History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 45

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664

USA > Indiana > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships > Part 45

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FRIENDS' MEETINGS.

Winchester Quarter, including Poplar Run, White River and Cherry Grove, monthly. Poplar Run, monthly, including Poplar Run, Cedar and Farmland, preparatory. Cherry Grove, monthly, including Cherry Grove, Lynn and Bloomingsport, preparatory. White River, monthly, embracing White River, Jericho, Winchester, preparatory. Arba, preparatory, belongs to New Garden, monthly and quarterly.

MINISTERS.

Poplar Run, monthly, Elihu Carter, John Osborn, John H. Bond. White River, monthly, Elkanah Beard, Irena Beard, Jesse C. Johnson, William Cox. Cherry Grove, monthly, Ruth Johnson, Ira C. Johnson, Mrs. Joel Mills. Arba, Mrs. Parker; Charles W. Osborn, belongs to White River Quarterly; William Robinson, Jericho.

Statistics, Winchester Quarter-Members, 1,930; parts of families, 205; males, 929; isolated persons, 127; females, 1,009; ministers, 18; families, 314.

Winchester Quarterly Meeting embraces three Monthly Meet- ings-White River, Cherry Grove and Poplar Run. White River Monthly has meetings for worship: White River, Jericho, Winchester, Muncie. Cherry Grove Monthly, has Cherry Grove, Lynn. Poplar Run Monthly has Poplar Run, Cedar. There are several other meetings wiich have been held as follows: Mid- dletown, west of Union City (discontinued) ; Penn, Pike, Jay County ; West Chester, Jay County ; Camden, Jay County; Olive Branch, Randolph County; Farmland, Morristown, Buena Vista, and two in Michigan. The total membership is over 2,000. Arba Preparative Meeting belongs to New Garden Quarterly Meeting, which meets at New Garden, Wayne County.

Recorded ministers belonging to Winchester Quarterly Meet- ing in 1881: William Cox, Jericho; Cynthia Reed, Cherry Grove; Jonathan Hodgin, Cherry Grove; Levi Jessup, Cherry Grove; Ruth Johnson, Lynn; Ira C. Johnson, Lynn; Elkanah Beard, Winchester; Irena Beard, Winchester; Martha B. Thornton, Winchester; John Osborn, Cedar; William Wright, Cedar; Lyndley M. Jackson, Cedar; Lydia Ann Wright, Cedar; Levi Cox, White River; ---- Cook, Long Lake, Mich .; Alice B. Bergman, West Chester; Della Branson, Poplar Run.

Hardshaw was established before 1831, and laid down about 1834.

Cabin Creek was established in 1834.

Sparrow Creek was set up about 1836, located about one and a half miles west and one mile south of Dunkirk. There is an old cemetery at Hardshaw, and also one at Sparrow Creek.

Sparrow Creek meeting-house was burned not very long after the meeting was established, and it was never rebuilt.

Cabin Creek went mostly Anti-slavery in 1843, and con- tinned such until that society died out. A new meeting, called Cedar, was set up at the same place in 1860, which is now strong and flourishing.

Poplar Run was set up in 1846, after the "separation." The leaders were Mark Diggs, John Diggs. Henry Moorman, Eli Townsend. Recorded minister, Elihu Carter. Their meeting- house was first of logs; the second, and present, is a frame, built in 1856.

Poplar Run and Cedar compose a Monthly Meeting.

Dunkirk was established about 1822, and laid down about

1856. It became wholly Anti-slavery, and has never been re- newed since that body of Friends dissolved their organiza- tion.

At Cedar Creek, in 1881, has been built a new and very neat and convenient meeting-house near the old place of worship. The new house was first occupied for service, though, unfinished, in August, 1881, for the Monthly Meeting. The occasion was a blessed season and the attendance was large. Many Friends were there from a distance, and the assembly were deeply sensible of the overshadowing presence and melting power of the precious Spirit to cause all hearts to flow into one free channel of Chris- tian love That consecration of their new house of worship will long be remembered by the Friends who were present as a bright and blessed time to all their souls, and a day to reckon from as the beginning of new and still better things.

Arba was formed about 1815. They built, during the fall of that year a pole cabin meeting-house of the most primitive kind, with neither fire-place nor chimney, which served both as school- house and church for some years. After a considerable time a new, hewed-log church was built, which was occupied for worship for some thirty years, which, nevertheless, gave place in turn to a neat and plain brick structure, which now opens its welcome doors on First and Fifth Days, as well as at other times for the gentle, quiet, loving Friends to assemble "in the spirit" to wait on the Lord according to His appointment for the sweet and re- freshing tokens of His gracious presence, and for the power of the life-giving Spirit to work in their souls that which is well pleasing in His sight. The members at times have been Thomas Parker, Jesse Overman, Ephraim Overman, Eli Overman, Jacob Horn, Thomas Cadwallader, Micajah Morgan, John Thomas, Clarkson Willentts, Aaron Mills, William Hill. John Cammack, Frederic Fulghum, Francis W. Thomas, and many others.

Preachers -- Francis W. Thomas, Adaliza Parker, Milly Hunt, and perhaps others.

There now about two hundred members, or thirty families or parts of families.

The present members, some of them, are Aaron Hill, Jacob, Hill, William Hunt, Henry W. Horn, Henry Horn, Nathan Over- man, Jordan Fulghum, Clarkson Fulghum, William Fulghum, Jonathan Rogers, Joshua Thomas, Manlove Thomas, Silas Horn, Calvin Pucket with their wives and families, and others besides them.

A new meeting was formed within their bounds a few years ago, by the name of Beech Grove (m Wayne County).

The Friends at Arba are an active people, engaging largely in mission work, holding religious meetings, establishing First Day schools, having temperance meetings, etc. Some five years ago an enthusiastic temperance gathering was held in the grove near the north toll gate, being addressed by Hon. T. M. Browne, Rev. Marine, then of Richmond, and others. The assembly was large, and great interest was taken, and much good was done.

The Society of Friends at Arba, established about sixty-six years ago, has maintained a solid existence, and enjoyed a steady. substantial growth, quiet, peaceful, united, they have pursued the " even tenor of their way," manifesting a constant and un. wavering abiding in the things that make for peace and truth and mercy and righteousness and Christian love. Though mak- ing but slight apparent noise and stir in the great world, yet their quiet and gentle power has been - like the words of the sacred writer: " My doctrine shall drop as the raiu, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass."

Besides the Friends, preaching has been had at the place more or less from time to time; but no permanent lodgment was ever made by any society but the Friends, so far as known. The Episcopal Methodists have made it a preaching point to some extent, and the Wesleyan Methodists once had regular meet- ings for a considerable time, but they were discontinued.

Buena Vista (between Buena Vista and Unionsport)-The church was built about 1870, by a union effort of all classes, and was then given into the charge of Friends. There was no Society in connection with the meeting-house, but Friends from abroad made appointments for a time. Their meet-

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

ings have, however, been given up, and the house is occupied once a month by the Christians (New Lights).

There was once a Quaker Church standing about in the mid- dle of the burying-ground. It was built by Thomas Gillum, perhaps thirty years ago, say 1850, or thereabouts.

Cherry Grove is one of the group of Friends' Societies formed by that branch of Christian believers during the first years of settlement in Randolph County.

About 1820, Arba, Lynn, Cherry Grove, White River, Jericho and Dunkirk had all taken their beginning in religious work; and, except Dunkirk. every one of these meetings hold fast to its place and its work among men.

The exact year of the establishment of each one is not easy to tell at the present time. Each one of them grew up, naturally, as it were, by the gathering together of those who, in each local- ity, were of one heart and one mind in the worship of the Lord. They had been sober and devout worshipers in the Southern land, and they brought with them, deep settled in their inmost souls, their love of God and man and their hope in Christ, and their sense of obligation to be the Lord's, and to live and die for Him. And almost the very first thing done by them was to plant the tabernacle of the Lord in the wilderness; and, through rain and sunshine, and winter's cold, along forest trails and over paths dimly traced by blazed trees, on horseback or on foot, did those sturdy pioneers obey the command of their Lord not to " forget the assembling of themselves together."

The history of one is substantially the history of all. One in spirit, in faith, in love and hope, and in their views of the appropriate methods of Christian work and worship, this group of Friends' Societies have gone on, hand in hand and heart with heart, in their loving service of their Divine Master.

The chief members of Cherry Grove at first were Stephen Hockett, John Osborn, Jonathan Johnson, John Pegg, Caleb Reece, Thomas Frazier, Curtis Bales, James Jay, Gideon Frazier, Edward, Joseph and Nathan Thornburg, etc.

The recorded ministers from time to time, during almost two- thirds of a century have been Thomas Frazier, the only one for many years, Elizabeth Pearson, Elwood Osborn, Jonathan Hod- gin, Levi Jessup, Seth Reece, Huldah Reece, Cynthia Reece, Martha Johnson.

Some of the members at this time are, in addition to most of the above ministers: Isaac Osborn, Davis Pegg, Eli Reece, Cal- vin Johnson, Elkanah Osborn. There are about eighty families belonging to the Preparative Meeting, with about two hundred and eighty persons, including children.

It is worthy of remark, as showing the sincerity and per- manancy of the religions convictions of early Friends that the ministers among this group of meetings were, for a long time, very few. Jericho had none, Cherry Grove had but one, Arba had but one, Dunkirk had only one; and for many years Jericho Friends would meet on First and Fifth Day, winter and summer, rain or shine, regular as the sun- rise, and sit in absolute and coaseless quiet with neither prayer, nor exhortation, nor song, under the gentle power of the purify- ing and comforting Spirit, cherishing in their waiting souls the lovely Christian graces. The meeting-house now standing has been in occupancy for about tweny-two or twenty-three years.

The first house was log, built where the schoolhouse now is. The second was frame, built in 1838. That was burnt down in about 1856, and another, the present one, was erected the next season.

The meeting-house stands upon a delightful knoll, being one of the finest church sites in the county.

Cherry Grove Monthly Meeting was set up in 1822; the Pre- parative Meeting was established some years before that time.

Dunkirk .- The first meeting-house at Dunkirk was built in 1822, and the second and last one in 1830. The Friends there were led by Isom Puckett for thirty-six years; when he died, the church went down (1856).

The Dunkirk Society as a body went with the Anti-slavery Friends, and the meeting went down before that body dissolved its organization.

The first house was built of logs, with puncheon floor, earthen

fire-place in the middle of the floor, without any chimney, the smoke escaping through an opening in the middle of the house.

Among those who helped to build it are Jerry Reynolds, Isom Puckett, Jease Green, Elijah Jackson, John Wright, Solomon Reynard, Solomon Wright.

It was situated on the Paul Way farm. The church is still standing. The graveyard is used for purposes of burial, though much out of repair. It is to be regretted that the early Friends were so unwilling to place memorial stones over the graves of their dear departed, since by that neglect all memory of most of those ancient pioneers will speedily pass from among men. Dunkirk has scores, perhaps hundreds, of rough stones set up as a token that at some time some friend or relative was deposited beneath; but who it may have been, or when the act was done, or what the age or sex of the one above whose dust the " dumb token " still remains, that lifeless, that letterless stone will not reveal, and no mortal now living can tell, and the secret is for- ever hidden. The tomb ie locked, and the key is thrown into the river, and perpetual darkness rests down upon the rolling wave!

That ancient graveyard would be regarded by coming ages as a thrice sacred spot, and all the more could future generations read upon the fair face of the slabs of unmoldering marble the names, the ages, the virtues of fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers in a long, backward-extending line of honored and venerable, but now wellnigh forgotten ancestry!

In New England and the East there are no spots like those ancient "God's acres," where whole generations of ancestors lie entombed, and where, moreover, the monuments above the life- less dust of the departed dead preserve in fadeless freshness the memory of those who in their appointed lot and place, in ages long gone by, served well their generation according to the will of God.

In Old England there is no spot upon her honored soil like that wonder of the world, the mansoleum of the British Empire - the burial place of the great, the honored, the renowned, the venerated among that mighty nation -Westminster Abbey. And think of being buried in Westminster Abbey with no stone to mark the resting-place! To be honored with a niche among that congregated host of heroes worthy and beloved, and yet to lie utterly unnoted and wholly unknown among that company of England's best and noblest, even as though bleaching in the blank and empty desert, or as though in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

And Dunkirk, in the Randolph woods, though a humble, is yet a sacred, spot; and could we, as we repair thither, but point out the graves of the worthy sires and grandsires, and of the aged mothers and grandmothers who have in that solemn place been buried out of sight until the Archangel's trump shall sound, after they had well fulfilled the mission which the Great Master above had given them to do, instead of being, as it now threatens speedily to become, simply a ruinous old inclosure, rough and unsightly, with uncouth, shapeless stones projecting uselessly from the hillocked earth, that same Dunkirk, hidden away in the recesses of the forest, would grow to be, and more and more as the years and the ages roll, become a veritable "temple of Mecca," a shrine sacred to love and affection, and to reverence of the lamented dead.

Ereet the gravestones and preserve the cemeteries, and let suitable and imperishable monuments mark the resting-places of the " dear ones long departed," not indeed for vain and costly show, or in the way of proud and senseless display of aristocracy and pride, but under the gentle power of affection and with a sincere and worthy purpose to preserve to the' public through succeeding generations the knowledge and the memory of those who, during their lives, were devoted to friendship and kindness and the love of God and man.

Farmland .-- Benjamin Morris, of the Cedar Preparative. Meeting, has a minnte from that society allowing him to hold meetings at Farmland. He does so every other week, Sabbath and Sabbath evenings. There are about thirty members. Their serv- ices were at first held in the old schoolhouse. During the present year (1881), they have bought the old Christian (New Light)

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

Church at a cost of $350, and are undertaking, under the lead- ings of the enlightening Spirit, to establish in that village a permanent, religious work, in connection with their order of faith and practice.

Jericho was established about 1820. They built a log cabin, with no windows, but merely holes for light with shutters. The seats were poles with legs. The women's side had a big fire- place, but the men's side had a hearth in the middle of the room, with a hole in the roof above to let the heat and smoke out. They would use coals from the fire-place, bark, etc., that made but little smoke. Benoni Hill, Henry Hill, Amos Peacock, Abram Peacock, Elijah Cox, and William Cox, with their wives, formed the meeting.

There was no minister for fifteen years. The first preacher was John Jones, about 1835. Other preachers have been resi- dent among them, though not very many.

In 1843, a division took place in the society at Jericho, a large company adhering to the Anti-slavery Friends. A new meeting-house was built near Henry Hill's, and it was occupied, perhaps, for twenty years. The Hills, the Peacocks, and others were prominent in this " separation " at Jericho. After the abo- lition of slavery, the Anti-slavery Friends disbanded, and most went back to the "body." In about 1878, another division oc- curred at Jericho arising from the fact that the great body of the societies belonging to the Richmond Yearly Meeting (and, perhaps, to others), have decidedly changed their methods of procedure and their modes of worship from those which had been prevalent for many years. Some of the Jericho Friends were unwilling to yield to these changes, and set up a meeting for themselves. The two divisions occupy the same meeting- house, the old society meeting in the forenoon, and the new in the afternoon. The "new " would to outsiders appear to be the "old," but since the Yearly Meeting has also changed, those who persist in the old methods are reckoned to be the " new " society. Both, curiously enough, claim to be in the spirit, and to be using the methods, of the original Quakers. The " new methods" certainly differ very greatly from those forty and fifty years ago. How it was at first, we are unable to say. The members of the meeting in harmony with Richmond Yearly Meeting are George Thomas, Frances Frazier, Asenath Thomas, and many others.

The members of the other meeting are William Peacock, Clarkson Peacock, -- Peacock, Elijah Peacock, William Rob- inson, --- Gilbert, with their wives, as also perhaps others.

The Jericho Friends are a steady, God-fearing, kind and generous people, trying to walk in the leadings of the Spirit, and following peace and good-will toward their brethren and their fellow-men; and it would seem, to those who look on, a mat- ter of sincere regret that the little group of faithful Christians, small enough even in the whole, could not so far walk in nnity as to continue to be one in ontward work and modes of worship, even as they doubtless are in substantial love and desire for Christian purity and spiritual advancement.

Lynn was formed very early in the history of the county, per- haps as soon as 1818, or thereabouts. ) The chief members were Paul Beard, Sr., Jesse Johnson, Francis Frazier, James Frazier, -- Kenworthy, Travis Adcock, John Moorman, Obadiah Harris, and others not now known. The ministers have been Obadiah Harris, the first, and for many years the only one, Ruth John- son, Ira Johnson, Cynthia Mills, James Mills (moved to Kansas), Elkanah Beard, Irena Beard (the two last missionaries to India and elsewhere). Travis Adcock, and others removed to Iowa about 1837. The church now standing is very old, having been built more than forty, and perhaps even fifty years ago. It was erected about 1830. The Friends at Lynn have always had among them those who were active in every good and benevo- lent work, and their record is abundant and honorable in labors for Christ, and for the. upbuilding of His cause among men. Their first house was of logs, built about 1820. The Friends at Lynn are now (summer of 1881), erecting 'a new house of worship on the west side of the pike, near the toll-gate south of the village of Lynn.

Norwich (near Charles Crist's) .-- A meeting-house was built

and a graveyard established by the Friends near Charles Crist's, southeast of Spartanburg. very early, probably as soon as 1825.

The ground (one and a half acres) was given to the society by four men jointly.

The religious society was discontinued about 1840, or perhaps sooner. The cemetery is still in use, though not in very good repair.

The donors of the tract were Stanton Bailey, Cornelius Over- man and two others. We have been unable to obtain more defi- nite information as to this society, as it has been extinct forty years or more, and those who had to do with it are gone from the region long years ago.

Parker. - The Friends have held meetings at this place for some six years. The Friends who have attended, and have min- istered as they were 'led by the Divine Light.' have been Della Branson, Benjamin Morris, Isaiah Jay, Martitia Carter, John Os- born, John H. Bond, Lydia Wright.

The resident Friends are Elkanah Morris and wife, Barclay Smith and wife, Andrew Dragoo and wife, Dr. Rogers and wife, Martin Phillips and wife, Philip Cultice and wife, P. B. Barnes and wife, Lydia Jessup, Willson Jessup, Hannah Miller, Fanny Morris, Charles Long, Jacob Wells, Sallie Wasson, L. H. Karne and others.

In the summer of 1881, they bought the house that had been the Christian meeting-house, and they now occupy it for regular religious service, striving humbly to wait on the Lord in quiet- ness and unity in the way of His appointment, trusting in the fulfillment of His gracious promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

Sparrow Creek .- The meeting was organized about 1835. Dunkirk, Jericho and White River had been joined in a monthly meeting. Sparrow Creek Meeting-House was built, and Dunkirk and the latter were made into a monthly meeting. The house was a good frame building, with two rooms, for males and fe- males, and it was built about 1835. It was burned some years afterward, during a winter school, through the means of a stove- pipe.

The society undertook to build again, and got the frame up, but in some way the matter failed. The members were some of the Pucketts and the Bealses and others. The graveyard still remains, and has some care, though it is in bad repair.

In 1839, Arnold Buffum first lectured in Winchester on abo- lition, and he came out and spoke also both at Dunkirk and at Sparrow Creek, and afterward formed an anti-slavery society at Dunkirk. At that place, "Old Billy Hunt" (Rev. William Hunt) challenged a discussion upon slavery. Dunkirk and Spar- row Creek Quakers went nearly en masse for abolition.

Friend Methodist, Union, Southeast of Windsor .- Rev. John Smith, a United Brethren preacher, came into the neighborhood where John Thornburg lived about forty-five or fifty years ago. Upon his preaching, the people liked his doctrine well, and a Union Church was formed by Methodists and Friends. Some of the chief members were John Thornburg, George W. Smithson, G. Wesley Terrell, William Moore, John N. Terrell.

The log church near the cemetery was built in 1838. Their meetings were very interesting, and did much good. The church was thriving and prosperous while John Thornburg (who was a minister) lived among them. After his death, divisions arose, the meeting-house was sold, and another was erected farther south, and gradually the Friend Methodist Church became a thing of the past. The cemetery, with the church, is there yet, and is patronized for purposes of burial for miles around. The graveyard is located upon a sightly knoll; making a pleasant ap- pearance. Many graves are there, and a large number of tomb- stones raise their heads above the friendly soil to betoken to friends and passers-by where rest the remains of the sleeping dead.

White River .- This meeting was " set up " about 1820. The chief families were those of Benjamin Cox, John Wright (black- smith), Jonathan Hiatt, Simon Cox, Thomas Ward, Joseph Mof- fatt, and perhaps more besides. Of these pioneers of church work among the Friends, none are living. All have passed on to their reward, and many, very many, of their bodies

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

lie sleeping in the silent graveyard beside the church, where, for so many faithful years, they met to worship Him who wishes for His followers only those who worship in spirit and in truth.

The ministers belonging to White River cannot now be stated. One of them is Levi Cox. Neither have we at hand the names of the principal members of the society.

The present meeting-house has been standing many years, having been built in about 1840.

Before its erection, and from the beginning of their settle- ment, the Friends had, what everybody else had, for the same purpose, in the "wooden country," a log church, and many a season of sweet and rich and melting communion with the "Spirit which giveth life" and bringeth peace to the waiting, be- lieving soul, did those quiet, humble, God-fearing Friends enjoy amid the mighty forest shades, afar from the din and bustle of the busy mart, and from the thronged places of concourse where hundreds or thousands congregate for business, for pleasure, or even for the worship of Him who filleth all in all. For sixty years, that quiet spot has witnessed, week after week, the ap- proach of the worshiping groups as they drew near the sanctuary of the Holy One to assemble themselves together in the name of the Lord; and still, week by week, the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of those aged fathers and mothers of the olden time follow the footsteps of their venerated ancestors who planted the worship of Jehovah in those unbroken woods, and in meekness and humility they bow their souls in solemn adoration, and lovingly wait and earnestly wrestle and pray for the over- shadowing and indwelling presence and power of the same spirit who visited, ages ago, the first Christian dwellers in these lands.

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History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 45

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman Number of Pages: 664

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664