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EOF05A The Eye of Faith, A History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative. Chapter 5 Part A, The Flowering of Wilburite Culture

• Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

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A turning point in 1874 becomes a season of rebuilding, wider correspondence, and confident witness among conservative Friends, culminating in shared fundamentals and a stronger print and school culture. We trace how harmony, service, and publishing shaped a subculture that held firm as modern pressures rose.

• relocation to Barnesville and renewed harmony
• conservative separations forming new yearly meetings
• circle of correspondence and tendered epistles
• Philadelphia ties in funds, visitors and publications
• tract associations, libraries and home reading
• Indian concerns and service at Tunesassa
• expanding memorials, journals and peace pamphlets
• 1911–1913 synopsis of conservative principles
• the Great War’s pressure on a rural subculture


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SPEAKER_01:

Table and when the listening look where is cross com Christ is within you and those who try to draw your minds away from the teaching inside you are opposed to Christ for the measures within and the light of God is within and the pearl is within you though hidden Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

We are continuing to read from the Eye of Faith, a history of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P. Tabor Jr. We were beginning to read Chapter 5, The Flowering of Wilburite Culture 1874 through 1917. The year 1874 marked a turning point for Ohio Yearly Meeting. The loss of the boarding school in 1874, tragic as it seemed at the time, only served to emphasize the growing harmony and energy of Ohio Welberites. They quickly relocated and rebuilt their school, and then built a yearly meeting house. They launched a golden age in which they would consolidate their religious subculture, become more active in missionary and social concerns, begin to publish and distribute books, and join with a growing self-confidence in the unexpected expansion of conservative Quakerism. Five new conservative yearly meetings would be developed, and they would join in a circle of correspondence with Ohio and New England. This period of positive growth and expansion would last until America's entry into the Great War in 1917. After 1917, the forces already at work to disintegrate what was essentially a nineteenth century rural American subculture would become almost irresistible, so that although the husk of the subculture of the Golden Age would persist far into the 20th century, much of its power would be lost by the end of World War I. Even before the four-year outpouring of energy and money involved in relocating the school and the yearly meeting house at Barnesville, 1874 to 1878, there were signs of new harmony, new energy, and new developments of a hopeful kind. As early as eighteen sixty six, three years after the Maulite succession, Lois Tabor's journal describes the yearly meeting as a solemn, settled, harmonious occasion and favored assembly. And in eighteen seventy-three, Thomas Elkton wrote after a visit to Ohio, we thought the yearly meeting a quiet and favored season and instructive in the manner in which the various subjects before it were resulted. You know, escape a great deal that formerly was not in place in a yearly meeting, of which we have more or less in Philadelphia, and it seemed like a treat to be without such an element present. It was interesting to observe the prevailing care in speaking to business to do so without an apparent wish to advance individual opinions, but with an evident desire that their judgment might be in harmony with best wisdom with one another. Another evidence of the growth in harmony and brotherly condescension in these years came from Anne Branson's description of yearly meeting, committee's attempt to decide whether or not to lay down Springfield quarterly meeting in eighteen seventy. Notwithstanding the difference of opinion, all appeared willing to weigh the matter, and wait until we could meet more fully unite as what would be best to do. I felt rejoiced and with that none felt disposed to push their sentiments upon those in opposition to them beyond the bounds of propriety and Christian condescension. Though there were deciding oppositions and judgment, yet no harsh words or bitter feelings were in the least manifested, may the great judge rule and overrule in the matter, and cause the results to rebound in the honor of truth. Let it be in that way it may have been fervent and chief desire to my heart. Having learned to defer to one another, and leaving behind some of the most extreme forms of Molite Wilburite rude prophecy and absolutism, members of the yearly meeting were now ready when the crisis came to withdraw from the scene of former battles at Mount Pleasant, where few, if any, Wilburites now lived, and to relocate its boarding school and yearly meeting house on a green ridge overlooking quiet valleys two miles east of Barnesville. Deep in safe Wilburite territory. The site was nearly at the center of the yearly meeting territory, except for the meetings in Iowa. And it was conveniently near a railroad. A significant feature of the era of good feelings that was dawning was the Ohio friends no longer felt as alone as they had from 1854 to 1870. Now, they began to realize that small groups of consistent friends in other yearly meetings were standing fast against the growing revivalism with its innovations such as testimony meetings, singing, altar calls, meetings conducted by one person, or with a planned program, and even water baptism. And these other conservative friends were becoming outspoken in their views. By 1875, Walter Edgerton of Indiana Yearly Meeting had published Modern Quakerism Examined and Contrasted with That of the Ancient Type, which was the final straw which caused his disownment. In 1877, the second wave of Wilbright, or more precisely conservative, separations began when a group of conservative friends in Western Yearly Meeting felt they must either withdraw or be suppressed. In the same year, the first of several groups withdrew from Iowa Yearly Meeting. Canada's separation also began in 1877, resulting in a new yearly meeting in 1881. A separation occurred in Kansas in 1879, followed by the publication there of The Western Friend, a magazine which carried on a relentless war against what it called so called progressives, then later regressives, and finally fast Quakerism for eleven years, eighteen seventy nine to eighteen ninety. The goal of the magazine was to defend conservative Quaker views to show how the new doctrines and practices were not supported by early Quaker authorities, to urge sound friends to withdraw from yearly meetings under the control of the regressors, and to urge all of the smaller bodies and sound friends to recognize their unity by entering into official correspondence. Its editor, Cyrus Harvey, perhaps the ablest scholar in the conservative yearly meetings, produced at least six substantial pamphlets in defense of conservative interpretation of Quakerism. By 1880, the old tensions over the New England question had so mellowed that a proposal in yearly meeting to appoint a joint committee to consider the propriety of correspondence with New England was almost accepted, then dropped. The next yearly meeting, 1881, adopted the following minute. The situation of the remnants of the friends in various parts of the lands being introduced into this meeting after a full and free expression thereon, it was the United Judgment of the meeting that a joint committee of men and women friends be appointed to have the whole subject under consideration and report to this meeting next year the result of their deliberation. Meanwhile, Hannah Stratton was given a minute to appoint meetings among the scattered remnant. In 1883, Ohio Yearly Meeting acknowledged Western, that's in Indiana, Kansas, and Iowa termed the smaller bodies as yearly meetings of the Society of Friends. When in 1884, Ohio Yearly Meeting received and read an epistle from Western Yearly Meeting symbolizing the end of Ohio's almost 30-year isolation. Middle-aged friends were present who had never heard an epistle. And many hearts rejoiced, and many hearts were tendered in what seemed like a return from a long captivity. In 1885, Ohio added New England and Canada to the list of coordinate bodies, making a group of six conservative yearly meetings and fellowship, the remnant of the Society of Friends. The presence of an acceptable minister from North Carolina at the 1885 sessions emphasized the fact that there were scattered remnants who could not be accorded official recognition, for some, like the group in North Carolina, were still in the mixture of Gurneyite yearly meeting. While others, like the primitive friends of New England, Baltimore, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Iowa, and Fritchley, England, could not be accepted for various technical reasons. North Carolina conservative friends finally formed a yearly meeting in 1904 and were eventually accepted by Ohio in 1911 after a cautious wait of seven years. Also, in 1911, representatives from most of the Conservative Yearly Meetings met at Barnesville to draft a brief synopsis of the principles and testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends, which was approved by all the Conservative Yearly meetings in 1912 and published in 1913. The confidence of these years of expansion of the conservative world was reinforced by the renewed interest of many Philadelphia friends as they saw the gap widen between themselves and the Orthodox bodies. Philadelphia Friends had subscribed more than a third of the funds for the new boarding school at Barnesville. According to Joseph Myers, in the years succeeding 1880, there were usually quite a large delegation of Philadelphia Friends at Ohio Yearly Meeting. One year there was about 40, and special arrangements were made for their transportation by the railroads. Apparently, there was considerable interest in Philadelphia in resuming correspondence with Ohio. But this did not materialize until Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of 1897 sent an epistle of brotherly love to friends of Ohio Yearly Meeting as well as another to all meetings bearing the name of friends and the members composing them. When the former epistle was read, Ohio Yearly Meeting was deeply touched by this first official communication in 40 years, but not feeling ready to resume communication. Ohio sent only a minute explaining that the letter had been read to our comfort and satisfaction. Ohio was tied to Philadelphia as it was tied to other Wilburite yearly meetings by cross-migration and intermarriage. Although at least one Wilburright did not permit his daughter to marry an educated young Philadelphia friend because he seemed too worldly. As the annual list of yearly meeting visitors bearing certificates shows, ministers from either yearly meeting traveled freely in the other, although Philadelphia's meetings were slow to appoint special meetings for any traveling minister. Ohio Friends also looked to Philadelphia as the most important source of sound Quaker publications. Ohio Friends were active in the Tract Association of Friends from at least 1884. When at the Call of the Association, Friends at Pennsville, Plymouth, Harrisville, and Winona formed auxiliary tract associations. One was formed at Coleraine in 1885, another at Barnesville in 1886. Colerain had dropped out by 1896. Pasadena was added in 1897. From 1887 to 1895, there were about nine other auxiliaries throughout the Wilburite world. A study of the Tract Association proceedings during these years indicates that an important role played by Philadelphia friends in the vitality of the entire Wilburite culture, especially in Ohio. No doubt, many of them received The Friend, which had been, for all practical purposes, a Wilburite publication since the separation in New England in 1845. Every volume of The Friend during this period has a number of articles sorrowing over the changes in the Gurneyite Quaker world. One or more sympathetic articles reporting Ohio Yearly Meeting, and sometimes an article expressing unity with Ohio friends. Each of the Wilburright separations of the second wave was treated with sympathy in the friend. Another important area of Ohio-Philadelphia contact was education. A number of Ohio young friends were sent for one or more years to Westtown, Philadelphia Yearly Meetings Boarding School, to supplement the training they received at the school at Barnesville. Many Ohio friends were interested in the Tunesa Boarding School for Seneca Friends, operated by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Thus, the Wilbright world included Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, even though the Sound Friends there were regarded as being somewhat in the mixture. The revival of Indian concerns in 1870 was another sign of growing life and confidence. But as no way presented at present for action therein, it is left under consideration for another year. In 1871, a joint committee was appointed to carry out the concern, but apparently little official action occurred during this decade. However, individual Ohio friends were at work. Thomas Battery, a member of Hickory Grove Quaker Meeting, Quarterly Meeting, in Iowa, felt called to accept a position as teacher at the Wichita Agency among the Cados in 1871. He followed this by several years of living with the Kiowa Indians, ruining his own health but keeping his group of Kivas peaceful during the Indian War of 1874. His diary of these years was so interesting that it was run serially in The Friend in 1875 and 1876. It was published as The Life and Adventures of a Quaker Among the Indians in 1875, and it has reprinted been reprinted several times. Another outlet for the service of the individual friends was Tunisa Boarding School, opened in 1832 in western New York, where Philadelphia Friends had long been active among the Seneca Indians. According to Friends and the Indians 1655 to 1977, during the past 40 years, most of the superintendents and helpers at this mission have come from the western states, notably Ohio. Apparently, a great many Ohio friends served there. For example, James Henderson was employed at Tunessa in 1887 and was superintendent from 1889 to 1894, where while his aunt was matron. Tunessa, which was such an important spot on the Quaker map that Charles and Ellen Moreland stopped there on their honeymoon in 1899. From 1888 to beyond 1897, the yearly meeting had an active committee concerned about the Sack and Fox Indians at Tama, Iowa. Thomas Beatty had and others visited these Indians and interceded on their behalf in Washington. In 1872, the old concern for books and libraries was reviewed when the yearly meeting appointed a committee to see the works that Fox, Penn, and Barclay were given or sold to friends in every part of the yearly meeting. The committee was allotted$400 with which it bought and distributed more than 730 books. During the next 10 years, this committee distributed over 2,500 books and thousands of tracks. In some years, books and tracks were widely distributed beyond the limits of Ohio Yearly Meeting. They may have helped inspire the second wave of Wilburite or Conservative separations. For example, the 1877 report notes an increasing openness to receive and become acquainted with the doctrines and testimony of friends in Iowa. A report of the committee in 1897 is a good example of Wilburite language. But may add, had we been more diligent in embracing the many neglected opportunities, it might have been better. Toward the end of this period, fewer books and more almanacs and calendars appeared to have been distributed. A related evidence of new self-confidence and energy was the number of publications after 1880. There had been polemic pamphlets soon after the separation, and then some brief memorials, but not much else, except for the pamphlets of the Maulites and of course Thomas Baddy's book. But in 1880, Ohio Yearly Meeting issued a testimony of concerning Joseph Branchin. Joseph Edgerton's journal was published in 1885. And the next year, Joshua Mall published a book which was included in his own invaluable account of Ohio Quakerism in a sketch of the world travels of an Ohio Mawlite minister, Hannah Hall. In 1886, the yearly meeting issued a two-page leaflet, an epistle to the remnants of friends and others who are endeavoring to maintain the doctrines and testimonies of the religious society of friends as promulgated by George Fox, Robert Barkley, and others. Two school books were published in 1892, and Branchon's journal was published in 1892 and in the same year. Rachel H. Tabor privately published Glimpses of the Life of Lois Tabor. In 1893, the Wilbur Union printed a leaflet containing Jesse Edgerton's address, Why I Am a Friend. In 1894, the Yearly Meeting issued an eight-page leaflet, an address of Christian Citizens on the Liquor Traffic. Two surviving pamphlets from 1896 are a word to inquiries and an address to the membership of Salem Quarterly Meeting. An address to the Wilbur Union by Jesse Edgerton, one of the prominent ministers of this period, was printed by the Wilbur Union in 1900. Another of his addresses, What Do We Believe, given at the boarding school, was printed in this period, though neither date nor publisher appeared on the pamphlet. Hannah H. Stratton's 12-page memorial was issued by her monthly meeting in 1904. Another great minister, Elward Dean, was remembered by a 71-page book in 1909. A 26-page appeal for peace was published by the Yearly Meeting in the same year. A later appeal for peace called militarism, The Curse of the Nations, was written by Jesse Edgerton and was printed by the Meeting for Sufferings in 1915. Jesse Edgerton also printed a book of poems in 1913. In 1911, Jesse Edgerton had been clerk of the Conference of Representatives of the Meetings for Suffering of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in America in correspondence with each other, which met at Barnesville and produced the material for a 31-page booklet on the fundamentals of conservative Quakerism. This was adopted by all conservative yearly meetings in 1912 and printed in 1913 as perhaps the high watermark of cooperation among conservative friends are included in this chapter. This concludes the reading of Section A of Chapter 5, The Flowering of the Wilburite Culture 1874 to 1970, from the Eye of Faith: A History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P. Tabor, Jr. We'll be continuing with this chapter in the next podcast. The words from our introduction were written by George Fox in 1652. The music was composed and sung by Paulette Meyer. More information at our website, www.paulettemeyer.com.

SPEAKER_01:

Keep within. And when they say look here or look, there is Christ. Go not for us, for Christ is within you, and those who try to draw your minds away from the teaching inside you are opposed to Christ. For the measures within, and the mind of God is within, and then the pearl is within you, so hit.