USA > Ohio > Miami County > West Milton > Centennial anniversary of West Branch Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1807-1907 > Part 1
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Gc 977. 102 W532f 1406304
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
EN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02280 0814
West Branch Meeting House
1807
1907
-
Centennial Anniversary C
OF
West Branch Monthly Meeting of Friends
Established Ist Month 7th, 1807.
HELD AT
WEST MILTON, OHIO
Ioth month, 11th and 12th, 1907
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS.
Anna May Pemberton, Pres .; John Coate, Vice- Pres. : Herbert R. Pearson, Sec. ; Wm. A. Jones, Treas., I. N. Carter, Delia B. Erven, L. M. Elleman, John Thomas, Anna Thomas. Presiding Officer, Dr. H. R. Pearson.
The programme was interspersed with solos by Janette Woollam, Ethel Coate, of West Milton and Celia Carroll of Richmond, Ind. Seasons of worship were observed at the beginning of each meeting, and a number of ministers present appeared in supplica- tion at the different sessions.
1406304 SIXTH DAY, IO A. M.
Scripture reading 84th Psalm and Address of Wel- come, J. Arthur Woollam, West Milton, Ohio.
It seems almost a form of error when custom makes it necessary for us to pause at the opening of a Quaker gathering to hear an address of welcome-we, who for generations have been trying to teach the blessings of true altruism more than any other people living, and yet it devolves upon me to express in a few words the welcome that awaits you in West Milton. We welcome you as brothers and sisters in the Lord, be- cause of the cause you represent. You have come here to talk about what Quakerism has meant to this world of ours, and what it ought to mean to the generations of the future, as well as of the blessings of God that have fallen upon West Branch during the last ten de- cades-blessings the recollection of which will bring tears to many eyes, and which have made this centen- nial possible. We welcome you here to meet each other, and to greet each other in the name of the Eter- nal Son of God, whose blood alone atones for human sin, because the religion which we hold says, "One is our Master, all we are brethren."
It has been granted to us as Friends in the opening years of this wonderful twentieth century to live in a most wonderful age. Back of us lie two hundred and sixty years of human effort,-effort perhaps often mis- directed, but never wholly useless; for who can tell all of its accomplishments ? We are not ashamed of the record we have made. We have stood well at the head of many, if not all of the great reforms for two centuries and a half. We were friends in need to the savage red men. Our voice was heard in thunder tones against the awful scourge of human slavery, and it has been abolished forever. We have the honor of making, as Voltaire, the French historian, has said, the only treaty never sworn to and never broken, be- cause our yea was yea, and our nay, nay. We have ever stood opposed to war. Whether the effort of the past has led to victory or to defeat, it has lifted the level of opportunity high. Toilsomely, and through a great deal of suffering, generation after generation has climbed up the steep slopes and the rocky hillsides, until
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we to-day stand at an immense altitude of opportun- ity above our fathers. We know that sorrow and suf- fering and death for very many of them are behind us. But with the record of their deeds before us, and the Spirit of their God within us, may we go forth propa- gating the principles which give us our right to an existence ; and lift above the nations of the earth the face of our blessed Lord, in whose name we welcome you to-day.
PREHISTORIC WEST BRANCH. BY ELI JAY, RICHMOND, INDIANA.
West Branch Monthly Meeting of Friends, set off from Miami Monthly Meeting, Warren County, Ohio, with its approval and authorized by Redstone Quarter- ly Meeting, held in southwestern Pennsylvania, 12th Mo., 6th, 1806, was opened at West Branch Meet- ing house, two miles south of West Milton, Miami County, Ohio, Ist Mo., 17th, 1807.
Friends, we are met here to-day, many of us de- scendants of the pioneers of that early day, to com- membrate this event, the establishment of Friends' Meeting at West Branch one hundred years ago, and to consider developments that led up to that event and some of the consequences that have followed from it.
In the topic assigned me on this occasion I propose, first, to trace the line of descent of West Branch Monthly Meeting through the Monthly Meetings from which it has sprung, by one or many steps ; and, second, to give some account of the emigration and family names of the leading members and actors in the West Branch meetings of the early day, before they emi- grated to Ohio.
DESCENT OF MEETING.
As a matter of interest showing the rapid emigration of the Friends to Southwestern Ohio, one hundred years ago, it is well to note that the act of Miami Monthly Meeting and Redstone Quarterly Meeting es- tablishing a Meeting for Worship, Preparative and Monthly Meetings, called West Branch, in Miami County, also established a Meeting for Worship, Pre- parative and Monthly Meetings called Centre in Clin- ton County, Ohio, to be held alternately at Cesar's Creek and Centre; a Meeting for Worship and a Pre-
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parative called Cesar's Creek in Warren County, Ohio ; and a Meeting for Worship and a Preparative called Elk Creek in Preble County, Ohio.
The first of these meetings to be opened were those at West Branch in First Month, 1807, and the others in the Second Month. On account of the distance of Redstone Quarterly Meeting, the appointment of a committee to officially open these meetings was delegat- ed to Miami Monthly Meeting and Asher Brown, David Pugh, John Townsend and Samuel Spray, ap- pointed by that meeting, were in attendance at West Branch in that capacity.
When the first Monthly Meeting was to be set up in the Miami Valley in the first years of the last centu- ry, the Friends about to compose it being far removed from other Friends' Meetings and belonging to many different Monthly Meetings, they chose to make ap- plication to Westland Monthly Meeting, Pennsylvania, about three hundred miles away, of which some of them were members, and to which the membership of others was transferred by certificate. The records of Bush River Monthly Meeting, South Carolina, give us such transference of about one hundred of their members who were then residing in "the Miami country north of the Ohio River." Probably other Monthly Meeting records would show the same. And thus Miami Monthly Meeting was opened at Waynes- ville, Ohio, 10 Mo. 13th, 1803, by the joint action of Westland Monthly and Redstone Quarterly Meetings.
In a similar manner it appears that Westland Month- ly Meeting. Washington County, Pennsylvania, was set up in 1785, by Hopewell Monthly and Fairfax Quarterly Meetings, Virginia ; and that Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Frederick County, Virginia, near Winchester, was set up in 1735 by Nottingham Month- ly and Chester Quarterly Meetings ; that Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Cecil County, Maryland, was set up in 1730 by New Garden Monthly and Chester Quarter- ly Meetings: that New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was set up in 1718 by Newark Monthly and Chester Quarterly Meeting ; that Newark Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, was set up in 1686, by Concord Monthly and Chester Quarterly Meetings: that Concord Monthly Meeting, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, was set up in 1684 by Chester Monthly and Chester Quarterly
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Meetings. It appears that Chester Monthly Meeting was a self-constituted Monthly Meeting opened in 1681 for the accommodation of the Friends west of the Del- aware River.
It thus appears that the line of descent of West Branch Monthly Meeting is from and through the following Monthly Meetings established in the years given ; Chester 1681 and Concord 1684, both in Dela- ware County, Pennsylvania ; Newark, 1686 and New Garden 1718, both in Chester County, Pennsylvania ; Nottingham 1730, in Cecil County, Maryland ; Hope- well 1735, in Frederick County, Virginia; Westland 1785, Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Miami 1803, Warren County, Ohio: West Branch 1807, Miami County, Ohio.
From the foregoing we might conclude that West Branch Monthly Meeting was a child of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, but we learn that, in 1790, by a new arrangement, the meetings in Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, which had belonged to Philadelphia were transferred to the Yearly Meeting for Maryland, which was thereafter to be held at Baltimore, which seems then to have taken the name of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Since the Redstone, Pennsylvania, Meeting belonged to Baltimore Yearly Meeting in 1803, all the Friends' Meetings west of the Alleghenies are to be reckoned descended from Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
EMIGRATIONS.
Pennsylvania, founded in 1682, was one of the last of the English colonies formed in America. The fav- orable terms offered by William Penn caused such rapid emigration to Pennsylvania that the parts near Philadelphia were soon occupied and there was a de- mand for fresh lands which resulted in the expansion of the colony to the southwest away from the coast, as the lands there were already settled. By 1725 the settle- ments and the meetings of the Friends had passed the Susquehanna River westward and were well on their way to the Potomac southward. About 1730, a com- pany, principally of Friends, at the head of which were Alexander Ross and James Wright, secured a grant from the government of Virginia, of 100,000 acres of land on Opequan Creek in the valley of the Shenandoah River. This brought about a rapid emi-
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gration to that region and, the settlers being largely Friends, resulted in the opening of many Friends' meet- ings amongst them. Of these the leading one appears to have been Hopewell, five miles north of Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, which became a Monthly Meeting in 1735 and soon had many subordinate meet- ings around it, there being at one time five large Pre- parative Meetings tributary to it.
Soon after the settlement of Friends around Win- chester, Virginia, other Friends settled in Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, about forty miles east of Win- chester, and this resulted in the establishment of Fair- fax Monthly Meeting, set off from Hopewell in 1744. Both of these settlements of Friends now became centers of emigration further to the South producing a chain of meetings across Virginia and well into North Carolina. The trouble with the Indians in Virginia dur- ing the French and Indian War hastened the emigra- tion southward, where the Indians of the border were more peaceable and thus strengthened the Friends' Meetings already begun, particularly New Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina, and Cane Creek in Orange County, which had their origin about 1750.
The emigration continuing southward entered South Carolina soon after 1760, and in a few years large and prosperous settlements of the Friends were formed in Union and Newberry Counties, South Carolina, and in Columbia County, Georgia. These northern emigrants were also joined by some families of Friends that came direct from England and Ireland and located in these settlements. In 1770, Bush River Monthly Meeting was opened in Newberry Coun- ty, by authority of Western Quarterly Meeting, North Carolina, set off from a monthly meet- ing held near Camden, South Carolina, on the Wateree River, sometimes called Fredericksburg, or Wateree, or Camden. This meeting had been subordinate to Western Quarterly Meeting, North Carolina Yearly Meeting. In 1774 Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting, Co- lumbia County, Georgia, was established ; in 1789, Cane Creek Monthly Meeting, Union County, was set off from Bush River.
In 1791 Bush River Quarterly Meeting, set off from Western Quarterly Meeting, was established by it and North Carolina Yearly Meeting for the convenience of these three Monthly Meetings. In an Almanac pub-
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lished in 1799 by direction of Baltimore Friends, giv- ing a list of Friends' Meetings in America, we learn that there were then twelve meetings subordinate to these three monthly meetings. It is not possible to give the number of members belonging then to Bush River Quarterly Meeting, but as we have record of nearly one thousand members that removed from its limits in the next eight years, it seems that its membership could not have been much if any less than fifteen hundred in Ninth Month, 1802, when the first removal certificate was issued for those already gone to the "Ohio country."
As far as I have been able to learn, the location of Friends in this far Southland was very desirable and pleasant as far as outward comfort and ease were con- cerned. Their land was fairly productive and their cli- mate almost ideal. Their communities were prosper- ous, their meetings were harmonious and pleasant and there was loving fellowship amongst them as brethren of the same household of faith. But as the eighteenth century drew to a close there was unrest amongst them and a general feeling that a change of location was de- sirable.
Friends at first in common with others held slaves to some extent. But there was all the time a protest against the practice as inconsistent with their Christian pro- fession. When they located in South Carolina and Georgia, slaveholding was still tolerated amongst the Friends, but in the years of their residence there the Society had taken a very advanced position on the sub- ject. This change had been gradual and was the re- sult of heartfelt conviction. One by one it was laid up- on their hearts and consciences that it was wrong to hold their fellow-men in bondage, and they freed their slaves. This conviction spread and soon became the concern of the whole Society. By loving, though per- sistent persuasion, pressing the truth, as it was ap- prehended, upon the conscience and judgment of the membership, the Society of Friends, as a body, became united in forbidding the practice of holding slaves by the members.
This pronounced stand, of course, put them in op- position to the prevailing sentiment of the country. The increasing number of slaves-the census of 1800 shows that in the preceding decade the slaves in Newberry county had increased 25 per cent, while the white
VLO
U VOGGU
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population was stationary-showed them the disad- vantage to which their free labor would soon be put in competition with slave labor. This conviction of conscience in the line of duty and of judgment as to economic considerations, came to them as a Divine Voice to get out of that country to a land that would be shown them. That land was the new Northwest Territory then opening to settlers with its fundamen- tal ordinance dedicating it forever to freedom and free institutions. And they were not disobedient to the visions opened before them, but came with great rapid- ity as a van-guard to a mighty host that soon followed to lay enduring foundations, free citizens in great states and prosperous commonwealths. And here in this Miami Valley they met members from the somewhat delayed wave of western emigration from Pennsylva- nia, who finally crossed the Alleghanies and planted themselves in the western part of the state, and also met those that had found homes and religious fellow- ship in the meetings in Virginia and the "old North State."
We do not know the number of members in Miami Monthly Meeting when it was opened in 1803,- but perhaps between two and three hundred. For the next four years the names of all Friends locating in Warren, Clinton, Highland, Montgomery, Miami and Preble Counties, Ohio, and in Wayne County, Indiana. who brought removal certificates, are given on the records of Miami Monthly Meeting. The date of the issue of these certificates and by what meeting issued are also given. The number of such certificates re- ceived in the four years, 1803 to 1807, is four hundred, transferring the membership of eighteen hundred and twenty-six persons to that meeting. So that, when West Branch Meeting was set up in 1807, Miami must have had over two thousand members. These cer- tificates come from forty Monthly Meetings in seven different states, and from four Yearly Meetings. From the one Monthly Meeting in Georgia there came twen- ty-eight certificates for one hundred and fifty-five per- sons, and from the two Monthly Meetings in South Carolina there came one hundred and forty-three cer- tificates for six hundred and fifty-five persons, making one hundred and seventy-one certificates for eight hun- dred and ten persons from Bush River Quarterly Meet- ing, or about four-ninths of the whole. From eleven Monthly Meetings in North Carolina there came nine-
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ty certificates for three hundred and eighty-seven per- sons, and from two Monthly Meetings in Tennessee there came forty-five certificates for two hundred and twenty-one persons, making, in these four years, three hundred and six certificates from sixteen Monthly Meetings belonging to North Carolina Yearly Meeting, for one thousand, four hundred and eighteen persons or seven-ninths of the whole emigration. Of the re- maining two-ninths, four hundred and eight persons, there came fifty-five certificates from six monthly meet- ings, for two hundred and sixty-nine persons from Vir- ginia and belonging to Virginia Yearly Meeting ; and eight certificates from six monthly meetings for twen- ty-five persons in Maryland ; sixteen certificates from six monthly meetings in Pennsylvania for forty-five persons ; and fourteen certificates from seven monthly meetings in New Jersey for sixty-nine persons.
It is thus seen that while the bulk of the members added in these four years came from the southern states, there were representatives from all the Ameri- can Yearly Meetings but two. As near as I am able to determine, all the charter members of West Branch Monthly Meeting came from North Carolina Yearly Meeting, and by far the larger part of them from Bush River Quarterly Meeting in South Carolina, and of these the majority were from Bush River Monthly Meeting, though the Cooper, Davis, Jones and Mote families from Wrightsboro, Georgia, contributed a considerable number.
FAMILY NAMES.
I now proceed with brief accounts by name of some of the families before they came to Ohio, that were prominent in the early history of the West Branch Meetings. In doing this I shall draw largely from the records of Friends' Meetings with which it has been my privilege to become acquainted in different ways, supplemented by such other information as seems trustworthy. I am sorry not to be able to treat all families alike, in the extent of their history, but the limitations of my knowledge forbids this, and com- pels me to omit some altogether. I can only give such information as I have been able to obtain. For con- venience of arrangement I shall take up the names in alphabetical order.
BALLINGER. James and Lydia Ballinger and their family of thirteen children are on Bush River Family
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Registry. In 1797 they took their removal certificate to New Hope Monthly Meeting, Tennessee, from whence some of the family came to Ohio.
BROOKS. James and Sarah (Wright) Brooks were parents of a family at Bush River. The Brooks and Wright families were both from Pennsylvania. Sarah Wright, probably born at Fairfax, Virginia, was the daughter of John and Rachel (Wells) Wright, who, in 1749, removed from Fairfax, Virginia, to Carver's Creek, Bladen County, North Carolina. In 1768 they were living at Bush River, South Carolina, where two of their children married in the meeting that year.
BROWN. Samuel Brown and his wife brought their removal certificate from Nottingham Monthly Meet- ing to Bush River in 1775. He seems to have been a man of superior capability and education, as he served as clerk of Bush River Monthly Meeting four terms, making in all more than eight years. He also was the first clerk of West Branch Quarterly Meeting, serving about three years.
COATE. The Marmaduke Coate and his seven sons, who settled in Miami County, Ohio, about 1805, are descendants of a Marmaduke Coate who lived in Somersetshire, England, and died there in 1689. He was one of the steadfast early Friends and suffered imprisonment for his religious profession, being im- prisoned most of the time from 1670 to 1685. His wife, Edith, and his son, Marmaduke, born 1651, were also Imprisoned at the same place for some time. The son, Marmaduke, married Ann Pole in England, and later came to America and settled near Burlington, New Jersey. According to the minutes of Burlington Meet- ing, his coming there was in 1715. There, four of his children, three daughters and one son, married in the years, 1719 to 1727. The last of these to marry was William Coate to Rebecca Sharp, 2 Mo. 6th, 1727. The father, Marmaduke, died 12 Mo. 16th, 1728, and the mother, II Mo. 4th, 1729.
It is not known when William Coate removed to South Carolina, but Judge O'Neal in his "Annals of Newberry," says he was living there as early as 1762. William's son, Marmaduke, born in 1738, appears to have married in South Carolina, Mary Coppock, who had been held as a captive by the Indians several years. Their family of nine children given on the Bush River Family Registry, were born in the years 1766 to 1788.
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Five of their sons married in South Carolina, two marrying daughters of Joseph and Jane Coppock ; one, a daughter of Isaac and Lydia Haskett; and two, daughters of William and Jane Miles. The removal certificate of Marmaduke and Mary Coate and their younger sons, John and Jesse, is dated 8 Mo. 25th, 1804, and was received at Miami Monthly Meeting, Ohio, 12 Mo. 8th, 1804. The certificates for the three older sons and their families are dated earlier in the year 1804, and those for the other two, William and James, in 1805.
COOPER. Isaac and Benjamin Cooper and their fam- ilies are mentioned in the Meeting Minutes in Geor- gia and South Carolina. They came South from the vicinity of Philadelphia. Isaac Cooper, the son of the Isaac above, married in 1802 Elizabeth Kennedy in Georgia, and came to Ohio soon after, settling in Mont- gomery County, Ohio, six miles north of Dayton.
COPPOCK. Two Coppock families, John and Abigail, and Joseph and Jane, are on the Registry of Bush River Monthly Meeting, South Carolina. They came from the limits of Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Maryland. Joseph, born in 1742, married there in 1769 Jane Wilson, and in 1772 they took a removal certificate from Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Cecil County, Maryland, to Bush River, South Carolina. John, born in 1736, received a removal certificate from the same meeting for himself and family in 1777. John and Joseph were sons of John and Margaret (Coulson) Coppock, who died in Maryland 1788 and 1789. This John was the son of Aaron Coppock. Most of the children of these two families were early settlers in Miami County, Ohio.
Bush River also mentions another Coppock family, the parents being Moses and Martha, who according to the family tradition came directly from England to South Carolina and settled on the frontier. In the absence of the father the Indians raided their home and, killing the mother, captured the children, one of whom, named Mary, they held for several years. She afterward became the wife of Marmaduke Coate. The Bush River records give the marriage of Martha Cop- pock, the daughter of Moses and Martha, 12 Mo. 30th, 1771, to William Tomlinson, of Fredericksburg Town- ship, South Carolina. She and her descendants after- ward lived in North Carolina. James Coppock, son
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of Moses and Martha, about 1784, married Hannah Pugh, and they and their children, Moses, Susannah, and Martha Coppock, came to Miami County, Ohio, their removal certificate from Bush River Monthly Meeting bearing date 8 Mo. 30th, 1806.
DAVIS. Abiathar Davis and Rachel, his wife, and his seven younger children, received a removal certificate from Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting, Georgia, to Mi- ami Monthly Meeting, Ohio, 5 Mo. 5th, 1804. He was born in Wales, 1754 and died in Ohio in 1840, and was the father of ten children, four sons and six daughters.
DUNCAN. Judge O'Neal, in his "Annals of Newber- ry," gives Samuel and John Duncan as Friends in Bush River Monthly Meeting and says they were of Scotch descent. The family of Samuel and Mary Duncan is given in the Registry of that Meeting. In 1801, the family received a removal certificate to New Hope Monthly Meeting, Tennessee, and in 1806 a removal certificate from that Meeting to Miami Monthly Meet- ing, Ohio, which endorsed it to West Branch Monthly Meeting where it was received in the Fourth Month, 1807.
ELLEMAN. The ancestor of the Ellemans in this country was Enos Elleman, a native of Wales. His father, John Elleman, was an Englishman and his inother, Mary, a Welsh woman. The time of his com- ing to America is not known. He seems to have come to New Jersey and from there to have emigrated southward, marrying Catherine Collins, of German birth and locating in Orange County, North Carolina, before 1758. The family remained here until some time between 1766 and 1769, when they came to Bush Riv- er, North Carolina. He was the recorder of the Family Registry of Bush River Monthly Meeting from 1772 to 1782, when a recorder was appointed in- stead of "Enos Elleman, who has removed out of these parts." In recording his own family he appends a note saying that his first five children were born in Orange County, North Carolina. This embraces his son John. born in 1766, and four daughters, born in the years 1758 to 1763. His only other child was his son Wil- liam, born in 1769, at Bush River. His oldest son John married in 1787 Susannah Coppock, daughter of John and Abigall (Skillern) Coppock, and removed perhaps soon after, to east Tennessee, from whence in 1806
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