business were composed of representatives appointed by the

component monthly meetings. Reports were brought to this meeting and annual summaries

prepared. Problems that were unresolved by the monthly meetings were sent here and decided or,

if found “too weighty,” were forwarded to the yearly meeting. The quarterly meeting established

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or “set up” new monthly meetings or “laid down” such meetings as had come to the end of their

usefulness. They usually confirmed action in relation to meetings subordinate to the monthly

meetings.

In former days (and yet today) these meetings served as an important link in bringing

widely scattered Friends together for their spiritual needs, and, equally as important, they were a

focal point in the Society’s social life.

Monthly Meetings

A monthly meeting was usually comprised of several preparative meetings. It was here

that the bulk of the business of the Society was transacted and recorded in the minutes. These

records will be outlined in another section.

A misunderstanding of the monthly meeting should be clarified. Let us take for an

example White River Monthly Meeting (Randolph County, Indiana). In 1840 it consisted of five

preparative meetings. To the uninformed it might appear that White River Meeting was the head

and the rest of the meetings were subordinate. This is not the case. White River Meeting was a

preparative along with Jericho, Dunkirk, Sparrow Creek, and Cabin Creek. Together this group

of preparatives formed a monthly meeting which went by the name of White River. In fact, the

monthly meeting rotated at that time, being held consecutively at White River, Jericho, and

Dunkirk.

As settlers came into a community or an adjacent area, the population of a Friends

meeting increased. When the monthly meeting became unwieldy, due to increased membership,

another monthly meeting was created. For example, in 1824, when White River Monthly

Meeting was “set up,” there were settlements of Friends in only the central and eastern parts of

Randolph County. By 1840, the western part of the county had been settled, and there was a need

for reorganization. In 1841 Sparrow Creek Monthly Meeting was “set off” and was comprised of

Sparrow Creek, Dunkirk, and Cabin Creek Preparatives.

Another situation that is a source of confusion, even to persons familiar with Friends,

needs to be explored. The following is a fictional situation.

Let us suppose a John Overman and his family, preparing to remove in 1806 from the

Carolinas to north of the Ohio River, would request and get a certificate of their membership to

Miami Monthly Meeting (Warren County, Ohio). The certificate is received accordingly at

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Miami Meeting, but when John arrives in Ohio he concludes to settle in Miami County instead of

Warren County. Upon his request, the certificate is endorsed by Miami Meeting and sent to West

Branch Monthly Meeting. He and his family are then members of West Branch. In 1808 our

fictional family moves to Indiana Territory and settles just north of Richmond. The following

year, when Whitewater Monthly Meeting is “set off,” they became members of that meeting. In

1815, as New Garden Monthly Meeting is “set off” from Whitewater, they become members of

New Garden. In 1820 our family moves to near Winchester (Randolph County). They then

become members of Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting when it is “set off” from New Garden in

1821. There is a division of Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting in 1824, and the Overmans become

a part of White River Monthly Meeting. In 1830 the family moves to Grant County, Indiana, but

are still members of White River as that meeting encompassed in its membership all the territory

to the north and west of Randolph County. Then, in 1832, Mississinewa Monthly Meeting is “set

off.” Our Overmans are now members of Mississinewa.

This is a rather far-fetched example, but it illustrates what might have happened when a

family you are tracing disappears from the records. The last record of the Overman family

appearing in meeting records is the reception of the certificate at West Branch. It is possible that

John Overman might never appear in the minutes of any of the above-mentioned meetings as

serving on a committee or the like. And, it is further possible that he was never recorded in any

birth or death record. Yet he was a member of the Society until his death, even though the last

recorded evidence of his membership was in 1806 at West Branch.

A similar situation would be possible if a family never moved from its original pioneer

homestead. Suppose a family settled in the southwesterly part of Wayne County, Indiana, at an

early date. They could have been members of the Whitewater, West Grove, and Milford

meetings consecutively. I have dealt with the above problem at length, as I have found it to be

one of the most perplexing for individuals who come to the “stone wall” in their tracing of

families.

A similar situation has occurred in another way. Suppose a family transferred its

membership to Duck Creek Meeting in Henry County, Indiana, in 1835 and then apparently

disappeared from the records. The answer to this enigma lies in the fact that from 1837 through

1840 Duck Creek Meeting was “laid down” and its membership attached to Spiceland. So if the

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family in question removed in 1838, its removal certificate would be found in the Spiceland

records.

The same situation exists for Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting, Randolph County, Indiana,

which was “laid down” from Second Month through Eleventh Month 1825 and its membership

attached to White River, except for Center and Lynn preparatives, which were attached to New

Garden Monthly Meeting. Blue River Monthly Meeting, Washington County, Indiana, was “laid

down” from 1828 through 1829 and its membership attached to Lick Creek for that period of

time. Doubtless, other examples exist that do not come to mind.

When a monthly meeting is “laid down,” whether temporarily as illustrated above, or

permanently, the membership is attached to another monthly meeting. Pleasant Hill Monthly

Meeting, Howard County, Indiana, was “set off” from Honey Creek in 1861. In 1891 it was “laid

down” as a monthly meeting and its membership attached again to Honey Creek.

A more complex problem is to be found in the matter of Honey Creek Monthly Meeting,

Vigo County, Indiana (not to be confused with the above-mentioned meeting with the same

name). In 1820 this monthly meeting was “set off” from Lick Creek. At the time of the

separation in 1829, the meeting was “laid down” by the Orthodox branch and its members

attached to Bloomfield (later Bloomingdale) Monthly Meeting. However, the meeting had a

large Hicksite membership and as such continued as Honey Creek Monthly Meeting in the

Hicksite branch of the Society.

Preparative Meetings (sometimes called Particular Meetings)

A preparative meeting, as the name suggests, is a meeting where business is prepared to

be presented at the ensuing monthly meeting. This type of meeting and function has almost

ceased to exist. Monthly meeting was usually held on Seventh-day (Saturday). The preparative

was held earlier in the week; it often followed the midweek meeting for worship. At this meeting

complaints against members were brought forward by the overseers, requests for membership

were presented and forwarded to the monthly meeting, etc. Most of the trivia was sifted out at

these meetings, and only business of a worthwhile nature was taken up at the monthly meeting.

Very few records of the preparative meetings have survived. Preparatives held meetings for

worship each First-day (Sunday) and at midweek.

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Meeting for Worship

A meeting for worship was allowed by a monthly meeting where there was a settlement

of Friends large enough that it could be maintained in good order but the number of Friends was

not large enough to function as a preparative meeting. The meeting for worship met regularly for

First-day and midweek meetings and usually advanced to the point of having a meetinghouse. In

matters of business, it was attached to the nearest preparative meeting. It might be stated that all

Friends meetings, whether for business or otherwise, were in part a meeting for worship.

Indulged Meeting for Worship

On the frontiers, two or three families might have been far removed from a Friends

meeting. It was usually inconvenient, if not impossible, for them to attend an established

meeting. In this situation the monthly meeting allowed members to meet in a home or in a public

place on First-day as an indulged meeting for worship. This meeting was under the care of a

monthly meeting committee that visited with the “Indulgement” regularly to see that “truth was

maintained.” If the meeting grew, it then became a regular meeting for worship. This type of

meeting has not existed since the beginning of this century.

The Friends Meetinghouse

To George Fox the “steeple house” was an abomination. Yet, most Friends churches in

the Midwest are indistinguishable from other Protestant churches replete with stained glass

windows. The testimony of simplicity, like most other Friends testimonies, has been all but

forgotten.

Traditionally, the meetinghouse, the center of a Quaker settlement, was quite plain. But

few of these remain. New Garden meetinghouse, near Fountain City, Indiana, appears externally

almost as it was built, except for a small belfry. The “white brick” meetinghouse at Waynesville,

Ohio, is unchanged, except for the men’s side, which has been remodeled into rooms for First-

day school. Sugar Grove, south of Plainfield, Indiana, is almost unchanged. It does not even have

electricity.

Most, if not all, meetinghouses were oriented east and west with the doors on the south

side. I know of no reason for this practice; it may be more accidental than intentional. The

building was rectangular in shape, about twice as long as wide. The interior was divided into two

rooms; a partition or shutters that could be raised separated the rooms. A door near the front of

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the partition gave access to each room. Two sets of doors in the front wall permitted men and

women to go into different sides of the building. As one faced the building, the men’s side was

on the right. The members sat in their respective rooms during business meetings. During

worship, the shutters were up; they were lowered during the business session.

The reason for these separate sessions dates back to the beginnings of Quakerism when

Friends declared that all persons were equal. Women were given an equal voice in the decisions

of the Society. It has been said that the reason for separate sessions was that women were timid

and hesitated to express their opinions in the presence of men.

There were separate sessions at preparative, monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings.

There were clerks and assistant clerks and minutes kept for both men’s and women’s meetings.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century this practice was gradually discontinued until by the

early 1900s all branches of Friends were holding joint meetings. At First-day or midweek

meetings for worship, the men and women usually sat on the men’s side of the building, but the

women still sat on the left side of the room.

The interior of the meeting rooms had two rows of plain benches on either side. Facing

the room, across the front, was a raised “gallery” or platform with two rows of benches where

the elders and ministers sat. These benches were sometimes referred to as facing benches. The

reason they were elevated was so that if any of these worthies were moved to speak they could

be easily heard. This did not preclude any other member from speaking.

Meetings for worship had a member who “sat at the head of the meeting.” This member

was an Elder and never a woman. How he was chosen is not clear, but it appears that he was

chosen by the overseers. It was a lifetime appointment. The “head of the meeting” sat on the first

bench on the right side of the gallery. When he sensed that it was time to “break” meeting, he

would shake the hand of the person nearest him, and meeting was over.

The second row of the gallery had a drop-leaf board that was raised for a writing surface

for the clerk during business meetings.

The monthly meeting records are the most important Quaker materials for the researcher,

whether a historian, genealogist, or person with other interests. The monthly meetings have from

almost the earliest times kept minutes, records of births and deaths, marriage records, and

removal certificates. Only a few of the older monthly meetings have preserved complete sets of

records.

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Types of Records

Monthly Meeting Minutes

From the time a monthly meeting was “set up,” a minute record was kept by the clerks in

which information concerning the affairs of the meeting was written. During monthly meetings,

the notes and minutes made by the clerk were written on sheets or scraps of paper and were

known as “rough minutes.” Later, usually twice a year, these minutes were transcribed into the

permanent record book. I make particular mention of this because a minute might be recorded

that Joel Kindly, being about to remove with his family, requested a certificate to convey his and

his family’s membership. The matter was referred to a committee to investigate his affairs to see

if he is “clear” to remove. At the time the “rough minutes” are transcribed, by error, the report of

the committee and the granting of the certificate might not be recorded.

Information found in the minutes includes removals, disownments, members received,

and birthright memberships.

Removals. It is possible to trace a family line from arrival in Pennsylvania in the late

1600s through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana to Iowa in the 1850s. This

is true if the family has not had members disowned in the intervening generations or if the

meeting records still exist.

When a family wished to remove to another section of the country, a request was made to

the monthly meeting for a certificate of membership to be sent to the monthly meeting nearest

the family’s new residence. An investigating committee was appointed to determine whether the

affairs of the family were in order. This committee usually reported to the next monthly meeting.

If all was in order a certificate was granted. The following example is from the minutes of

Cherry Grove, Randolph County, Indiana:

11-12-1831 Joseph Way and family request a certificate to Whitewater Monthly

Meeting.

1-4-1832 A committee reported that it “found obstructions which was out of their

premise to remove.”

5-12-1832 Joseph and wife Alice were disowned for “insubordination” two months

earlier.

8-11-1832 Minor children of Joseph Way granted a certificate to Whitewater.

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By consulting the Whitewater minutes, it can be learned that the children were Joseph, Obed,

Martha, and Rebecca.

Usually, the date of the actual removal of a family will nearly coincide with the date of

the request for the certificate, and the minutes will state “about to remove.” Occasionally, a

family moved and then wrote back to the meeting requesting a certificate. The minutes in this

case usually appended a note “already removed” to the request. In this situation the member

might have migrated six months or more previous to the request. Instances exist where a family

removed and never requested its membership be forwarded. Usually the monthly meeting would

finally forward a certificate to the monthly meeting nearest the family. In this case, several years

may have elapsed. The point here is that simply because a membership certificate is recorded in

Fifth Month, 1832, it does not prove that a family settled in a community during that month or

the month previous. It is possible that the family arrived a year or more before.

Disownments. The Society of Friends did not profess to hold to any theological forms or

creeds, yet did have a set of standards by which members were expected to live. These standards

were set forth in their Discipline as adopted by the yearly meetings. Any infraction of these

testimonies and advices were reported to the overseer of the preparative meeting who in turn sent

it to the ensuing monthly meeting. If the complaint seemed valid, a committee was appointed to

visit with the party concerned and attempt to have him acknowledge his error. If he were so

moved, he sent an acknowledgment or an offering in the form of a written note to the monthly

meeting stating that he was sorry for his misconduct and hoped that Friends would pass it by and

that in the future, with God’s help, he would do better. In the event he did not admit error the

committee continued to visit with him to determine with certainty his guilt. After further

“treating” with him, the committee might report that it “had no satisfaction” whereupon the

monthly meeting would disown him from being a member. Some of the disownments were for

the following reasons:

for deviating so far as to keep ale to drink and give it to others

for refusing to fulfill a marriage contract

for leaving the country without settling his outward affairs

for deviating from plainness in dress and address

for drinking spirituous liquors to excess

for deviating from the truth

for neglecting to pay his just debts

for getting in a passion and fighting his fellow man

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

for unchastity with her who is now his wife

for joining another society

for using profane language

for asking and receiving twenty-five percent on money loaned

for neglecting attendance of meeting

for accomplishing his marriage contrary to discipline

for accomplishing his marriage before the expiration of the time therein proscribed after

the decease of a former wife

for attending a marriage performed contrary to discipline

for marrying a first cousin

for marrying contrary to discipline

for marrying out of unity

Regarding the last two items, there is a technical difference between “marriage contrary to

discipline” and “marriage out of unity.” The former is a situation in which both parties are

Friends and married by other than a Friends ceremony. When a Friend married a non-Friend, he

married “out of unity.”

Received in membership. When an individual desired to become a member of the

Society, the overseers of the preparative meeting were informed. They in turn forwarded the

request to the monthly meeting. A committee was appointed to “visit with him on occasion” and

determine whether he was sincere “and convinced of the truth.” After careful consideration by

the monthly meeting, the application for membership was approved or returned to the applicant.

A person who had been disowned and wished to be reinstated went through the same process.

It was not uncommon for one member of the family to be disowned yet the rest of the

family would retain membership. The disowned party might continue to attend meetings for

worship but could not participate in business meetings.

Birthright membership. If both parents became members of the Society, all minor

children became members. Children born to Quaker parents were birthright members. If a father

were disowned and the mother remained in good standing, any further children were birthright

members, but that was not the case with children born to a mother who had been disowned and

the father was yet a member. When both parents were disowned, the minor children remained

members and their membership certificate was forwarded to the nearest monthly meeting in

event the family moved. Under these circumstances, their record finally disappears because in

reality the children usually followed their parents into another religious society. One will

probably not find a record of disownment for the children.

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Conclusion. After the 1860s the application of the Discipline to the lives of Friends

became increasingly relaxed. Many boys served in the Civil War in complete violation of

Friends principles. Some meetings passed this by without comment. A few did disown them.

Some, such as White River Monthly Meeting, accepted an “acknowledgment” such as the

following by Benoni Hill on 4-7-1866:

“in an unguarded hour I so gave way as to enlist in the army and bear arms which being

contrary to the will of God, and for which I feel regret and ask for your forgiveness as

well as God’s and pass it by and continue me a member as my conduct may admit.”

Disownment for marrying a non-Friend or for marrying by civil ceremony had been

abandoned by the 1860s. The member concerned had only to indicate that he wished to retain his

membership. By the 1880s the whole matter was ignored. Some Friends churches had paid

preachers, and the marriage form was soon fashioned after other Protestant ceremonies.

By the late nineteenth century there were few disownments except for serious matters

that could not be easily ignored. In the White River minutes appears the following dated 3-3-

1877:

Harry T. Warren was disowned for he “has attended places of Diversion, is intemperate,

has abused and mal-treated his family and expressed a disbelief in the Bible.”

Except among Conservative and Hicksite branches, little concern was shown about many

of the testimonies that had claimed the attention of Friends for generations.

Minutes and records for the later period have often been very poorly kept. Whereas the

script of early records was usually excellent, later writing in some cases is almost illegible.

Marriage Records

From earliest times Friends refused to be married in a civil ceremony or by a “hireling

priest.” They married themselves. At monthly meeting the couple would announce their intention

to marry. Committees were appointed to learn if both persons were “clear of engagements.” At

the next monthly meeting, the committees reported, and if both were “clear” the meetings left

them “at liberty to accomplish the marriage.” Committees were then appointed to attend the

marriage and see “that good order was preserved.” Unless a special meeting was appointed, the

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

marriage took place the following midweek meeting for worship. Marriages were not

accomplished on First-day until the mid-1800s.

Where marriage records exist, either the original certificates or a copy of them are

recorded in the meeting record book. This record contains invaluable information, such as the

county of residence of each contracting party, the names of the parents of each, whether the

parents are deceased, and the latest residence of the parents.

The laws of Indiana, until the 1920s, exempted Friends from the legal requirement to

obtain a civil marriage license. Thus marriages performed under the care of a monthly meeting

will not be found in courthouse records.

Birth and Death Records

Friends kept these records because they served two purposes. First, it was a membership

record, and, second, Friends, for many years, were opposed to headstones on graves.

The birth record will vary considerably in makeup from one monthly meeting to another.

For example, Dover Monthly Meeting, Wayne County, Indiana, recorded births as follows:

Levi Peacock b. 5-18-1821

Martha Peacock b. 3-28-1818

Their children--

Ruth b. 5-1-1844

infant daughter b. 9-19-1846 buried at New Garden

Just a few miles away, at West Grove Monthly Meeting, is found a more complete record

with the following entries:

Jonathan Mendenhall b. 5-6-1782, Wrightsboro, Ga. son of Joseph and Elizabeth

Ann Mendenhall b. 3-28-1786, Bucks Co. Penna, daughter of John and Ann Phillips

Their children--

Elizabeth b. 8-21-1804, Stokes Co., North Carolina

Phebe b. 11-30-1805, Stokes Co., North Carolina

Even though the minutes usually show that the recorder was regularly admonished to make his

records complete and keep them up-to-date, the fact is that few, if any, of these records are

complete.

The birth record is found in the front part of the volume and the death record in the back.

The entry for the death gives the name, date of death, and age at death. Usually the place of

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

burial is also given and, in some instances, the place of residence at the time of death. Some

examples from Poplar Run Monthly Meeting, Randolph County, Indiana:

Mary Hunt, d. 9-5-1879, ae 77y 5m 4d Died at Wesley Hunts, buried at Nettle Creek

Joseph Fisher, d. 3-28-1874 ae 69y 9m 15d Died at Robert Fisher’s. Delaware County

Mary Lamb, d. 2-17-1877 ae 76y 7m 2d Died at E. Bond’s, buried at Poplar Run

Removal Certificate Record

This record book is seldom found among the collection of monthly meeting records. It

may be that some meetings did not keep removals as a separate record.

As mentioned above, when a membership transfer came to a meeting, it was recorded in

the minutes. In White River Monthly Meeting minutes are the following entries:

11-10-1838 (Men’s) George Thomas received on certificate from Cherry Grove

Monthly Meeting

11-10-1838 (Women’s) Asenath Thomas and daughters, Elvira and Anna, received on

certificate from Cherry Grove monthly meeting

From the same meeting’s minutes is an example of a removal:

3-6-1858 Tilnias Hinshaw and family granted a certificate to Cherry Grove monthly

meeting.

By consulting the Book of Removals we learn that Tilnias Hinshaw and wife, Eunice, and

children, Nathan, Lindley, James Colwell, William Henry, and Ira were given a certificate.

Friends Burying Grounds and Funerals

Funerals and burying grounds were under the care of a committee appointed by the

monthly meeting and continued from year to year. Friends were for many years opposed to any

marker on a grave. The grave of George Fox was unmarked for almost two centuries.

Acceptance of any marker was very slow in coming. There seems to be have been varying

emphasis placed on this practice from one part of the country to another.

Mill Creek burying ground in Hendricks County, Indiana, has a large number of small

markers with initials only—a larger percentage than elsewhere. Most of the older burying

grounds have rude fieldstones, some unmarked, and some crudely carved, and some small

marble markers that are engraved with the name, date of death, and age of the deceased.

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Miami Monthly Meeting (Hicksite), Warren County, Ohio, decided in 1845 to remove all

monuments in its graveyard. In 1846, there was reported “compliance.” The Discipline at the

time admonished that “Friends are also enjoined to maintain our testimony against affixing

monuments of any description to graves.” So much difference of opinion existed over this

subject that in 1869 the Discipline was revised to read, “They are not to erect grave stones higher

than ten inches above the level of the ground, nor more than fourteen inches wide, nor three

inches thick, entirely plain, with only the necessary name and date thereon.”

It would appear that until the 1870s not much care was given to the burying grounds

other than keeping them fenced. At this time, there were numerous newspaper accounts of work

parties that would spend two or three days cleaning out brambles, setting up headstones, and

arranging them in rows.

In an 1880 account of the work on Cherry Grove burying ground, Randolph County,

Indiana, it was estimated that more than 200 graves lacked markers. This was probably about

half of the burials up to that time.

Friends funerals were very simple. There was a short “sitting” at the home, then another

at the meetinghouse. There might or might not be speaking. The casket was then carried to the

grave and consigned with no ritual at all. Not even members of the family dressed in mourning.

Reference Material

†

The number of books and pamphlets written by or about Friends is countless. Excellent

sources that give considerable details and insight into the practices of Friends are:

Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, The Quakers (1988)

Howard H. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years (1952)

Thomas Clarkson, A Portraiture of Quakerism (1806)

Thomas D. Hamm, The Transformation of American Quakerism (1988)

Willard Heiss, A List of All the Friends’ Meetings . . . in Indiana (1961)

Gregory P. Hinshaw, Indiana Quaker Heritage (1995)

Ezra Michener, A Retrospect of Early Quakerism (1860)

John Punshon, Portrait in Grey (1985)

Richard P. Ratcliff, Our Special Heritage: Sesquicentennial History of Indiana Yearly

Meeting (1971)

Elbert Russell, The History of Quakerism (1942)

Stephen B. Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery (1896)

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

For the genealogist there is the monumental work by William W. Hinshaw, the

Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (6 vols., 1936–50), containing abstracts of the

following monthly meeting records: Vol. I, The Carolinas. Vol. II, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;

Salem and Burlington, New Jersey; and Falls Monthly Meeting, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Vol. III, New York City and Long Island, New York. Vols. IV and V, Ohio and meetings in

southwestern Pennsylvania. Vol. VI, Virginia. Hinshaw’s unpublished material is deposited in

the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. The Hinshaw volumes

have been reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company. Abstracts of other Quaker records

are appearing with increasing frequency.

Quaker Necrology (2 vols., Haverford College Library, 1961) is an index to 60,000 death

notes published in Friends periodicals. The periodicals indexed are The Friend (Philadelphia),

The Friends Intelligencer, The Friends Review, and The Friends Journal.

The Christian Worker was established at New Vienna, Ohio, in 1874. Later it was moved

to Chicago, was combined with the Gospel Expositor, and was called Christian Worker and

Gospel Expositor. In 1894 this periodical, combined with The Friends Review, was called

American Friend. (This should not be confused with a periodical of the same name published in

Richmond, Indiana, in the 1860s.)

Another source of brief biographies is The American Annual Monitor (New York: 1858–

63), which contains obituaries of Friends in America.

One further source of information, both historical and genealogical, is the printed

histories of various monthly meetings. Some of the better histories of Indiana Monthly Meetings

are:

A History of Farmers Institute Monthly Meeting (ca. 1951)

Plainfield Friends Mark a Century (1951)

A History of Union Street Meeting of Friends of Kokomo, Indiana (1958)

Booklet about Friends in Orange County, Indiana (1958)

Jericho Friends Meeting (1958)

Memories of New London Community (1936)

Whitewater—Indiana’s First Quarterly Meeting (1959)

Early Friends in Grant County, Indiana (1961)

†

Updated by Thomas D. Hamm in 1996

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Location of Original Records

The following are the major repositories for Indiana Quaker records:

Friends Collection, Lilly Library, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

This is the repository for the records of Indiana and Western Yearly Meetings of Anti-

Slavery Friends and Indiana Yearly Meeting (Hicksite), as well as microfilms of the

records of other American yearly meetings.

Quaker Collection, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio

This is the repository of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting (formerly the Hicksite Indiana

Yearly Meeting).

William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis,

Indiana

This is the repository for the records of Western Yearly Meeting of Conservative Friends.

The library also has the largest holdings of any repository of records of Indiana Yearly

Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends.

CRIMP

A portion of the County Records in Indiana Microfilm Project (CRIMP) microfilmed

holdings of libraries and individuals in the various counties in Indiana. The collection of

Indiana Quaker Records in the Friends Collection, Lilly Library, Earlham College was

filmed. These microfilms may be borrowed and viewed at local branches of the Latter-

day Saint family history libraries.

It should be noted that some Indiana Quaker records are still locally held. Those for the

old Hicksite Blue River Monthly Meeting, for example, are in the Washington County Historical

Society Library. Many records for Friends in Parke County, Indiana, are in a vault in

Bloomingdale, Indiana. Similarly, the vault of the New London Friends Church holds records of

many monthly meetings in Howard County.

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Orthodox Monthly Meetings in Indiana Prior to 1850

DATE

NAME

COUNTY

OTHER INFORMATION

1828

Arba

Randolph

set off from New Garden

1838

Back Creek

Grant

set off from Mississinewa

1827

Bloomfield

Parke

set off from Honey Creek; later called Bloomingdale

1815

Blue River

Washington

set off from Lick Creek

1821

Cherry Grove

Randolph

set off from New Garden

1823

Chester

Wayne

set off from Whitewater

1837

Dover

Wayne

set off from New Garden

1820

Driftwood

Jackson

set off from Blue River

1826

Duck Creek

Henry

set off from Milford; reestablished in 1840

1826

Fairfield

Hendricks

set off from White Lick

1844

Greenfield

Tippecanoe

set off from Sugar River; later called Farmers Institute

1850

Hinkels Creek

Hamilton

set off from Westfield

1820

Honey Creek

Vigo

set off from Lick Creek

1846

Honey Creek

Howard

set off from Mississinewa

1841

Hopewell

Henry

set off from Milford

1813

Lick Creek

Orange

set off from Whitewater

1823

Milford

Wayne

set off from West Grove

1834

Mill Creek

Hendricks

set off from Fairfield

1832

Mississinewa

Grant

set off from White River

1815

New Garden

Wayne

set off from Whitewater

1841

Richland

Hamilton

set off from Westfield; later called Carmel

1846

Rocky Run

Parke

set off from Bloomfield

1850

Rush Creek

Parke

set off from Bloomfield

1817

Silver Creek

Union

set off from Whitewater; later called Salem

1841

Sparrow Creek

Randolph

set off from White River

1833

Spiceland

Henry

set off from Duck Creek

1820

Springfield

Wayne

set off from New Garden

1840

Sugar Plain

Boone

set off from Sugar River

1830

Sugar River

Montgomery

set off from White Lick

1836

Walnut Ridge

Rush

set off from Duck Creek

1818

West Grove

Wayne

set off from Whitewater

1849

West Union

Morgan

set off from White Lick

1835

Westfield

Hamilton

set off from Fairfield

1823

White Lick

Morgan

set off from Lick Creek

1824

White River

Randolph

set off from Cherry Grove

1809

Whitewater

Wayne

set off from West Branch, Ohio

Introduction to the Quaker Records Project

Hicksite Meetings in Indiana After Separation in 1829

DATE

NAME

COUNTY

Blue River

Washington

Camden

Jay

Fall Creek

Madison

Honey Creek

Vigo

1854

Maple Grove

Huntington

Milford

Wayne

Whitewater

Wayne

Anti-Slavery Friends Monthly Meetings in Indiana After Separation in 1843

NAME

COUNTY

Cabin Creek

Randolph

Cherry Grove

Randolph

Clear Lake

Porter

Deer Creek

Grant

Duck Creek

Henry

Dunkirk

Randolph

Newbury

Howard

Newport

Wayne

Salem

Union

Springfield/Nettle Creek

Wayne

Westfield

Hamilton

Conservative Monthly Meetings in Indiana After Separation in 1877

NAME

COUNTY

Beech Grove

Marion

Mill Creek

Hendricks

Plainfield

Hendricks

West Union

Morgan

Westfield

Hamilton

White River (Jericho)

Randolph

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