USA > Ohio > Miami County > West Milton > Centennial anniversary of West Branch Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1807-1907 > Part 5
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the law to emancipate slaves without removing them .. Consequently, consignments were made, from time to time, to North Carolina Yearly Meeting, and it entered into the business of removing them to other places. For years, the Yearly Meeting was burdened with law suits, brought by heirs, and other troubles relating to the emancipated slaves in their possession; but they succeeded in sending hundreds away. The remnant of North Carolina Yearly Meeting gave large contri- butions for the purpose of removing these people of color. They were assisted liberally in their work, by Philadelphia and other American Yearly Meetings and also London Yearly Meeting.
In 1814, Charles Osborne, a minister among Friends, was interested in organizing Manumission Societies in Tennessee, the first of which was formed at the home of Elihu Swain. They pledged themselves to vote for no governor or legislator unless he favored emanci- pation. There were eight signers to the constitution, all of whom were Friends. Charles Osborne went to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, later, and started a paper in 1817 called. "The Philanthropist," devoted largely to the discussion of different lines of reform of which Anti-Slavery was one.
That Friends have the honor of giving to the cause the first Anti-Slavery papers has never been ques- tioned. Elihu Embree edited a paper in Tennessee, being the first devoted exclusively to the cause. Ben- jamin Lundy's paper, published at Mount Pleasant in 1821. was the first to make the question a great politi- cal issue.
Benjamin Lundy was the first man in America to devote all his life to the cause. Horace Greely calls him the Father of Abolitionism. The Society of Friends had not since the days of Fox given to the world a man of such far-reaching influence, as Ben- jamin Lundy. To him, more than to any other man, does the nation owe a debt of gratitude, for carrying the flames of liberty beyond the borders of the Society of Friends, and creating a sentiment, that refused to al- low the existence of slavery in the Republic.
He was born in New Jersey in 1789.
When nineteen years of age, he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the saddler's trade. Here he saw the coffles of slaves on their way South,-going two by two with a chain passed between them, to which handcuffs were attached. Such scenes fired his soul
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with deepened convictions on the subject, and he pledged his life unreserved to the cause. "My heart was deeply grieved," he says, "I heard the wail of the captive. I felt his pang of distress. The iron entered my soul."
He settled at Saint Clairesville, Ohio, where, in four years, he saved three thousand dollars' worth of prop- erty, working at his trade. But he could not forget the slave. In 1816, he called in his neighbors and organized a Union Humane Society with six members. This was the first Anti-Slavery organization in Ohio. He went here and there organizing, and by persistent effort soon had five hundred members. He wrote an appeal to the philanthropists of the United States ; and laid a plan for Anti-Slavery Societies, much like those organized later. He had been contributing articles to Charles Osborne's paper, and finally decided to sell his saddlery wares and join him in the printing business.
He went down the Ohio river on a flat boat to sell his saddlery wares. It was at the time of the great excitement on the Missouri question. People did not care much for the little man with his wares; but he made his influence felt on the Slavery question by en- listing in the discussion in the Illinois and Missouri papers. There was great stagnation in business at this time; he lost his property, and walked home,- a distance of seven hundred miles. Charles Osborne had sold his paper during his absence.
When he came back, he started a paper of his own at Mount Pleasant, which he called the Genius of Uni- versal Emancipation, and which, as we have said, was the first paper ever published that made the question a great political issue. After the death of Elihu Em- bree, he removed his paper to Tennessee, afterwards to Baltimore and later to Philadelphia.
He traveled through the country, lecturing against slavery and talking to individuals on the subject. In his travels, he called upon most of the leading men of his time, trying to interest them in the all-absorbing subject. John Quincy Adams was his devoted per- sonal friend. He enlisted a great number of men and women in the cause, who gave themselves in solemn consecration to the agitation of the subject. Among them were a number of the younger generation, who became leaders after Lundy's work was finished. Among them was Wm. Lloyd Garrison. He met him first at Boston, and later walked across in the winter
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snow to Bennington, Vermont, to persuade him to assist in editing his paper, which he did for a time. Garrison says of Lundy, "To him, I owe my connec- tion with the cause of emancipation, as he was the first to call my attention to it; and, by his pressing invitation to join him in printing and editing the Gen- ius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore in 1828, he shaped my destiny for the remainder of my life."
While in Baltimore, Lundy was assaulted by a slave- trader, Austin Woolfolk, who attacked him because of some statements he had made in his Genius against the slave-trade. He pounced upon him on the street with brutish ferocity. threw him to the pavement, and struck a blow that came near ending his life. Lundy carried to his grave the scars made upon his face by Woolfolk's heavy boot.
After the death of Lovejoy. Lundy went to Illinois to edit his paper. John Greenleaf Whittier succeeded him in Philadelphia, and carried on the work he had established there. For eighteen years Lundy's bugle call was heard. It remained for him to lay the founda- tion for the Republican party in Illinois and prepare the way for Lincoln. He died at Lowell in 1839. For the reunion of Anti-Slavery pioneers, held in Chi- cago, in 1874, Whittier wrote :
"Nor is that pioneer of freedom, Benjamin Lundy, to be forgotten. It was his lot to struggle for years almost alone, a solitary voice crying in the wilderness ; poor, unaided, yet never despairing ; traversing the Island of Hayti, wasting with disease in New Orleans, hunted by Texan banditti, wandering on foot among the mountains of East Tennessee and along the Ozark hills, beaten down and trampled on by Baltimore slave- dealers ; yet, amidst all, faithful to his one great pur- pose-the emancipation of the slave."
We also quote from Wm. H. Burleigh's tribute to him :- - "Peace be to thee who gave no peace To Freedom's foes till life did cease! Oh, hadst thou lived to see The triumph of thy noble cause, . The reign of RIGHT AND EQUAL, LAWS, And listen to the world's applause,
Which vet shall sound for thee-
How had thy spirit leaped to join, With strength and ecstacy divine, The anthem of the free."
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Of the Anti-Slavery Society, that was organized at Boston in 1832, about which so much has been said, Arnold Buffum, a member of the Friends, was elected president. He was a hatter by trade. People sneered at the "Quaker hatter" and his company of uninfluen- tial citizens. They were only twelve in number, and were looked upon as a set of fanatics. But the little company pledged their all to the righteous cause.
Arnold Buffum had been in England, had given his first Anti-Slavery lecture in London Yearly Meeting house, had been associated with the great leaders there, -with Elizabeth Hayrick,-a Friends' minister, who had succeeded in convincing Wilberforce and other great leaders in England of the necessity of immediate emancipation for the West Indies. He had been trained to believe in the principles of universal free- dom, and was eminently fitted to act as President of this Society. The little company commissioned him and sent him out to plead the cause of the suffering slave. They had no salary to pay him, but by his careful effort, wise judgment and courage he drew many to the cause. He lectured in a number of states, and finally came to Old Newport, now Fountain City, Indiana. The meeting of Arnold Buffum and Levi Coffin was significant. And what a power Old Newport did become in the cause of freedom! Here was Levi Coffin's famous depot of the underground railroad, and all about here were homes consecrated to the cause, in the village and out. So safe were they, when they reached Old Newport, that it was called the dividing line.
Arnold Buffum was the pioneer lecturer in the state of Indiana. All through the Quaker part the interest grew and deepened. He started a paper in Old New- port, in 1841, called The Protectionist. His pen proved to be his most powerful weapon. After he had sent out five numbers of his paper, he had seven hun- dred subscribers. From the little village so replete with Anti-Slavery sentiment, three Anti-Slavery pap- ers were published at one time : a. "The Protectionist," championing the cause of political reform, ably edited by Arnold Buffum.
b. "The Free Labor Advocate," edited by Henry H. Way and Benjamin Stanton.
c. "The Jubilee," published by the Anti-Slavery Tract Society, intending to be a message of glad tid- ings, exhibiting the progress of the cause. All were out and out abolition papers.
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They had here a large number of societies. In one of Buffum's papers I read the announcement on ten meetings. There was the General Anti-Slavery So- ciety, The Woman's Society, The Debating Society for political discussion, Free Labor Meetings, &c. The meetings when assembled often lasted two or three days. These words I found in one of the announce- ments: "There will be a great Anti-Slavery Meeting at this place," giving time, &c. "Friends of the cause, come one and all. Come early in the morn- ing, prepared to stay all night." At one time, New Garden was the banner township, in the Union, for the Liberty ticket, giving a larger majority of votes than any other township in the country.
Time forbids us speaking of the work of individuals or even of communities which affords much material of interest. The value of the Quaker agitation rests not wholly upon what they did themselves, but also on the influence they exerted upon other classes ; and they kept it up until the emancipation proclamation was issued. Wherever there were Friends' communities, or, sometimes even an individual Friend, there the agitation was carried, and it was a leaven that finally leavened the whole lump.
The organization of the National Anti-Slavery So- ciety, in 1833, was one of the most important meetings in the history of the movement. The representatives assembled in Philadelphia on the fourth of December, and perhaps not since the disciples of Jesus met in the upper room to receive the promise of The Father, has there been a people more nearly one in spirit. They had come from different states, but the com- mon cause of love for the oppressed united all hearts in one. Only fifty-seven years before, in the City of Brotherly Love, liberty bell had rung out from In- dependence Hall, proclaiming "Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." At the time of this Convention, great excitement prevailed. The air was filled with violence, and the delegates could not be promised safety, even in the day time. Whit- tier savs, that the abolitionists were everywhere spok- en against, their persons threatened. and in some in- stances a price set on their heads. Pennsylvania. be- ing on the borders of slavery, it "needed small effort of imagination, to picture to one's self the breaking up of the Convention and maltreatment of its members." It was a significant fact that at this trying time, when
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it cost so much to be an abolitionist, out of the whole number of sixty-two delegates, twenty-two were mem- bers of the Society of Friends, being more than one- third of the entire delegation. The truth was, there was more real reform in the Society of Friends, even though small, than in any of the larger organizations.
John Greenleaf Whittier was a member of the com- mittee to draft the Declaration of Sentiments. The
company organized on the basis of the entire abolition of slavery in the United States. Every line of the Declaration is significant. The paragraphs and sen- tences were considered separately ; for five hours, there was discussion, and it was unanimously adopted. What significant words! "Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, but our prin- ciples, never. Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and will gloriously triumph." "We hereby affix our signatures," &c. "Come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputation-whether we live to wit- ness the triumph of LIBERTY, JUSTICE, and HU- MANITY, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent, and holy cause." Whittier says, they went forth, each to his place of duty, "not knowing the things that should befall us, as individuals, but with a firm confidence, never shaken by abuse and persecution in the certain triumph of our cause." He said afterwards, that he set a higher value on his name appended to that Declaration, than on the title page of any book. What a power Whittier was as the Poet Laureate of the Liberty movement! Who can estimate the value in American History, of the sweet singer of freedom, who gave up all other hopes, that he might sing for the slave? He was "true to the cause, when such service was hard." As the years go by, he is destined, we believe, to live more and more in the hearts of his fellow countrymen. While he was a reformer and an active force in the cause, he was ever gentle in spirit, and never forgot that "God is Love."
The Society of Friends, from the beginning, having placed woman on an equality with man, it was but natural that she should engage in the public agitation of the subject. Lucretia Mott, a noted minister of the Hicksite branch was among the number.
During the dark hour of the movement, the two daughters of Judge John F. Grimke, of South Caro- lina, came up from the South. They left the Episco-
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pal Church and came to the Friends because of their opposition to slavery. Anglima Grimke published an appeal to the women of the South in 1836. They were invited to New York City to address woman. Great crowds flocked to hear them. Oliver Johnson said he believed the pro-slavery ministers were more afraid of those women than they would have been of a dozen lecturers of the other sex.
Some of the clergy, that were opposed to women speaking in public, became concerned and wrote a pastoral letter, protesting against women's public work in reform, calling attention to the dangers, that "threatened the female character," and regret- ting that countenance had been given to "any of the sex who so far forgot themselves, as to itinerate in the character of public lecturers and teachers." The document spoke against lecturers and preachers being allowed to discuss certain topics of reform within the limits of settled pastors, without their consent : Whittier sent out as a reply to this document his poem, "A Pastoral Letter."
"So, this is all,-the utmost reach Of priestly power the mind to fetter ! When laymen think-when women preach- A war of words-a Pastoral Letter."
Abbey Kelley, another woman Friend, studied her subject thoroughly, and was a gifted speaker ; but be- came a target for newspaper and pulpit ridicule and mob violence. She had much to do with the founding of the Anti-Slavery Bugle. Lowell pays her this trib- ute :
"A Judith there, turned Quakeress, Sits Abbey, in her modest dress. * * *
No nobler gift of heart or brain,
No life more white from spot or stain,
Was e'er on Feedom's altar laid
Than her's-the simple Quaker maid."
The campaign song .- "The Quakers are Out." was written for a Republican mass meeting at Newbury- port, Massachusetts, October II. 1860. Pennsylvania was a doubtful state, the vote of which some thought would decide the National election. If the Quakers could be thoroughly aroused and all vote, it was thought that Pennsylvania could be counted for Lin-
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coln. As to whether Quakerism was thoroughly awake to the importance of the contest pending would be decided by the state election, which occurred sev- eral weeks before the National. The state election was satisfactory to the friends of Freedom, and Whittier penned these lines :
."Not vainly we waited and counted the hours, The buds of our hope have all burst into flowers, No room for misgiving-no loop-hole for doubt,- We've heard from the Keystone! The Quakers are out.
The plot has exploded-we've found out the trick ; The bribe goes a-begging ; the fusion won't stick. When the wide-awake lanterns are shining about, The rogues stay at home, and the true men are out !
The good State has broken the cords for her spun ; Her oil-springs and water won't fuse into one ; The Dutchman has seasoned with Freedom his kraut, And slow, late, but certain, the Quakers are out!
Give the flags to the winds set the hills all aflame! . Make wav for the man with the Patriarch's name ! Away with misgiving-away with all doubt. For Lincoln goes in when the Quakers are out !"
FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF WEST BRANCH. ARENA KERSEY, OREGONIA, OHIO.
Some time previous to the Revolutionary War Friends from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the island of Nantucket, emigrated southward, influenced, no doubt, by glowing reports of its balmy air and sunny skies. A large proportion of these settled in North Carolina, others went farther on and settled in South Carolina and Georgia. In all these places they found themselves surrounded by the institution of slavery and all its attendant evils. So abhorrent was all this to their ideas of justice that it is little wonder that they were amongst the first to seek homes across the Ohio river amid the wilds and forests of that great free territory opening up tỏ emigrants.
'This influx was hastened by what was considered a prophetic warning of a noted minister in the church. Zachariah Dicks, who went through the length and
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breadth of the land warning the people to flee, for this land would be overthrown and wasted and blood would flow as a river, for the cry of the down-trodden had been heard in Heaven and deliverance was coming for the oppressed.
Judge O'Neall in his book "Annals of New Berg, S. C.," says that at Bush River in a well built house erected 5 years before with full expectancy of long continuance and where 500 Friends often assembled, Zachariah Dicks began his sermon with the words, "Oh, Bush River, Bush River! how hath thy beauty faded and gloomy darkness eclipsed thy day."
This warning, together with other utterances pro- duced almost a panic for these early fathers believed the speedy fulfilment was at hand, whereas three score years elapsed before all this was brought about. This occurred about the year 1803.
Prior to this, a few Friends had penetrated these western wilds and bought an extensive tract of military land where the village of Waynesville was soon laid out and made a point for these pioneers to gather and thither the tide of emigration flowed. The result of all this was that in order to emigrate, many sold their lands at great sacrifice and with their families and such goods as they could carry joined the emigrant train. Many stopped near Waynesville, while others pushed on to a point 12 or 15 miles north of the newly laid out town of Dayton and settled on the west branch of the Big Miami, hence the name West Branch.
The Ist Friend settling here was John Hoover, who came in the spring of 1802 (and located 11/2 miles S. E. of W. B. meeting house). The same year brought many more, but the year 1805 is said to have been the time of the arrival of the greatest number. Among these we find the names of Jeremiah Mote, John Waggoner, Caleb Mendenhall, Dr. John Mote, John Hoover, James Hollingsworth, Jonathan Mote, James Patty, Abeather Davis. Samuel Jones, Frederick Youmt, Wm. Mote. Jr., Robert Macy, Sam'l Davis, Carter Hollingsworth, Samuel Teague. Isaac Embree, Henry Youmt, Jonathan Cox. Jesse Jankins.
These early settlers soon began holding meetings. The first of these was in the cabin of Caleb Menden- hall (on what is now known as the Thomas Jay farm) and for a while after in a cabin nearby. which had been vacated by its owner, until the site of the present meeting house was selected and a rude structure was
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erected in the year 1804. This was situated east of the present building and was 40 feet by 25. It was roughly finished with puncheon floor, two doors and four eight light windows.
New arrivals of emigrants soon made it evident that a larger house was needed for their accommodation, and another was erected west of the present building, this time of hewed logs and shingle roof in the year 1808. This structure was afterwards enlarged by the addition of wings at each end to accommodate the Quarterly Meeting which was opened here in the Sixth mo., 1812, to be known as West Branch Quar- terly Meeting and held here and at White Water, Ind., alternately. The brick building now standing was erected in 1818. The meetings in those days were largely attended not only by the membership but by other settlers residing near. But distance and bad roads and comfortable means of travel did not count much in those days. The women often riding horse- back not only in the attendance of their own meet- ings but journeys of long distance were often under- taken.
The request for a Monthly Meeting was granted by Red Stone Quarterly Meeting in Pennsylvania and was opened here First mo. 17, 1807, by a committee from Miami Monthly Meeting whose names were there : Asher Brown, David Pugh, John Townsend and Samuel Spray. The stated bounds of this grant was to include all Friends living west of the Miami river except the settlement on Elk creek. This included a wide scope of country.
Jeremiah Mote was chosen clerk of the Monthly Meeting. By referring to the minutes of these early days, it will be seen how rapidly the emigration was being pushed as the new arrivals came, bringing their certificates of membership, and frequent requests for membership are also recorded.
The membership at West Branch was not greatly affected by what is known as the Hicksite Separation of 1828, a few names were dropped from the records, but a much larger number was lost from the mem- bership later because it had been made a dishonorable offense for marriages to be performed contrary to the discipline. This was afterwards seen to be a mistake and the discipline on this point was changed.
Soon after the sad experiences of 1828 it was discov- ered that there existed a great scarcity of Bibles in
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the families, a lack which the church hastened to rem- edy through its committees. This lack may have been a fruitful source of the ignorance of the Bible teaching concerning the divinity of our dear Redeemer. This was soon followed by the establishment of First-day Schools for teaching the Bible. Mention is also made of the establishment of a Monthly Meeting Library of Friends' Books and a duly appointed Librarian to have them in charge.
Additions to these were frequently made and it is stated that a few copies of Barclay's Apology were placed in public libraries. A library existed in later years, especially suited to young people, containing a stock of books of more recent publication. The rec- ords tell that the establishment of schools early claimed attention, the first being taught by Wm. Neal in Dr. Mote's shop ; afterward one part of the meeting house was used for that purpose. Later a brick building sit- uated three-quarters of a mile northwest of West Branch Meeting house was for many years the place provided by the Monthly Meeting, and the school held there continued to be under the care of committees of the same Monthly Meeting. And while it is not stated just when the house was built. it must have been at an early date in the history of West Branch, even before the use of friction matches were generally known for one little fellow seeing his teacher use one of these in building a fire burnt his fingers in trying to see whether it was real fire.
After the establishment of the Friends' Boarding School at Richmond, Ind., the teachers were generally procured from those who had been students there. (But some of blessed memory before that time were Hannah D. Purdue and Eunice Macy). Later we recall the names of Daniel and Hezekiah Clark, Jonathan Dick- erson, Robert Styles, Aquella Binford, Abigal Clark. Esther Jones, Henrietta Beobles, Samuel Handley and James Otis Beale. William B. Morgan began his car- eer as an educator at this place, being only 18 years old. This last is still held in grateful remembrance by many who were his pupils then. One young man was heard saving, "I never had a brother of my own, but I could not have loved a brother better than I did William B. Morgan," and he said to one in later years who had been his pupil then. "Oh. I was not fit to teach them," but his friends never thought that way.
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