THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT OF OHIO
By Harlow Lindley*

The period of a third of a century following 1680 marks the great migration of Quakers from England, Ireland and Wales to America, and most of these came to the region around Philadelphia. Previous to this date some Quakers had settled in New England, New Jersey, Virginia and the Carolinas. Most of the Quakers who early settled in Ohio came directly or indirectly from Pennsylvania. A majority came direct from Virginia and the Carolinas but most of them were direct descendants of Pennsylvania settlers. The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy being prepared by William Wade Hinshaw is indispensable in following out these Quaker lines.

The membership of the Quakers in Ohio came very largely from Hopewell and Old South Monthly Meetings in Virginia; Cane Creek, New Garden, Deep River, Springfield, Center and Westfield monthly meetings in North Carolina; and Bush River in South Carolina. Friends from Pennsylvania and Virginia crossed the mountains and monthly meetings were established in Southwestern Pennsylvania near the present city of Brownsville and two monthly meetings were soon opened-one called Westland and the other Redstone. These served as the official base for the establishment of regular meetings in Ohio.

Groups of friends from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were augmented by a large movement from the Carolinas and Georgia. Probably the greatest contributing factor in this movement was the slavery issue, and after the passage of the famous Ordinance of 1787 Friends knew that the territory north and west of the Ohio would be forever free from slavery, although there were doubtless other contributing reasons.

In the year 1796, George Harlan and family, members of the Society of Friends moved to the Ohio region, stopping first at Columbia (Cincinnati) and the next year located on the little Miami River, within the present limits of Warren County, becoming the first sheriff of the county and later a member of the General Assembly of the State. So far as is known this was the first Quaker family to locate in Ohio.

In 1796, James Baldwin and Phineas Hunt, with their families, members of the Society of Friends, from Westfield, North Carolina, moved to the Virginia shore of the Ohio River. In February, 1797, Jesse Baldwin and Phineas Hunt crossed the Ohio River. Two families of Friends were now settled together in the Northwest Territory with one before mentioned (the Harlans) quite remote from them.

On May 8th of the same year, 1797, a group of Friends moved from Westland, Pennsylvania, and settled on the east side of the Scioto River below Chillicothe.

In the latter part of this same year, Jesse Baldwin moved from his first location opposite Green Bottom, some eighteen miles down the Ohio, and settled in what was called Quaker Bottom, in Lawrence County, opposite the mouth of the Guyandot River, and the present town of Guyandot. So far as can be ascertained, this was where Friends in the Northwest Territory first sat down to hold a meeting for divine worship.

John Warner, son of Isaac and Mary Warner, was born at High Bank, Ross County, Ohio, on July 12, 1798. So far as we know, he was the first child born as a birthright member of the Society of Friends northwest of the Ohio River, and, on November 11 of the same year, Rebecca Chandler, daughter of William and Hannah Chandler, was born near the same place.

In 1798, a group of Friends from Hopewell, Virginia settled at High Bank, and another group from North Carolina settled at Salt Creek in Ross County, Ohio. In 1799, Obediah Overman -and his family from Grayson County, Virginia, arrived with Thomas Beals and his family. On their arrival, they opened a meeting for worship in the dwelling of Jesse Baldwin which was regularly held during their residence at that place. The nearest Meeting to them was Westland, Pennsylvania, about two hundred miles away.

Sometime during the year, 1799, Taylor Webster and family, from Redstone, Pennsylvania, settled at Grassy Prairies, five miles northeast of Chillicothe.

The intensified movement began around 1800. By 1800, settlements were being made west of the Ohio River, some miles out from Wheeling, Va. Just about the same time Friends from the South were migrating into southern and south­ western Ohio, and soon the Eastern and New England States were making their contributions. They constituted a meeting going population. Those people, who, in the long march through the wilderness had rested on Sunday and at the accustomed hour, had gathered around their campfires for silent worship, or listened to vocal ministry from some of their own number, were not likely to neglect their religious duties when their travels were ended. There is a tradition which probably is true, 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 the log meeting house, which was one of the earliest structures.

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, 1801, Concord Monthly Meeting was established. The stream of emigrants seemed unending and soon there were Friends communities in Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison, Columbiana, Morgan, and Washington Counties. Early in 1804 these meetings began to look to the establishment of a Quarterly Meeting. Their request was granted by the Yearly Meeting in 1806 and Short Creek Quarterly Meeting convened for the first time, June 6, 1807.

We now go to another part of the State. In the latter part of 1799 some families of Friends from Bush River Monthly Meeting, South Carolina, settled near the present site of Waynesville. Some months later a group of Friends arrived from Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Virginia, and, during the same year, a few from North Carolina. Other Friends continued to arrive and a volunteer meeting for worship was established, April 26, 1801, at Waynesville. Twelve families were represented in the meeting. All of these members were certified to Westland Monthly Meeting, western Pennsylvania. This Meeting was recognized by Westland Monthly Meeting, December 26, 1801, and Miami Monthly Meeting was established October 13, 1803, and from this nucleus developed the Meetings of Ohio west of the Hocking River, including what later became West Branch Quarterly Meeting to the north, and Whitewater Quarterly Meeting in eastern Indiana, as well as all the Friends meetings in Indiana and farther west.

The rapid settlement of Friends in the valleys of the Miami's is shown by the fact that in three years, from the middle of 1804 to the middle of 1807, there were received at Miami Monthly Meeting 367 removal certificates conveying to that Meeting the membership of 1697 persons. These did not all settle in the vicinity of Waynesville nor even in Warren County, but were scattered through what are now Clinton, Highland, Greene, Montgomery, Miami and Preble counties in Ohio and Wayne County, Indiana.

In the planting of these Friends communities in Ohio a number made contributions to the Nation far beyond the ordinary. Chief among these in the earlier period were Mount Pleasant, Salem, Damascus, Waynesville, Barnesville and New Vienna. Mount Pleasant was founded about the year 1800. Within a few years the thriving town became one of the leading business and industrial centers of eastern Ohio and commanded trade over territory of more than a hundred square miles.

The proprietors of the first stores were Enoch Harris, Joseph Gill, and John Hogg. There soon developed a flouring mill, a woolen factory, a tannery, and one of the first and largest pork packing establishments of the state. The most extensive meat market and one of the largest woolen markets of the state were here. John W. Gill built the first factory in the United States for the weaving of silk in 1840.

The chief glory of Mount Pleasant was not its material development but in the higher realm of mental and spiritual things. There were a number of college men among the early settlers and great interest was shown in the development of schools. In 1837 there was erected the Friends Boarding School. This school did valuable service. The main building was destroyed by fire in 1875 and the school was rebuilt near Barnesville, and has made a very creditable contribution to education for over a hundred years.

For many years, Mount Pleasant was considered the literary center of eastern Ohio. A large number of periodicals, magazines and books were published here. The Philanthropist published by Osborn, issued August 29, 1817, was the first American newspaper to advocate the abolition of slavery, and it was followed by Lundy's Genius of Universal Emancipation. The Ohio "Agents" were all men of prominence in their communities and two are worthy of special note-Benjamin Lundy, the pioneer leader in the anti-slavery movement in the United States, and Benjamin Hanna, the grandfather of Senator Marcus A. Hanna Abigail Flanner was an unusual woman for her day, and Mary Edmundson, the mother of Anna Dickinson, taught school in the Short Creek Meeting House. Although the Quakers were small in number, relatively speaking, yet they made their impress upon the life of Ohio, particularly in the Counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Belmont, Guernsey, Morgan, Washington, Ross, Highland, Clinton, Warren, Greene, Preble, Miami, Logan and Morrow.
 

*Mr. Lindley is the secretary, librarian, and editor of the Ohio State Archelogical and Historical Society.

Ohio Source Records from The Ohio Genealogical Quarterly