I wanted to add a few more things to the information about the Miami Monthly Meeting itself. I was afraid that adding a lot of text into the already existing blog post would make it unwieldy. So I will add it in this post.
On Saturday morning, Milton talked with us about the history of the Red Brick and the White brick and the Orthodox and Hicksite split and many things of interest to the group. I want to add some of it here as I have time.
Re: Red and White Brick Meeting Houses.
According to Milton's talk- there was a small log cabin built approximately where the Red Brick Meeting House is now. Shortly after that, there was a 30' x 30' bigger log cabin meeting house built in the same location. The White Brick was built in 1822. It is most likely that one of the log cabins would have been the place of meeting when the bulk of the Bush River folks would have arrived.
In April, 1801, twelve families (81 individuals) in the Waynesville area began meeting for worship in a member‘s home. Near the end of that year they sent a request to Westland Meeting, Pennsylvania (Baltimore Yearly Meeting) for establishing a regular meeting for worship on First and Fifth Days. This request was granted in Ninth Month, 1802. The Meeting was called Miami. Early in 1803 Miami asked Westland Meeting for permission to establish a Monthly Meeting; and when the request was approved, the Monthly Meeting was opened, Tenth Month 13, 1803. The eastern boundary was the Hocking River, the southern was the Ohio River, but there was no limit to the north or to the west. During this period of migration, hundreds of Friends from the Carolinas and Georgia brought their membership to Miami Monthly Meeting, until such time as other meetings could be established in the Northwest Territory. By 1815, Miami Monthly Meeting was said to have the largest membership of any Friends Meeting in Quakerdom.
After its establishment in 1803, Miami Monthly Meeting set off many new Meetings. Among the earliest ones were Lees Creek, Hardin Creek, Caesar‘s Creek, West Branch, Elk, Center and Whitewater. In 1807 Miami, West Branch and Center Monthly Meetings requested that a new Quarterly Meeting be established to be known as Miami Quarterly Meeting, to be held at Waynesville, Ohio, on the second Seventh Day in the Second, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh Months. Baltimore Yearly Meeting having approved the request, Miami Quarterly Meeting was opened, Fifth month 1809. The building of the White Brick Meetinghouse at Waynesville was begun in 1811 to accommodate the Quarterly Meeting.
The following information came from an article that Bob Cooke shared with me:
MIAMI MONTHLY
MEETING: HISTORICAL.
A NOTEWORTHY omission
occurred in the recent reports of the proceedings of Indiana Yearly Meeting of
Friends, published in the INTELLIGENCER; there is no mention that the place of
meeting was at Waynesville, Ohio. After the memorable and deplorable division
of 1828 this branch of the Society gathered in a yearly meeting capacity at
Miami (Waynesville), commencing in the year 1828 and continuing until 1835,
when a change of meeting-place was made. In the year 1836 the sessions were
held at Whitewater (Richmond, Indiana), and from that time until 1898 the
yearly meetings of the Society were held alternately at Richmond and at
Waynesville. The yearly meeting for the
first time convened at Pendleton, Ind., in 1899, then they followed in regular
succession at Richmond in 1900, and at Waynesville this year, and in this order
they will follow, at Pendleton, Richmond, and Waynesville, until changed. In
this connection it will be interesting to note the remarkable emigration of Friends
during the early years of the last century, from the Carolinas, Georgia,
Tennessee, and Virginia, to the then newly-created Miami Monthly Meeting. This
monthly meeting was first established Tenth month 13, 1803, and it embraced all
of the territory north of the Ohio river and west of the Hocking. The
membership of the meeting increased 365 during the year 1804, mostly by
removals from Bush River and Cain Creek Meetings, in South Carolina,
Wrightsboro'
Meeting, Georgia, and from Monthly Meetings in North Carolina, Virginia, and
Lost Creek, Tennessee. During one month of that year 120 persons, adults and
children, were received into membership by certificates from other monthly meetings.
The increase during the next year was yet more marked; it rose to 621. From
Bush Creek, S. C., came the families of Pugh, Hollingsworth, Furnas, Jay,
Evans, Compton,
Mills, Steddom,
Lewis, Cook, and Kelly. From Cain Creek the families of Hawkins, Kenworthy,
Stout, Doan, and Spray. From Deep Creek, N. C., the Mendenhalls. From
Wrightsboro' Monthly Meeting, Georgia, the families of Davis, Mote, and Stubbs.
From meetings in Tennessee, the Newmans, Nordykes, Sanders, Ballards, and
Tothunters. From Virginia the Haines, Walker, and Lupton families. From New
Jersey came the Silver, Brown, Ward, Packer, Hopkins, and Test families. From
Maryland the Wright family. And at about the same time, but a little later,
came the families of Farquhar (from Pipe Creek, Md.), Pedrick (Pilesgrove
Monthly Meeting), Whitacre (Crooked Run Monthly Meeting), and Johnson (New
Garden, N. C.). As might be surmised, with the rapid increase in the membership
of the meeting it was but a short time until other monthly meetings were
established near to Miami. In the year 1807 Centre Monthly to
the East and West
Branch Monthly to the West were " set up." We have realized that
while the lives and examples of the Friends of this community have left a
lasting, and we believe, a moral influence, the inviting opportunities opened
to Friends in the newer States of the West have been embraced, and the
descendants of the Friends' families mentioned are scattered over the great
West and to-day Miami Monthly Meeting contains but a few of the faithful. In
preparing this article the writer has availed
himself of the
copious notes compiled by friend Clarkson Butterworth. C. Waynesville, Ohio.
Friends’ Intelligencer Vol. 58, page 668, Tenth month
11, 1901
