Concord Monthly Meeting

The first established meeting of Friends west of the Allegheny Mountains was at Westland, in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  This meeting was provided for by action of Hopewell Monthly Meeting located near Winchester, Virginia, November 11, 1782.  Groups of Friends from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia were augmented by a large movement from the Carolinas and Georgia.  Probably the greatest single factor in this movement was the slavery issue.  After the passage of the famous Ordinance of 1787, Friends knew that the territory north and west of the Ohio River would be forever free from slavery, but there were doubtless other contributing reasons, such as availability of good land at a cheap price, the lure of the frontier and natural expansion.

        The movement into Ohio began in 1796 and an intensified movement began about 1800 when settlements were made west of the Ohio River some miles northwest of Wheeling, Virginia.  These were a “meeting-going” population.  These people in their migrations had rested on the First day of the week, and at the accustomed hour had gathered around their campfire for worship.

        There is a tradition that at Concord (Colerain) a group assembled first on the trunk of a fallen tree, then were invited to the newly erected cabin of Jonathan Taylor, and later moved to a log meeting house.  The first Friends moved into eastern Ohio in September 1800.  In less than one year, Friends so increased that two preparative meetings were established and on December 19, 1800, Concord Monthly Meeting was opened.

        The place of meeting alternated with Short Creek until 3rd Month, 20th, 1804, when a request was made in Redstone Quarterly Meeting held at Westland that the monthly meeting be divided - Short Creek Monthly Meeting to be held alternatively at Short Creek and Plymouth, and Concord Monthly Meeting to be held alternatively at Concord and Plainfield.  This request was granted.  In 1804 Concord Monthly Meeting initiated a movement looking forward to a Quarterly Meeting for the Friends in eastern Ohio.

        Among the charter members of Concord Monthly Meeting who were prominent in the beginnings of Quakerism in Ohio were Howard Horton, Nathan Updegraff, Jonathan Taylor, Benjamin Starta, Josiah Bundy, Cadwallader Evans, Bordon Stanton, Jacob Ong, Joseph Hall, Samuel Lewis, Enoch Harris, Benjamin Vaile, Jonathan Wilson, Malachi Jolly, Mary Jolly, Amara Lipsey, Benjamin Steel, David Berry, Joseph Dew, Royal Wade, James Raby, Abner Lambert, Joseph Arnold, Samuel James, William Kirk, Jesse White, William Satterthwait, Levi Wells, Joshua Hatcher, Daniel Frazier, Aaron Brown and William Carr.

        In the years 1803-1805 the Hopewell meeting of Virginia sent to Concord in Ohio members of the Lufton, Piggot, Jenkins, Pickering, Miller, Ellis, Steer and Bevan families.  Concord Monthly Meeting suffered heavily as a result of the Hicksite Separation in 1828.

        Records of Concord Monthly Meeting are preserved by Mable Clark, Custodian, Bridgeport, Ohio, and in the bank vault at Mount Pleasant.  Some records have been lost by fire and as a result of having been borrowed and never returned.