USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Concordville > Two-hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of Concord Monthly Meeting of Friends : Concordville, Delaware Co., Pa > Part 5
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committee work. In other religious organizations it is not customary for men and women to meet in joint sessions for the transaction of business connected with the church. This meeting together has proved an opportunity for women Friends to learn good methods not only of transacting ordi- nary business but of financing as well.
Those who have been leaders in their day have revivified Quakerism and have been influential in releavening the So- ciety in general, the effect of which is evident in every Friendly assemblage. The women of our branch to-day are not so much distinguished by severe plainness of dress as by the lack of strikingly gay and gaudy attire. In a Friendly gathering, such as at our late Yearly Meeeting, the grotesque hat, the immense willowy plume worn on heads inflated with artificial puffs and the short hobble skirt are conspicuously absent. The woman Friend is not a paint and powder fash- ion figure. Cheap substitutes do not appeal to her.
Like all other human beings we are creatures of heredity, education and environment, consequently the forms, customs and beliefs of our forefathers are a part of our make-up. The very custom of holding our religious meetings in silence must conduce to that habit of self-control so characteristic of Friends in general, the weighing of matters calmly in busi- ness meetings must tend toward due consideration of an- other's view, the various matters in the Book of Discipline, the queries, etc., touched upon from time to time could not continually fall upon barren soil. We believe all these things, peculiarly our own, have been the means, by absorption and assimilation, of bringing about a process of high thinking and plain living that has evolved a type of woman well fitted to cope with the problems of to-day and at the same time to rank with the best home-makers in the land.
When Thomas Chalkley visited the Conestoga Indians in 1705 he asked the interpreter why they permitted the women to speak in their councils. His reply was "that some women were wiser than some men." That Indian's view and that of George Fox certainly were similar, for it was an ideal posi- tion regarding women as held by Fox.
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When he advised that there should be no office in the So- ciety belonging to men but that there should be a correspond- ing one held by women, it was the initial and impartial step that has made the progress of our women to be in advance of other religious organizations. It has been the impetus that has resulted in a strength of intellect and a capability of business which is so fully exemplified to-day in the fact that perhaps, with the exception of the Dunkards, women of our branch of Friends stand equal with men, even as co- trustees of our vested funds.
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PRESENT-DAY QUESTIONS.
ISABEL G. SHORTLIDGE.
I would like to say that the subject for which I am down on the program was not selected by me, nor with my knowl- edge.
In the few minutes assigned to each speaker in a body like this. it would be impossible to more than touch upon one of the Present-day Questions, to say nothing of them all. I will, therefore, pass over local option, tobacco, peace, juvenile courts, civic betterment, capital and labor and the race ques- tion, and will occupy your attention for a few moments on the "Woman Question."
There is no doubt but that new impetus has recently been given to the demand that the right of franchise be granted to women. To those who give the least heed to present-day affairs it must be clearly demonstrated that the fundamental principles of this government, as founded by our fathers, are constantly ignored, and special privilege, not the people. rules the affairs of state and nation. Give woman the ballot and these public questions will become a subject of interest and study to her, and with her keen insight into the eternal justice of things she will vote as she prays, and through her voting she will produce changes and prevent wrongs which may never be accomplished with the ballot in the hands of men alone.
I was deeply impressed a few days ago by an editorial in the Philadelphia North American. It was an appeal to women to use their influence to prevent the removal of Dr. Wiley, champion and protector of the pure food law. As I read the able article I thought, give women the ballot and such men as Dr. Wiley will be found everywhere, for mothers would be zealous adherents of men whose greatest ambition is to protect the home and the babies.
I have never been an advocate of the ballot for woman. But as the years go by and I see selfishness and greed pre- dominating even over human life, I am willing to join the
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ranks of my sisters who assert that their demand for the ballot is their inherent right.
In closing, however, I must say that, no matter what comes, woman is and must ever be the home maker. We have many splendid types of these among us, and while we will welcome the "new woman," we must not forget the lessons taught us by our mothers and grandmothers of "ye olden time."
I have only touched upon a subject of which I may say more some other time, and will close by dedicating to my sisters, "old" and "new," the following lines :
In this age of rapid progress, From the many and the few, We are hearing much of promise For the woman who is "new."
The "new woman," so they tell us, When she fights the battle through Will stand, a living emblem, Of the great, the grand, the true.
She will wrest from man the power, To usurp the right with wrong, And the nation, through her prowess, Will be purified and strong.
O'er the tossing sea of discord, With its tumult and its hate, She will guide, with hand unswerving The mighty Ship of State,
Until anchored in the harbor, All free from war's alarms, To bless this grand "new woman" For her courage and her charms.
How beautiful the story ! How we hope it may be true That this woman of the future, May be great as she is "new."
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But while we wait her coming, Let us not forget the truth, That the mothers of this nation Must guide and guard its youth.
From the lighthouse of affection, From the dawn to even-tide They must watch with keenest heart throbs The boys who are their pride.
The boy whose bright young manhood Would have no taint of wrong, Must look to God and Mother For courage to be strong.
And the girl, the coming woman, How she needs a mother's care To lead her pure young nature Through the pitfalls everywhere.
This girl who sometimes muses, Like the pretty maid of France, That life's a scene of pleasure To sing and flirt and dance,
Must know that soon the future, With its swiftly speeding years, Will bring into her sunshine, Its care, its pain, its tears.
For it is not meet that pleasure Should fill our cup entire, The impress made by sorrow's hand Must stay the heart's desire.
And these maids of hope and promise, If swayed by tender care, In womanhood will show us They can do, and dare, and bear.
Oh mothers of the nation, Will you wait for something "new"
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When, to lessen crime and sorrow, There is much that you can do?
Will you sit with hands unwilling, And watch the giddy throng Who swerve to right and leftward, In the tide of sin and wrong?
From the many thousand mothers Who bless our land to-day, We hear a mighty chorus, "Let us battle while we may:
Then we'll trust the nation's mothers Youth's destiny to hold,
And we'll bless the pure good woman, Be she "new" or be she "old."
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THE MEETING AT WORK. WATSON W. DEWEES.
I assume that it is not necessary to explain to this company that the Monthly Meeting in the Society of Friends is the working body, having power to make and unmake members and perform most of those functions which distinguish this Society from other religious organizations. In matters of doctrine it is subordinate, and all its operations liable to revision by superior meetings. If, then, we go back two hundred years, more or less, and speak of the doings of Con- cord Monthly Meeting, or Concord, for short, we include Chichester Friends always, and whatever outlying meeting, such as Birmingham, which held membership here before attaining the full stature of a monthly meeting.
I am sure that at this hour of the day you will not expect me to discuss any profound theological question. On the contrary, the disciplinary affairs which engaged the attention of the people who met here were the commonplace problems of how to apply to every-day life the lofty principles of the religion they professed, under conditions not always favor- able to best things. All granted that the work of the meeting had to do with that which made for salvation, and if they seldom paused so to state it, they fully realized that life here was a preparation for a life hereafter.
In trying to get a little understanding of what the meeting did for its members, it is essential to bear this one fact ever in mind :- that when early Friends broke away from the guardianship of an established church, they proposed to sub- stitute for it a kind of pastorship to be exercised by the best and most spiritually minded of their own number. We who are Friends have grown so accustomed to this order of things that we are liable to overlook the significance and importance of the early movement.
Let us remember, too, that the whole system was based upon the frank admission that each man is "his brother's keeper." This was never a debatable point. If they pretty
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soon discovered that "what is everybody's business is no- body's business," and that it was better to set apart certain ones, under the name of overseers, to exercise this pastoral care, such action was only a concession to human weakness. Always, and in all proper ways, the idea was kept alive that a man was to love and safeguard his brother as himself, and by man in this sense, I mean man or woman. That overseers were not expected to be the only ones who felt a willingness to shepherd the flock, is attested by the survival in our Books of Discipline of such expressions as "Overseers and or other concerned Friends," "Elders or other concerned Friends." I enter on no defence of the system, nor do I propose to discuss whether it is suitable to all periods. Everything may be judged by its fruits. Nothing can be fairer than this. If, thousand by thousand, the average morality, intelligence, zeal and usefulness of our forefathers was greater than the average of those around them, there is only one reasonable conclusion.
The Society of Friends has been defined as an "organized protest against the exclusive pretensions of a sacerdotal class in whose hands the registration of these three great events (birth, marriage and death) had come to be vested." It was more than this, but unquestionably much time was devoted in early days to the regulation of these three matters. How well the records of births and deaths was kept up let historians and genealogists testify. How successfully the marriage relation was guarded is indicated by the small proportion of divorces or family discords.
There is a curious minute of 1769 which recites that certain parties having appeared and publicly declared their intention of marriage, and the woman afterward refusing to go any further, a committee was appointed to "inspect into her disreputable conduct," on the report of which it was decided that :
"Until she makes suitable satisfaction, this meeting can- not have full unity with her." (Minutes Concord Monthly Meeting.)
In these critical days, when so much is being said in con- demnation of the frequency with which disownments were made for "marrying out," it is interesting to note that Con- cord had at first a standard quite its own. Not content with safeguarding the marriages of its own members, it allowed
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its form, its meeting and its Meeting House to be used by non-members, provided the parties declared that they accepted the Friends' Meeting as a part of the visible church and capable of giving proper and legal sanction to such a union. A quaint minute in 1689, granting such a permission, sol- emnly justifies such action by quoting Romans xiv, 1: "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations."
Concerning burials in the little ground adjoining I cite an interesting minute of 1769:
"WHEREAS, It hath been upon the minds of some Friends to suppress all superfluous practices of putting of names and dates upon coffins; and it is the mind of this meeting that, for the future, Friends desist from all such idolatrous prac- tices." ( Minutes.)
Mention of burials brings us naturally to another related subject, which was a source of much care in early days, and I frankly confess with Dr. Michiner that I am unable to explain why there was so much trouble. Friends never patronized the Irish "wake" nor the Indian "death dance," but it will have to be conceded that something approaching bacchanalian revelries and at least inordinate feasting were sometimes indulged in at the time of funerals. It is all a thing of the past now, and this generation has listened to the politely phrased query about observing "moderation and tem- perance at the times of marriages, burials and all other occa- sions" until we have forgotten or never know what a fight there was to define "moderation" at funerals. If there was an unwritten law that when the bottle was passed not more than twice "moderation" had been observed, let us not judge in the light of present-day standards.
Just here let me refer to another matter which clearly illus- trates the gradual enlightenment of public sentiment and, if you please so to put it, the education of even the Quaker conscience. When Concord Friends first began to work in a meeting capacity, it was considered quite impossible to take in a crop of hav or wheat without the use of whiskey. Farmers who had succeeded in raising a crop but were unable to buy the needed stimulant were sometimes helped in this way. Tradition says, though I am unable to quote a minute to that effect. that meetings sometimes extended aid in this to that effect, that meetings sometimes extended aid by pur- chasing the liquor. In the course of time the attention of
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thoughtful people was turned to the subject, and Friends began to advise against the custom. Note the following minute of this meeting in 1779:
"We find an increasing concern on the minds of many Friends to discourage the unnecessary use of spirituous liquors on all occasions, notwithstanding we have sorrowfully to observe that some among us have been too liberal there- with in the time of the late harvest. We know of none con- cerned in distilling from grain; no taverner except one woman Friend whose case is under care." (Minutes Concord Monthly Meeting.)
Let us remember, if one were going deeply into the history of the growth of prohibition sentiment, it would be necessary to call attention to the facts that when Concord was adopting a minute of that kind and could report that they were doing no distilling and were almost clear of keeping taverns, that Philadelphia Friends, not so far along on that subject, almost controlled the wholesale and retail wine trade of that city, and owned many of the breweries. Something over a cen- tury has witnessed a great change in public sentiment, and, sentiment, on that question.
Queer little sidelights on eighteenth century life are af- forded by these minutes. In 1740, while Birmingham was a part of Concord, some young men of the two meetings were guilty of an offence which is described officially in these words :
"Assenting and assisting to a forward and unadvised action in going to correct a man for beating his wife." We have no details as to just what transpired other than that the young men made an acknowledgment which was accepted by the meeting.
Still more out of the ordinary was a matter which crept into the minutes in 1695 and thereafter. Concord Quarterly Meeting sent down a long communication on the subject of sorcery, soothsaying and astrologers, and Concord Monthly Meeting had its own little troubles in this line. But let no one conclude that the Friends of this locality were benighted or superstitious more than their neighbors. Trials for witch- craft were not unknown. The wise and good William Penu himself presided at one such trial near Chester.
More important is it to record the charitable acts of Con- cord. In 1697, when New England Friends were troubled by failure of crops and by Indian invasions, this little meet-
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ing raised over thirty-seven pounds sterling (over $185) and sent to their assistance. The old controversy as to "who is my neighbor ?" seems not to have prevented their reaching out in this way to those of the "same household of faith," though New England was much farther away then than now, for all practical purposes.
Further consideration of the work of Concord Friends would open up the great questions of their withdrawal from public offices about the time of the French and Indian wars and their sufferings as advocates of peace during the Revo- lution. For obvious reasons we cannot now enter upon either of these. Enough has been said to throw a little light upon the varied topics which engaged their attention and give us an increasing respect for those intensely human but simple minded and honest people, the memory of whom this day's work enlivens and freshens.
At the conclusion of this paper Gilbert Cope, in reference to one statement, remarked as follows :
I presume I have read over the minutes of monthly meetings rather more than any other person I know of; and I have never found any instance where liqnor was provided for any one by the meeting. I have heard of its being in various meeting records, but could not find it anywhere in this region. I think, perhaps, there is a case of the kind in Bucks County ( in Falls Monthly Meet- ing, I think it was) ; it seemed pretty authentic in that case; but I didn't like the term that it was not infrequently the case. I know that Friends did use it; but I don't think the meeting pro- vided it very often.
J. CHAUNCEY SHORTLIDGE: This brings our morning program to a close. I want to thank this large audience for the careful attention given to the speakers and good order maintained by all.
I have been asked to invite the speakers and their families to a luncheon which has been provided by the committee in charge, and also to announce that any friends desiring to purchase coffee, ice-cream and cake, can be supplied at the tables out in the yard. I think, with a few moments of silence, we will close. We are now closed.
(Morning session closed promptly at 12 M.).
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ERS
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CONCORD MEETING HOUSE 1872
Afternoon Session
NORRIS J. SCOTT .- Friends will now kindly be seated and we will have a few moments of silence before we begin the opening exercises.
When we speak about a time and we say 225 years ago, it doesn't seem to be very long; we don't realize at first thought how long it is. But if some of us could go back maybe fifty or fifty-five years and think of something that occurred in our boyhood days, then follow that up year by year, then you begin to realize the length of time. Now, that, if you multiply that, say, by four, you may imagine in your mind what has occurred during all those times. Per- fectly wonderful, when we begin to think of time in that point of view. I will say that I think whoever were the orig- inators and had thought of a gathering of this kind, they certainly ought to feel very much complimented by the gath- ering, the kind of gathering, the number of them that are here to-day.
Fifty-two years ago yesterday the first train that came up this railroad came from what was then Pendleton Station to Concord. It brought those to attend Concord Quarterly Meeting; that was the first passenger train that ever came up this railroad. Our own community of Friends have even something in that line to be proud of. I might go on and mention some of those things, but I doubt whether it is the chairman's place in regards to that.
The first we have is a poem, entitled Old Concord, by J. Russell Hayes, of Swarthmore.
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OLD CONCORD. (1686-1911.)
I love to ponder the annals of this old house Established here on the hills so long ago By the prayerful zeal of those far off Quaker sires. I love to read their records-what steadfast faith, What loving kindness there, what shining deeds !
Their dust has slept in the earth for many a year, And the moss and the ivy long have muffled their graves With pensive green-a token and tender sign Of the evergreen love we bear those ancient Friends, Those hero-hearts of our faith. They were noble and true.
They humbly asked for the blessing of God on their work, When they built their Meeting House; their old men saw Wondrous visions; their young men dreamed high dreams ; Simple and sturdy and godly folk were they.
True patriarchs of our faith they seem to me- Pioneer Friends of this great western world, Men and women who came over sea with Penn. They listened and thrilled to saintly Fox's words In English fields ; from Fox they had caught the Light, And now they sought in this lonely western land Freedom to worship, freedom to live and thrive, Unharassed by hostile mobs or zealots blind.
Honor to them who sought no earthly honor ! Their long-familiar names are indelibly dear, Rich with two hundred years of memoried love- Chandler and Clayton, Palmer and Peirce and Brown, Mendenhall and Newlin, Brinton and Pyle, Hannum and Marshall, Thatcher, Gilpin and Cloud ; Yea, patriarchs of the faith they truly were, Who minded the Light and spread the Light abroad From their homes 'mid the fruitful orchards and quiet farms- These beautiful fields and hills that we see to-day Wrapt in the dreamy summer's bounteous charm.
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The very name of their settlement tells their tale, Concord-called from the peaceful harmony And brother love that marked their blessed lives; Concord truly speaks of their tranquil years, Their earnest witness against all worldliness, Their fervent seeking after the life of Christ; Concord tells of their love of all mankind, Their tender care of the lonely and the oppressed, Their helpful hands held out to their Indian brothers, Their deep concern for setting the black man free.
These and a score of kindred kindly deeds Speak with eloquence far above all words, Of this ancient Concord Meeting and countryside, And not alone of this dear old Meeting House And Quaker countryside, but of those that grew Under this mother-meeting's watchful love- Birmingham in the Brandywine's emerald hills, Where oldtime kindliness still lives to-day, The well-loved meeting at ancient Nottingham And Caln high over the valley's fertile farms.
Ah me, how we cling to the outward things we love! But the heart of our is in homes not built by hands, And these old shrines, albeit we cherish them well Must crumble and fall with the all-devouring years, And their tranquil beauty becomes but a legend dim; Yet Concord's dear, dear name must still endure When every brick and shrub and lowly grave Has been swept away by the ruthless march of time- Concord, home of our far off English sires, Old Concord, the peaceful, the tranquil, the deeply loved.
NORRIS J. SCOTT .- Friends have always been identified, more or less, with the political fields and the arena. Up until 1756 for over seventy years they controlled the general assem- bly of this state by a large majority, but during the latter part of that year the great majority of them resigned their seats in the general assembly for reasons which they thought proper at that time. Yet there always was the Friendly element in both the legislature of this state and at Wash- ington, and I will just quote a few words from Isaac Sharp-
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less' book on Quaker Government which will explain it. I think, as well as and better than I can express it. He says : "During the time" (this is while they were in the general assembly and had the control)-during that time "there were no wars or external troubles. Prosperity and content- ment reigned, immigrants came in unprecedented numbers- and the public finances were so managed as to encourage trade and lay no unnecessary burdens. Peace and justice were for two generations found available defenses for a success- ful state, but, as I stated, during the latter part of that year they resigned." Yet from that time Friends, as I stated, have taken a very active part in politics.
We expected to have a Friend here, a gentleman who has been identified with Friends all his life, and his ancestors before him, who understands full well the principles of the Society of Friends, but he has sent us his regrets and sent a paper here. I will first read his note to us. (Reads note from Washington.) :
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