No. 52 October 2005
The authoritative source on early churches in New Jersey

ISSN 1543-3250

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Feature of the month

in search of a few old Friends

North Jersey residents have too little appreciation of the significance of the Quakers during the colonial period leading up to the Revolution. Relatively few have ever seen a Friends meetinghouse, and far fewer have been inside one. But at the center of at least two dozen south Jersey towns one can still find a Quaker meetinghouse, and often two, orthodox and Hicksite. Their leading position in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem generally eroded during and after the Revolutionary War, when pacifist views engendered mistrust on both sides, and many of their congregations disbanded by the middle of the nineteenth century. Even fewer survived in the area north of Trenton.
      But traces remain of congregations that met in homes and other public buildings, like the Kalmia Society's Victorian townhouse in Lambertville. My focus is on the structures erected as meetinghouses and churches, of course, and for that I sometimes have to piece together a tentative identification from fragmentary evidence. Such “discoveries” carry a certain excitement, but one must be careful not to make the evidence fit the conclusion we want. This month's feature looks at several early meetinghouses not only to call attention to what remains, but in the hope that a reader will bring forth additional information that might confirm or contradict inferences I have made. The first meetinghouse covered here is well-documented, but virtually unknown to a wider audience. There should be little dispute about this identification as it has been the subject of a well-researched archaeological investigation.

Smith meetinghouse/Scotts Mountain
A passing reference to an early Quaker meetinghouse near Scott's Mountain (Warren County) in an old history book led me to the Merrill Creek Reservoir, where I asked one of the environmentalists at the headquarters whether he knew of any such structure in the area. He brightened considerably, saying few people knew of or were interested in it, but, yes, the building was near and there was a thorough report on it, which he produced. The 1982 Historic Structure report contains a fascinating account of mid-seventeenth century Quaker practices, as well as the archaeological data to support the attribution. The gist of the report was that in 1752 Samuel Smith petitioned the Kingwood Meeting (Quakertown, Hunterdon County) for permission to hold regular meetings at his residence in Greenwich (now Harmony) Township. As he was located about 20 miles from both the Kingwood and Hardwick Meetings (near Great Meadow, also in Warren County), his request was granted to hold meetings on the second Sunday of each month in 1753, and he proceeded to erect a stone building, designed to serve as both a meetinghouse and a residence.
     Early settlers were used to meeting in Friends' houses, so this was not an unusual request, although construction to serve the dual purpose of both meetinghouse and residence is without precedent in this state to my knowledge, but I have found evidence for it in Maryland. Although the meetinghouse has a single front entrance, there was physical evidence of provision for hinged panels to separate the women’s meeting from the men’s, as is standard Quaker practice. There is also a small burial ground up the hill, with several modest markers (no names or dates) as is consistent with early Quaker convention. The archaeological investigation conducted as part of the approval process for construction of the Merrill Creek Reservoir concluded that from both the physical evidence and the numerous entries in the records of Quaker meetings, the building was probably constructed for use as a meetinghouse and residence, and that it was so used from 1753 to 1755, when Smith moved to Virginia. it remained in the hands of Quaker owners for another several decades, but there is no suggestion that any meetings were held there after 1755. The building’s lower floor is being restored to its 1753 condition by a private party under an agreement with the Merrill Creek Reservoir authority. It seems that this is the northernmost Quaker meetinghouse in the state.

Walnford meeting
Folklorist Henry Beck in Fair to Midlands tells the story of an early Quaker meeting-house in the vicinity of Ellisdale (Burlington County), but his description and directions were not very explicit, and the photograph in an early edition is so fuzzy it is hard to make out any specific lineaments of the building. Even when he wrote of it, the building had long ago been converted into a residence. Fortunately, a correspondent who grew up in the house provided better directions, although she said that when she drove by it the recent additions and changes made it all but unrecognizable even to her. It appears to me the site is actually in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth county, but very close to the Burlington line. From the examination I made a few hundred feet away (I don't intrude on private property, even to make a photograph), this appears to be the structure Beck referred to as the Walnford meetinghouse.
     But Beck says the Walnford Meeting was organized about 1700, which struck me as a bit too early for this part of the county, as far inland as it is. Possible, but unlikely. The building itself probably dates to the late eighteenth or even early nineteenth century, but without a closer examination I can do no better than that. The meetinghouse is located a short distance (less than a mile) from Monmouth County's Historic Walnford Park, a 36 acre mill village/ plantation that was settled in 1734, which is additional evidence against an early eighteenth century founding. An important owner of the plantation in 1772 was a prominent Quaker, Philadelphia merchant Richard Waln, a British sympathizer. He was arrested by American forces for trading with the enemy and exiled to Staten Island (behind British lines), but returned to Philadelphia and Walnford after a petition to be a “good subject.” When the Continental Congress declared independence, and Washington's army later occupied the city, it was uncomfortable for Quakers, in general, and certainly especially so for those with Tory leanings and dealings, so Walnford had the foresight to establish his family up the Crosswicks Creek at the site of the mill, where he erected one of the largest houses in the state. That suggests to me that sometime after 1778 is a more likely date for the organization of the Walnford meeting.
     From other records it is clear that there was an Upper Freehold meeting, perhaps in Allentown, but possibly in Walnford. On that issue I have no information. The political situation may have put Waln's financial situation in some jeopardy, so his financial role in the erection of a nearby brick meetinghouse may be speculative, but still a fairly reasonable inference. Inasmuch as there was very little construction of any kind during the war years or in the straightened economic period immediately following, I would be hesitant to assign a 1770s or even 1780s date to the building itself. Perhaps by 1790 or so, the economy and the prosperity of the Walnford plantation was sufficient to support the construction of the meetinghouse. Until we have additional information, that's the tentative date I am using for this meetinghouse. The important thing, in any case, is not the date but the identification that this structure was the Walnford Meetinghouse.
     Incidentally, for fascinating details on Quaker life in Philadelphia under British and American occupation, see The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, Elaine Crane, editor, (Boston: University of New England Press, 1991), vol. 1, 222-271, portions of which are available on the web at www.union.edu/PUBLIC/HSTDEPT/HST021/Wells/amerrev/drinker.htm. Now let's consider another very early Quaker meeting that sheds some light on the Walnford question.

Mansfield meeting
One of my regular correspondents called attention to the early nineteenth century Quaker meetinghouse in Mansfield Township (Burlington County) that I had not yet photographed, so I made a point to look for it. Located on Route 206, the classic two-story brick meeting-house was easy to miss because it is set back from the road and there is no sign. Once you notice it, of course, it is unmistakably a Quaker meetinghouse. There is a stone inset on the upper story with the date 1812, which is also used by Woodward & Hageman's History of Burlington County (1883). The Scott Atlas of Burlington County (1876) identifies it as the Orthodox meetinghouse. When reconnoitering I noticed that several of the oldest grave markers were off to the north of the main burial ground, awfully close to a small residence on the adjacent property. Looking a little closer at that building—it had the saggy roof that sometimes indicates a really early frame structure—I noticed the small pent roof over a door that was set at the extreme rear of the building—a most unusual placement, but one I had seen on an early Quaker meetinghouse elsewhere. When I went around to the front of the building, I was completely convinced I was looking at the original Mansfield meetinghouse, built about 1783.
     Woodward & Hageman noted that the first meetinghouse in Mansfield was a frame building, and this structure looks very much like the early meetinghouse in Upper Springfield, built in 1727, near Wrightstown, in dimensions and proportion. The Scott Atlas also indicates the existence of another Friends structure just north of the Orthodox meetinghouse. Based on the historical account and the physical resemblance to other meetinghouses, I have little hesitation in identifying this as the 1783 Mansfield meetinghouse. In 1812 it was moved a few yards to accommodate a new large brick meetinghouse. Woodward & Hageman mentioned that early meetings in the area were held in various homes (the book mentions several names) until 1783 when four Preparative Meetings were established—in Mansfield, Arneytown, Upper Springfield, and Upper Freehold (!)—under the authority of the Chesterfield Monthly meeting in Crosswicks. Each of these had a membership of nearly two hundred fifty. Lower Mansfield is a placename no longer noted on any of the maps I have examined, but with a membership of that size, it probably had a meetinghouse as well. The eighteenth century meetinghouse in Arneytown also exists, and the Upper Freehold meeting may refer to Walnford. Perhaps someone with better access to early Friends' records will clarify the matter.

Hardwick meeting/Quaker Settlement
There are relatively few Quaker meetinghouses north of Trenton, so any hint of an early meetinghouse is worth a little extra investigative effort. When a specific site near the Warren-Sussex County border is labeled Quaker Settlement or Quaker Grove and there is a substantial Friends burial ground in the immediate vicinity, that certainly merits even more than the usual effort to find out what remains and what has disappeared.
     It is clear that a Quaker society was organized near the northeastern end of Great Meadows by 1745 under appointment of the Kingwood (Hunterdon) meeting. The Great Meadows area was generally regarded as a Quaker settlement, and the meeting was referred to as the Hardwick Particular Meeting in 1745, although I've seen it also referred to as the Quaker Settlement meeting. William Penn's grandson deeded a property for the purpose of building a meetinghouse in 1752, and shortly thereafter a log meetinghouse was erected. By 1764 it was replaced by a stone building, which served as meetinghouse and school. But the Quakers did not flourish here and services had ceased by 1755, according to Snell's History of Sussex and Warren Counties (1881). Snell's source says that building was torn down in 1866, and that would normally be the end of the story.
But there is a different account in a more recent source . . . and then there is that intriguing old structure in a grove identified on Beers Atlas of 1874 as a meetinghouse and school. The 1973 History of Allamuchy Township written by Helen Johnson asserts that the Friends society’s last services were held in 1854 although regular services had ceased by 1835. That hundred year difference is curious. Johnson agrees with Snell that the building was torn down in 1866, which is also curious, as perfectly good stone buildings were not usually torn down except to make way for much larger buildings; they were mostly converted into some other use. But she continues, saying the Methodist church in Tranquility (founded in 1802 in Sussex County) built a new church on this site on the foundation of the Quaker meetinghouse, and that the new building was used for religious and educational purposes and came to be known as the Quaker Grove School. It was last used as a school in 1939, and currently is a residence. We get scant help from Snell, however, who says the Methodists of Tranquility joined with other denominations and erected a union church, perhaps in Greendell, although he is vague about the location.
     Neither Snell nor Johnson have documented the sources for their information. Johnson may be relying on Snell for some of her facts, but she clearly departs from his account on a couple of particulars. I know from my own research that Snell is both indispensable and unreliable, but I know nothing at all about Ms Johnson. The current building is a frame structure, so the stone meetinghouse of the Quakers is gone. Is this the Methodist church erected between 1866 and 1871 on the old foundation? I'd like to believe that. If one were to remove the porch from the residence the building has the scale and many of the attributes of a lot of the frame churches Methodists were building in the region. Am I convinced? Not quite. The fact that I want it to be so makes me doubly cautious, and there is too little firm evidence on which to draw anything but a very tentative hypothesis that it could be. But I think we can be fairly confident that this was, indeed, the site of the Hardwick Particular Meeting.

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