Ohio Yearly Meeting's Podcast

EOF06B The Eye of Faith, A History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative. Chapter 6 Part B, Ministry of the Golden Age

• Bill Taber

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We trace the tension between strict preservation and bold outreach among Ohio Friends from 1874 to 1917. Asa Branson’s authority, Hannah Stratton’s journeys, and the Fowlers’ service reveal how discipline, humility, and risk shaped a quieter but wider ministry.

• Asa Branson’s plainspoken authority and resistance to sociability and standard time
• Deference to elders creating distance from youth and leadership roles tied to plain dress
• Reports of renewed ministry and young Friends entrusted with gifts
• Hannah Stratton’s humility, release to travel, and contested reception in Britain
• John and Esther Fowler’s service for children in Ohio and Cairo
• influence of an unprogrammed meeting in Japan on local Friends
• The move from preservation toward outreach without abandoning core testimonies

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SPEAKER_00:

We are continuing to read from the Eye of Faith, a History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P. Tabor, Jr. Chapter 6 is titled Ministry of the Golden Age, 1874 through 1917. In this podcast, we will resume reading from that chapter. While considering factors which might have discouraged new life and ministry during this period, brief mention might be made of Asa Branson, who lived 1810 to 1909. Cousin and close friend of Anne Branson, Asa first began to speak in meeting in 1851, even as Anne was praying for him. Contemporaries described him as blunt, stubborn, and rigid in his adherence to the old ways. As early as 1873, Thomas Elkton of Philadelphia had written of Asa. It was also interesting for me to hear Asa Branson express his views, for it came out so plainly and clearly there was no excuse for not understanding him. There is a possibility that if he were more familiar with the state of the society of friends in different parts, had traveled more and comprehended the various phases of difficulties with which faithful friends have to contend, he might see things from a different standpoint. But I confess some of us would tremble for the fate or status of Ohio yearly meeting in these parts, should he travel amongst us and speak in the line of thought which seemed to clothe his mind. Any visitor to the yearly meeting during the three closing decades of the century would be likely to carry away a more vivid picture of him than any other individual in it, wrote Joseph E. Myers of Asa. It was Asa who had preached a sermon against sociability at the boarding school during yearly meeting week, fearing that friends were allowing their social activities to draw their minds away from a proper concern for the right transactions of the affairs of the society. One such sermon was based on the text woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as with a cartrope. In this sermon he said, Would thee prevent sociability? No, but sociability coupled with watchfulness. Apparently Asa represented a type of Wilbright, never very numerous, but still found in most of the meetings at the turn of the century, whose interpretation of Quaker practice was so strict that he kept himself and sometimes his children from most amusements, recreations, social occasions, and in extreme cases, even from friends' schools. Any kind of frivolity was distasteful to him, and as a student at West Town, he did not feel like mingling in games, but got what exercise he needed by taking walks. Elma Starr was one who, as a small girl, heard Asa Branson declare from the short creek meeting facing bench, I can tell from your eyes whether or not you are worshiping. Elmer thought at once, I must close my eyes. In spite of Asa's almost total deafness, the yearly meeting often deferred to him during the last years of his life. One friend characterized him as the whip of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Asa sat by the clerk's table during yearly meeting, and the assistant clerk passed him notes and documents so he could know what was happening. One year no epistles at all were sent because of his objections to them. Asa was also opposed to standard time, which had been introduced to the end of the confusion of various times and time zones. He set his own clocks on sun time with the help of the almanac. Even in his last illness, he had enough strength to insist I want my medicine on sun time. The difference paid to Asa Branson and the other elderly friends might on the surface have given the Wilburite subculture of its harmony and graciousness an aura of concord and social unity. In practice, however, such deference permitted members of the almost autonomous select meetings, ministers and elders, to exercise control without touching the minds of the young people. Interviews with those who grew up before the turn of the century suggest that as young people they did not really understand Quakerism, since neither Quakerism nor the Bible could be taught like other subjects. Younger friends of that era says one who herself grew up in Ohio at that time knew that they could hardly expect to be a clerk, elder, overseer, or minister unless they put on plain dress. Those who did not do so were not used. The Olny currents, frequent urging that old and young get together and understand each other suggests that during the extended era of good feeling, many friends had deferred to leaders like Asa Branson for so long that a gulf preventing communication and understanding had come into being. All of these factors appeared to have combined to make the ministry and proper friends a world apart, a world denied to almost anyone who was young, and a world made less attractive by the archaic character of its leading proponents. It was as if the entire society was taking to heart Benjamin Hoyle's 1874 warning. However, new ministry did appear. A report of Ohio Yearly Meeting in 1892 noted an increase of those constrained to open their mouths in testimony to the comfort of their friends, and that the difference which formerly existed in some places seemed largely to have passed away, and there is ground for hope that if the members are preserved humble and faithful, a period of increasing prosperity and usefulness will open before this branch of our church. An 1895 description of Ohio Yearly Meeting commented that many young people were being entrusted with spiritual gifts and endeavoring to use them. A report the next year said that the evidence of a growth in grace and of a united desire to advance the cause, a truth, gave a hopeful outlook for the future of Ohio Yearly Meeting Friends. Another report of yearly meeting mentioned that a meeting appointed for the young took place according to the arrangement. Several form benches near the front of the meeting room were reserved for the seats of those to whom concern extended. The young were given a very good address by an unknown minister, but as in some other instances, the good impressions made were not increased. It was by to be feared by additions in the same line from subsequent speaking. One prominent minister of the period after 1890 was Hannah Stratton, who lived from 1825 to 1903, who had been acknowledged as a minister in 1869 at the age of forty four. But it was her activities in the eighteen nineties that demonstrated a new spirit of outreach by Ohio Yearly Meeting. She and her husband, Barclay Stratton, had served as superintendent and matron of the boarding school for about twelve years before 1890, and were prominent in other ways. Like Anne Branson and Esther Fowler, Hannah is described as being frail and nervous, often becoming ill before finally yielding to a concern to travel in the ministry, although she once remarked to a younger friend, it's the ministry, that is, doesn't go it easy. And although she wrote while on a tour of ministry near the end of her life, she hoped I may soon be released from this awful responsible line of labor. She's also, like the other great ministers of her day, felt that obeying the call to ministry had been her meat and drink. The memorial prepared by her home meeting Winona praised her humility and her ability to be silent. Humility was a conspicuous trait in her character, having a low estimate of her own attainments. She was very careful not to exceed the limitations of truth. The weightiness of her spirit and her humble, reverent waiting for the rising of divine life was instructive, not daring to open her lips without feeling a renewed qualification and a necessity laid open upon her to stand forth in the work. In 1894, a friend, a few years after her husband's death, Hannah Stratton, finally voiced a concern to her monthly and quarterly meeting and to the yearly meeting of ministers and elders that she now believed it right to stand resigned to visit in the love of the gospel amongst those of our profession in Great Britain. Although nearly three quarters of a century separated her concern from the concerns of the great Jonathan Taylor to visit England in 1831, the same covering of solemnity came over the meeting after it had heard her concern, just as it had for him so long ago. Hannah was released to go forth, a living symbol of Ohio's growing confidence and concern for outreach, accompanied by Jessie Edgerton, who would soon be recognized as a minister, and one other friend, the 70-year-old woman sat out in 1895, not knowing whether she would be welcomed by London Yearly Meeting, which had not recognized her yearly meeting for about 40 years. Brief notes of her travel appeared in the Friend from Philadelphia, which reported that she attended yearly meeting in Ireland and was after some consideration invited to attend the meeting of ministers and elders there. Apparently, she was given a welcome to minister among friends in Scotland, but she was not recognized by the meeting for sufferings at London. She did travel unofficially among English friends and was welcomed in some places. As the friend described it, our Ohio friends in many places have had to encounter a feeling of prejudice attaching to the body from which they came. Anna and her party returned after a few months and time for Ohio Yearly Meeting 1895. She returned her minute and reported in the ancient language which Jonathan Taylor must have used that she had accompanied what was required of her to the peace of her own mind. Before her death in 1903, she engaged in other long trips in the ministry, the last ones being to North Carolina friends and colored people and to Hickory Grove meeting in Iowa. Hannah's final trip was accompanied with much bodily weakness. Yet she accompanied accomplished the service much to the comfort and satisfaction of her friends and to the peace of her own mind. Afterwards, she said she felt entirely clear. John, who lived from 1833 to 1910, and Esther, who lived from 1845 to 1922, Fowler also represented the new outreach of the 1890s, although their unusual ministry and service had also started earlier. Both of these eccentric and dedicated friends were ill for much of their lives. John Fowler was an invalid much of the time from age twenty four to thirty-five, although after that he was able to manage a small farm. They did not marry until 1882 when John was fifty and a semi-invalid, and Esther was a frail 37. By that time she had been acknowledged a minister, and he had followed his leading to spend about four years in canvassing Washington County alone and on foot to collect$12,000 required to build a badly needed children's home in Athens, Ohio. The Fowlers held to plain dress of the older generation and both deeply felt that their safety rested in living close to their redeemer, and that the testimonies of our society could not be slighted. Joseph Misers tells the story of a neighbor and friend of Esther Fowler, who asked to hang part of a large wash on the Fowler's clothesline, but Esther felt that gay clothing would seem out of place in her yard, and would seem inconsistent to those who saw it. No doubt she felt the necessity of avoiding all appearances of evil. A woman who remembered Esther Fowler described her as loving and gentle, the most gifted minister she ever knew. Like Anne Branson, the shy Esther Fowler was often led to speak to individuals or strangers on any day of the week, and like Anne, she was often required to speak to individuals standing around after a meeting for worship. Her communication was usually accurate regarding the individual state. She feared to disobey such leadings, for she would be overwhelmed with great uneasiness if she did so as a minister. She had a powerful, though pleasant voice, even when she was unable to rise to speak. Apparently, she was a very pleasant companion with a keen sense of humor. About 1891, the Fowlers felt they should move to Westchester, Pennsylvania, where they stayed for about five years, becoming members of Birmingham Meeting. That's part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Orthodox. While there, Esther was given a minute to visit some inhabitants of northeastern Africa and possibly some service between here and there. According to the Fowlers, set off for Egypt via England and London Meeting for Sufferings during the same year, that's 1895, that Hannah Strandon made her journey. As members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, they could be officially received by English friends, although the vagueness of their minute caused some searching and pointed questions in the meeting for sufferings of London. They finally reached Cairo with no clear idea of what to do, but were soon led to visit the mission schools in the city. For about a month they did this while Esther obeyed her leadings to speak to pupils, teachers, and teachers in training. John's sensitive heart was touched by the terrible condition of the many blind people and orphan children on the streets. Two years after their return to America, they moved to Winnoana, Ohio. John felt called to raise money for an orphanage and school in Cairo. Although he personally solicited$10,000 and another$9,000 had been contributed to the project, the funds were turned over to the American United Presbyterian Mitchell, which constructed and then operated an orphanage and school for girls for many years. Even after the Fowler Orphanage passed into ownership and control of the native Coptic Church, Ohio friends continued to send contributions to the institution. The Fowler's next long journey, except for one to California, was to Japan in 1908 when John was frail and 76. Even though the Fowlers had lived near Philadelphia, they had never heard before their arrival in Japan that there were any friends there other than distant relative of Esther's. They were accommodated at the Friends School in Tokyo for their stay of less than a month, which was shortened and restricted by John's deteriorating health. During this time, they left the compound only five or six times, but Esther spoke and visited with individuals as was her customs. They did held a traditional meeting of worship in which Esther spoke after long unprogrammed silence. This was a novelty to Japanese friends as they had known only program friends' worship. A teacher in the school wrote some years later that as friends in Japan evolved in the years after the Fowler visit, it became evident that the kind of meetings for worship appreciated by most spiritual friends was the unprogrammed meeting held on the basis of silence. I rarely believe Fowler's call was to friends in Japan, although they little guessed it at the time. I have always thought that they gave a direction to the thinking of friends in Japan that was proven most helpful in establishing a more spiritual form of worship. After John's death two years later, Esther continued to make trips under religious concern, including one to the British Isles. This concludes the reading of Section B of Chapter 6, Ministry of the Golden Age, 1874 to 1917 in the Eye of Faith, a History of Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative by William P. Tabor Jr. The podcast, The Just Heard, was a production of Ohio Yearly Meeting. It was read by Kent Palmer. The words from our introduction were written by Margaret Fell in 1660. The music was composed and sung by Paulette Meyer.

SPEAKER_01:

More information at her website WWW Pauletmeyer.com Truth is one and the same always, though ages and generations pass away, and one generation goes and another comes, yet the word and power and spirit of the living God endures forever, and is the same and ever changes.