GOOSE CREEK MONTHLY MEETING
Loudon County, Virginia

  In order to present a clear picture of the beginnings of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, Loudon County, Virginia, and to avoid confusion with another Goose Creek Monthly Meeting located in Bedford County, Virginia, which was short lived, it seems appropriate to give a short historical sketch of the settlement by Friends of the Shenandoah Valley in the northern  part of what was then the Colony of Virginia; for, until settled by a colony of Friends beginning about 1730, this part of Virginia was almost entirely a wilderness and unhabited by white people. The Shenandoah Valley proper is 110 miles long and 25 miles wide and lies between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghenies, and is watered by the Shenandoah River. It contains some of the finest and most fertile lands in Virginia. By 1730, Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan of Chester County, Pa. (who had doubtless made survey visits into the Shenandoah Valley previously) had formed a company to bring some 70 Quaker families from Pennsylvania to settle in this lovely region. They then appliecd to the Governor of Virginia for a grant of 100,000 acres of land (later augmented by 20,000 additional acres) for the purpose of settlement in the valley. Although they were not actually granted this land until 1732-1735, they had already begun settling these families in the Valley. Each of the 70 families was to have a patent to 1000 acres by their agreement with the governor. Henry and Josiah Ballinger of Salem, West Jersey, and James Wright, William Beals and others from Nottingham, Pennsylvania, had settled in 1725 in Monoquesy Valley, Prince George's County, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from Virginia, and had received liberty to establish a meeting amongst themselves to be held at the house of Josiah Ballinger and others. By 1726 this meeting to be called Monocacy Meeting. Many of these families later joined the families who had migrated to the Shenandoah Valley. Although Quakers had established themselves on the eastern shores of Maryland as early as 1656, Monocacy Meeting was the first to be established in Maryland near the Virginia border. Hopewell Meeting (now in Frederick County, Virginia) was established about 1732 on the banks of the Opeckan Greek (near Winchester, Virginia) and in 1733 Fairfax Meet­ing was established about 40 miles below the Opeckan by Amos Janney and others from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The meetings were held at first at Amos Janney's house. Providence Meeting was established by Richard Beeson soon after on a branch of the Opeckan called Tuscarora, the meetings being held at the house of Richard Beeson for some time, until a log meeting house was built. This meeting was also called Beeson's Meeting. Thus, these four meetings were establish­ed in this region; all of 'them were established under charter by Chester Quarterly Meeting, Penn­sylvania, and were at first attached to East Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Cecil County, Maryland, where they left their certificates of removal on coming into the Shenandoah Valley. By 1734 so many Quaker families had moved into the Valley that it was deemed best to establish a monthly meeting amongst them, and Hopewell Monthly Meeting was organized in 1735, and given control over the four meetings which had been established, viz:-Monocacry, Hopewell, Fairfax and Providence. This made Hopewell Monthly Meeting the overseer of all Friends living in this vast territory; and as they multiplied rapidly in numbers through a steady influx from Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Quarterly Meeting decided to divide the territory controlled by Hopewell into two monthly meetings, and so Fairfax Monthly Meeting was organized 1n 1744/45 and took control of about one half of this region of Quaker families. Monocacy and Fairfax Meetings were assigned to Fairfax Monthly Meeting and Hopewell and Providence Meetings were assigned to Hopewell Monthly Meeting. But Fairfax Monthly Meeting territory was, like that of Hopewell, still very large, its member­ship growing "by leaps and bounds".

  In l745,Friends (members of Fairfax) who had settled near the Middle Branch of Goose Creek requested of Fairfax Monthly Meeting liberty to hold a meeting amongst themselves during the winter season, the meeting to be held at the house of Sarah Walker, which was granted. In 1746 these Friends were granted liberty by Fairfax Monthly Meeting to hold a First Day meeting regularly at the house of Jacob Janney, Junior, with which the meetings held at Sarah Walker's were to cease until further orders. In 10th month 1749 these Friends were granted liberty to have a meeting "settled" upon them to be held at the house of Isaac Nichols on the fourth first day in the third month. As news of the great fertility of the lands on the Opeckan and Goose Creeks spread, there was a great new influx of Friends from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and an indulged meeting was authorized at South Fork and another at The Gap. In 1774 a Preparative Meeting was established at Goose Creek and an "established" meeting at South Fork. And still the membership grew so rapidly that in 1785 it was decided to divide Fairfax Monthly Meeting into two monthly meetings: Fairfax and Goose Creek Monthly Meetings. Thus, Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, Loudon County, Virginia came into existence. At this same time, South Fork Meeting was granted a preparative meeting and was attached to Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, making two preparative meet­ings belonging to the new Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, viz: Goose Creek and South Fork Preparative Meetings.

  An indulged meeting was allowed at South Fork located about 7 miles southwest of Goose Creek Meeting, Loudon Co., Va. about 1745. They built a meeting house on land purchased and paid for by members, and the meeting was well attended. The meeting house was 25 feet by 25 feet, on a lot of 10 acres, including the burial ground. A preparatory meeting was established in 12th month 1785 and this meeting opened satisfactorily, as reported at Goose Creek Monthly Meeting 30th of 1st month 1786, but was discontinued by the quarterly meeting in 2nd month 1826, though the meeting for worship was kept up for some years thereafter. South Fork Meeting was a source of much concern to loose creek Monthly Meeting, almost qvery month complaints were laid against several of its members for more or less serious infractions of the rules of discipline, the complaints ranging from drinking, quarreling and fighting to marrying contrary to discipline and other grave accusations. In 1836 the meeting was reported as "very weak and low and that no regular meetings have been held there for some time"; so the meeting was laid down with the approval of Fairfax Quarterly Meeting 11th of 2nd month 1836.

  In 12th month 1787 an indulged meeting was granted to Friends living at or near the Gap of the Short Hill by a joint action of Fairfax and Goose Creek Monthly Meetings, to be held during the winter season at the house of John Hollingsworth; since a part of the Friends living along this border line were members of Fairfax and a part were members of Goose Creek, this meeting was at first controlled jointly between the two monthly meetings. But later, matters became somewhat confused, and the meeting at the Gap was placed under permanent control of Fairfax Monthly Meeting by the quarterly meeting. Soon after the Gap Meeting was allowed, land was purchased and a log meeting house was built.

Goose Creek Meeting Houses: When in 1749 a meeting for worship was permanently established at Goose Creek, their meetings were at first held at the house of Isaac Nickols, but later a log meeting house was built on land donated by Isaac Nickols. In 1792 the meeting house was enlarged. Also money was subscribed to help purchase a lot to accommodate the yearly meeting at Baltimore. In 1795 Isaac Nickols executed a Deed to the ten acres of land which he had donated for use of the meeting, which was duly recorded in the names of sundry trustees. In 1817 the need for a house suitable for the accommodation of the "poor" became evident, after consideration, it was decided to build a new meeting house and arrange the old log meeting for this purpose. So, 'a little later, when it was available, the old meeting house was partitioned into apartments, one of which was to be occupied by the family of the caretaker, and the rest of the rooms were used to accommodate the poor. In this connection it should be stated that Goose Creek Meeting has, from its beginning, taken good care of all of its poor, even, in some cases to the paying of hospitalization in a Philadelphia Hospital, thus keeping up the tradition of the Society of Friends that each and every meeting must take care of its own poor, and that no poor member should ever be sent to a public alms house.

  In the 2nd month 1817, then, the Committee reported a proposal to build the new meeting house of the size 65 feet long and 40 feet wide, and to be two stories high. A committee was appointed to make a proper contract with a responsible workman to construct the building and to raise the money to pay for it. They contracted with Daniel Cockrill to build it and furnish all materials and labor completely for the sum of $3500.00, but after the building had been completed, it was found that the builder was "out" a considerable amount of money, and the committee instructed to raise the balance needed to completely reimburse him and to properly furnish the meeting house, which was done.

  The building was of brick with a heavy stone foundation 24 inches thick. The new meeting house was indeed an imposing and durable edifice, built to stand for centuries. The complete plans of its architecture make interesting reading, but they are too lengthy to be offered here Besides the lower floor, there is a large and commodious youth's gallery, A sliding partition in the center of the house provides for separate meetings of the men and women, and allows the whole house to be thrown open into a single room when desired, and for general First Day Meet­ings. The building was completed early in 1819, at a total cost of about $4000.00, which at that time was a large sum. There were other costs than those of the builder's contract, which were met as they came up. In fact, the minutes of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting show clearly that this meeting has never at any time allowed itself to fall into debt, and that every bill has been promptly met when due. Also, members were strictly required to pay their Just personal debts, failure to do meant disownment, excepting under most extenuating circumstances.

School House: In 1815 a school house was built on the meetirg house lot after which a teacher was hired regularly and the school was kept in session during the greater part of each year. It should also be stated that the meeting directed that all colored persons employed in the homes of members must be given a "useful school learning".

Horses: The meeting built a large stable to house the horses of members attending the meetings, also it was ordered in 1832 that two saddle houses be built, frame, 8 by 12 with shingle roofs.

Graveyard: A large graveyard or burial ground was set out and a stone wall built around it. It is one of the most beautiful burial grounds in Virginia and has been carefully tended since the beginning. In 1808 it was agreed that burials of non-members would be permitted, but "the privilege could only be granted on condition of their (those making application) conforming on those occasions to our plain way".

Joint Meetings: Separate men's and women's meetings were kept up until 1889 when it was de­cided to hold joint meetings between the two branches. Goose Creek Preparative Meeting had been laid down in 1881, "since there is no longer any use for it".

Marriages to non-members: In 1876 it was agreed: "That when persons not members of the Society of Friends wishes to marry a member, he or she may make application to men Friends or women Friends-for such marriage; if allowed, the marriage to be solemnized in the usual manner, but this doesriot include receiving of said person into membership".

Maryland Yearly Meeting: "As far as seems known, the first yearly meeting in Maryland was held on West River in 1672. For over a hundred years thereafter it was held alternately at West River on the Western Shore (of Chesapeake Bay) and at Tredhaven on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1790 the yearly meeting was removed to be held in Baltimore, at which time the meetings com­posing Fairfax, Goose Creek and Hopewell Monthly Meetings in Virginia, and Warrington Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania, which had previously belonged to Concord Quarter of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting". (quoted from Wm. Wood, clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting by Levi K. Brown, 1874). Fairfax, Goose Creek, Hopewell and Alexandria Monthly Meetings were attached then to Fairfax Quarterly Meeting (formerly Warrington-Fairfax Quarterly Meeting).

Goose Creek Monthly Meeting Location:  Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, Loudon Co., Va., is located nine Wiles west of Leesburg, 45 miles west 3f Alexandria and 8 miles south of Waterford, 2 miles south from "Purcell Station" of Washington & Old Dominion Railroad.

Recording of Marriages in Virginia: In 1823 Virginia passed a law requiring all marriages to be recorded in county offices. Prior to that date Quaker, marriages were recorded only in the Registers of monthly meetings. Thus, Quaker marriages in Virginia from 1656 to 1823, or 173 years, can be found only in the old Registers. But it has been found that even after the new law was passed, many marriage certificates among Quakers were never deposited for record in the county offices though they are usually faithfully recorded in the monthly meeting books.

The Separation of 1828: The Baltimore Yearly Meeting decided to follow Elias Hicks and this brought about a division in thought amongst members in Goose Creek Meeting, as it did in other meetings in many parts of the country. A number of Friends belonging to Goose Creek Monthly Meeting withdrew and banded together to form a new Goose Creek Meeting of so-called Orthodox Friends, and joined with other Orthodox Friends to constitute a new monthly meeting which they called Hopewell Monthly Meeting of Orthodox Friends, but the majority of Goose Creek members remained with the original meeting and with the Baltimore Yearly Meeting which had become Hicksite, so called. This historical account from now forward is of the Hicksite Friends of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting. There was never a Goose Creek Monthly Meeting of Orthodox Friends organized.

  The names of those Friends who withdrew from Goose Creek Monthly Meeting will be found in the various records showing such withdrawals. None were ever disowned because of withdrawal; they were merely listed as having "withdrawn to form another meeting of Friends within the limits of Goose Creek, by which they relinquished their rights of membership in Goose Creek Monthly Meeting". The records of the Goose Creek Orthodox Friends, after their withdrawal, will be found in Hopewell Monthly Meeting of Orthodox Friends. The meeting was suspended during the Civil War as roving bands of soldiers flowed back and forth across the country side leaving ruin in their wake. Practically all Quaker meeting houses were occupied by troops or used as hospit­als. With the end of the War loyal Orthodox Friends attended the worship services of the Hicksite Friends. It was not until 1886 that the old Orthodox Goose Creek Particular Meeting was reestablished with eleven charter members, under the new name of Lincoln Meeting. In 1887 Lincoln Monthly Meeting was set up under Baltimore Quarterly Meeting. It continues as a flourishing meet­ing to this date.

Reconstruction Work: Goose Creek Monthly Meeting subscribed large sums of money from 1917 to 1920 for reconstruction work in France and Belgium; they also began at this time to take a deep interest in American politics, which they have kept up continually, in an effort to lend their influence for morality in Governmental affairs. In 1925 the meeting accepted an invita­tion from Orthodox Friends to join them in a Thanksgiving Service to be held at the meeting house of Orthodox Friends at Lincoln, Virginia; during succeeding years, such a joint Thanksgiving Service has been held each year at one or the other of the two meeting houses, always by invitation of one meeting to the other. After the Virginia Yearly Meeting was laid down, a new yearly meeting was organized at Baltimore known as the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Orthodox Friends, to which all Orthodox meetings in Virginia were then attached. A movement was started in 1934 to bring about a union of the two yearly meetings, but this has not yet been fully ac­complished, although a completely friendly cooperation exists between all Hicksite and Orthodox Friends in Virginia.

Children's Meeting: In 1933 a children's meeting for worship was organized by Goose Creek Monthly Meeting and held "in the Little Brick Meeting House", the first such meeting being held the 22nd of 1st mo. 1933, at which 10 children and one adult were present. A minute says: "Our meeting began by all sitting very still and listening, like Samuel, for our Heavenly Father to speak to us". A minute concerning a later meeting states:"The children heard stories of Jesus when he visited Jerusalem at the age of 12, with his parents, and how, when his parents, after seeking him, found him among the lawyers and doctors asking wise questions. It was then that he told his parents that he must be about his Heavenly Father's business. Again we took our seats and had a few minutes of silence to think of Jesus". I would like to quote all of the minutes of these children's meetings, for they are touchingly beautiful and were written up by a child clerk. It would be well if all of these minutes could be published and sent to all meetings everywhere for other children to read.
 Beginning with 1931 "free school lunches were served to all children in the graded school during the past winter to splendid effect in keeping the children in good physical condition". This has been kept up since then.

Music: In 1908 Louisa J. Nichols offered her organ for use in Friends Meetings:"the meeting felt willing to try the use of it in our First Day School". A minute of the meeting held in 5th month 1925 states: "The meeting authorized money to be raised to buy a piano for the Friends First Day School".
  Fairfax Monthly Meeting was laid down in 1929 by the quarterly meeting and all members were transferred to Goose Creek Monthly Meeting "in order that the Waterford Friends may continue to hold their membership in the Society of Friends"; 24 members with their families were transferred to Goose Creek Monthly Meeting from Waterford. After that date all records of members of Fair­fax (then called Waterford) will be found in Goose Creek records.

Non-Participation in War: In 1861 a Resolution was agreed to by Goose Creek Monthly Meeting to the following effect, as shown by the 3rd item in the Resolution: "Although laws might be passed with which our principles and clear conscience sense of religious duty would forbid our active compliance, even though there was connected therewith the heaviest penalty; yet the religion we profess, and as we conceive, the true spirit of Christianity, forbid our doing any act in opposition to the laws of the land in which we live, in all cases not obviously and con­clusively between ourselves and our Maker, we believe it to be our solemn duty, faithfully to comply with the laws of the land, or remain entirely passive under them, suffering all penalties". This resolution was also approved by Fairfax.

Prairie Grove Monthly Meeting, Iowa: In the 3rd month 1857 Goose Creek Monthly Meeting subscribed its share ($277.50) as asked by Baltimore Yearly Meeting to pay the costs of establishing a monthly meeting at Prairie Grove, Iowa, which monthly meeting was established by the year­ly meeting. A number of Goose Creek families were issued certificates of transfer to this new monthly meeting.

Memorials and Sufferings: In 2nd month 1787 subscriptions were taken by Goose Creek Meeting to support their poor and to relieve families within its verge who had suffered from Indian raids and other causes. A book was purchased to record memorials and sufferings. Money was also subscribed at various periods for the education and relief of "persons of color" in whom Goose Creek Meeting took deep interest. The minutes show that Goose Creek Meeting subscribed liberally to every call for relief from the date of its organization in 1785.

Book of Records and Minutes: From the establishment of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting in 12th month 1785, this meeting kept complete records and minutes covering all of its activities and its births, deaths and marriages. The books provided for this purpose were (a) A register in which were inscribed in full text all certificates of marriages authorized by the meeting; all certificates issued to members transferring them to other meetings; all births and deaths as far as these were obtainable; (b) a book of minutes of each meeting of both men and women Friends, kept separately until joint meetings were held in 1889; (c) a book of sufferings; (d) a record of membership book which was authorized in 1881 to hold all family records. Whenever a book had been fined, a new book was purchased for continuance of the same kind of material. 
  All books nave been carefully preserved so that these extracts are continuous from the beginning down to the present time. There are 4 books of men's minutes; 3 books of women's minutes 2 books of joint minutes; 1 book-the record of membership book (now in use); 2 registers, the 2nd of which_ is still in use. All of these books are stored for preservation in the yearly meeting fireproof vault in Baltimore, excepting the books presently in use by the meeting, which are in the hands of the clerk.
  During this entire period of more than 150 years, the meeting has been very careful in seeing to it that all records and minutes should be punctiliously kept by all clerks and recorders. The first clerk (William Kenworthy) wrote such a perfect hand that his writing still looks like a spencerian copybook. In fact, all clerks were expert penmen, down to the last book of minutes which has been typed. At the end of each year a committee was appointed to "revise and correct" the minutes.

Marriages: The-first marriage-in the meeting was that of Joel Lewis and Sarah Daniel, who appeared before the meeting and made their first declaration of intentions of marriage with each other o^ the 30th of 1st month 1786. In due time they accomplished their marriage in the "good order used amongst Friends" before the full meeting. Their marriage certificate was signed by many witnesses and given to the recorder for record. In extracting the data from the marriage certificates I have shortened the language very much, since it could not be possible to afford the space required to contain the full text of so many marriage certificates with long lists of witnesses, in a printed book of this kind, but all essential wording is contained in my ex­tracts to show as clearly as possible the true identities of individuals, names of parents (when given in the certificate), birth and death dates, places of residence, etc. Here is the essential data of the above marriage certificate of Joel Lewis to Sarah Daniel:
1786, 3, 9.     Lewis, Joel, son of Jehu Lewis and Alice, his wife, of Loudon Go., Va.; m Sarah Daniel, daughter of William Daniel and                     Esther, his wife, of Loudon Co., Virginia, in a public meeting of Friends at Goose Creek Meeting house, Loudon Co.,                     Virginia before 38 witnesses

Note that the marriage date is always placed at the left margin; this is to aid in compiling in chronological order. Had children been listed to this pair, their names and birth dates would have been listed beneath, as indicated. However, Joel Lewis and wife, Sarah, removed soon after their marriage to South River Monthly Meeting, Virginia, with a certificate of removal as follows:
1786, 4, 24. Lewis, Joel and wife, Sarah, about to remove, get South River Monthly Meeting, Virginia.
  To find names of their children one should search the records of South River Monthly Meeting, al­so if they removed from South River Monthly Meting, a certificate from that monthly meeting should show to what other meeting they removed. Thus, one may follow theirr movements completely.
  In the lists of births and deaths as found in the registers, some names and dates are often lacking; this is largely accounted for by the fact that when Goose Creek Monthly Meeting was or­ganized in 1785, it was set-off from Fairfax Monthly Meeting where all records of Goose Creek Friends prior to 1785 were kept. This is true also of dates of marriages of Friends residing during that period within what became the "verge of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting", after 1785. However, many families (as shown by certificates received) removed to within the verge of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting from other meetings in many states. In many cases the births of their children are listed in Goose Creek registers, but in others they are not so listed. To find the dates of marriages and births of such families one must search the records of the meetings from which such families came. In cases of deaths and burials, it is often impossible to iden­tify individuals, since only their names and dates of death and/or burial are given. Shortly after Goose Creek Monthly Meeting ns completely organized a committee was appointed to confer with a committee of Fairfax Monthly Meeting for the purpose of making up a list of families and children which had been transferred to Goose Creek Monthly Meeting from Fairfax Monthly Meeting in 1785 when Goose Creek Monthly Meeting was set-off. While such a list was made up, it was im­possible to make up a complete list, since it was not then known to a certainty exactly what families then lived within the verge of each meeting. To ascertain many dates of births and marriages of Friends listed in Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, it is frequently necessary to exam­ine also the records of Fairfax Monthly Meeting.

  It is to be remembered that the majority of families who were early settlers in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, migrated there from Pennsylvania beginning about 1732. East Nottingham Month­ly Meeting, being the nearest monthly meeting, families coming into the valley prior to 1737 left their certificates at this meeting. After Hopewell Monthly Meeting was established in 1735, certificates were issued by East Nottingham Monthly Meeting to Hopewell Monthly Meeting for all of these families; also from 1735 to 1745 (when Fairfax Monthly Meeting was establish­ed) all families immigrating into the valley deposited their certificates at Hopewell Monthly Meeting, but (and here is the difficulty) the first books of Hopewell Monthly Meeting (cover­ing the period 1735 to 1759) were burned in a fire, the consequence being that the records of Hopewell (with the exception of such as can be obtained through certificates from and to other meetings) for that period were forever lost. But from 1745, when Fairfax Monthly Meeting was set off from Hopewell Monthly Meeting, we have the Fairfax records almost complete, and these records, prior to 1785, contain the records of Goose Creek Friends from 1745.

  Periodically, or about once in every generation, a committee was appointed by Goose Creek Monthly Meeting to visit all families within its verge and gather from their family Bibles and other family records all possible data as to births and deaths. These committees had to travel great distances, usually on horseback, along roads which were largely mere trails, to reach the homes of those living in the outmost parts of the Shenandoah Valley within the verge of the meeting; in some cases they had to travel beyond the Allegheny Mountains. To make such visits to all families took not merely days, but months. But the men and women composing such committees were hardened to frontier life and were undaunted by such an experience. Families living at great distances from the meeting seldom attended services, since to do so would probably cause them to travel by oxteam wagons for several days each way, if the whole family came, but even on horseback it was a long journey. But such families gathered together with their neighbors and held meetings at each other's houses. It is a truthful traditional saying, that "wherever and whenever two or more Quakers met in the open, they stopped and held a meeting together". Quakers were easily identifiable to each other by their dress and plain speech.

William Wade Hinshaw