Iowa
History Project
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The full import
of what had actually come to pass in western Quakerism during the decade
between 1850 and 1860 can not be fully appreciated without a view of the field
as it appeared at the end of that period: a survey of the new meetings which
had been established, and the strong tendencies towards more effective
organization in the order.
When the year
1850 came to its close there were thirteen Quaker settlements in the state of
Iowa, varying in size from a few persons to many families. Ten years later, in
1860, there were no less than forty-five such meetings of Friends, scattered
through eighteen different counties.(96) As these settlements increased in numbers and in strength, it was
natural that each should pass through the various stages of Quaker church organization
for the handling of the community interests, namely: the Preparative, the
Monthly, the Quarterly, and the Yearly Meetings. The Preparative Meeting(97) dealt with a single local community; the Monthly Meeting usually
cared for a more extended field of one or more settlements; the Quarterly
Meeting had supervision over a number of Monthly Meetings in a given district;
and finally, the Yearly Meeting exercised final control in religious matters
over all those composing its membership.(98) It was through these various steps, therefore, that the Quakers
passed as they continued to plant their homes, their churches, and their
schools in Iowa.
It will be
remembered that with the growth of Salem the first Quarterly Meeting of Friends
west of the Mississippi River was organized at that place on May 20, 1848. This
meeting of Friends west of the Mississippi River was organized at that place on
May 20, 1848. This meeting having become unwieldy by the rapid rise of the
communities of Friends to the west, Pleasant Plain was set off as a new
Quarterly Meeting under that name in 1852, (99) with the more western
settlements under its care. Then came the Friends of Cedar County, who, in
their newly built frame meeting-house with floors of rough and unplaned boards,
were granted the privileges of a Quarterly Meeting on the 8th day of
May, 1858.(100) The fourth
group of settlements thus to organize was Western Plain, now called Bangor.
Starting with a little settlement in Marshall County in 1853,(101) the Quakers
settled in such numbers upon the fertile lands along the upper courses of the
Iowa River that within five years they were prepared for a Quarterly Meeting,
which was duly established among them on the 5th day of June, 1858.(102)
The Quakers in
Iowa, having developed into four strong and well organized Quarterly Meetings,
were now ready for the formation of a Yearly Meeting. It seems that the initial
move towards such an organization was made by the Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting,
the matter being considered on the 13th day of November, 1858. In
the records of that meeting may be found the following statement:
This meeting
was introduced into a deep exercise on the very important subject of the
establishment of a Yearly Meeting in Iowa. After a time of serious deliberation
during which a very general expression was made the meeting believing the time
had come, for action thereon, and being fully united, it was concluded to
appoint a joint committee of men and women friends, to meet and confer with
similar committees from the other quarterly meetings, and take the whole
subject in all its bearings into serious consideration. The place of meeting of
these committees to be at Spring Creek, meeting house, on the second seventh
day in 12th mo. next at 10 o’clk A. M.(103)
The
proposed plan was heartily espoused by the Friends of Pleasant Plain and of
Western Plain; and when December 11, 1858, arrived, representatives from all
four of the Iowa Quarterly Meetings were present at the appointed place. Having
convened, the “conference was introduced into a lively exercise on the
important subject”, and after a “free expression of sentiment” it was clear to
all that the Friends in Iowa were ready for a Yearly Meeting separate and
distinct from that of Indiana. Various locations were suggested for the annual
gatherings, which, after being “freely discussed in much harmony and
condescension”, the conference united in recommending to their home meetings
that the gatherings be held “in the vicinity of Oskaloosa, in Mahaska County”—an
indefinite recommendation which was fraught with may difficulties.(104)
Having
confederated their interests, the four Iowa Quarters now pressed their claims
for independence upon the Indiana Yearly Meeting at its annual gathering in
1859; and at its session held on October 1st, after “serious
consideration, and, under a feeling sense of the responsibility and importance
of the proposed movement”, the meeting appointed a committee of nineteen
Friends “to visit the Quarterly meetings in Iowa, with the liberty of visiting
any of their subordinate meetings, if they should think it right to do so, and
to report… their judgment as to the propriety of granting the request”.(105)
During the
summer days of 1860, twelve members of this official committee passed from
community to community in Iowa, observing and noting the conditions here
existing. It its report to the Indiana Yearly Meeting on October 6th
the committee said:
Our Friends in Iowa received us with much kindness, and assisted us in traveling form place to place, as was laid out to suit our convenience. We found large and respectable bodies of Friends at Red Cedar, Bangor, South River, Pleasant Plain, and Salem Quarterly meetings, and entered into much sympathy with them in their situation, and also in regard to their proposition, concerning which we found a united sentiment at each meeting.
In recommending that the request of
the Iowa Friends be granted the committee suggested that “the time of opening
the new Yearly Meeting be fixed not earlier than 1863, nor later than 1865… in
order to give ample time for suitable preparation and arrangements”. Adopting
the recommendations of their committee, the Indiana Friends now authorized the
opening of the new Yearly Meeting “to be held in the vicinity of Oskaloosa, in
Mahaska County, Iowa, on Fifth-day preceding the second First-day in the Ninth
month, 1863.” It was in accordance with this direction that the Iowa Yearly
Meeting of Friends came into being at the Spring Creek meeting-house on the 10th
day of September, 1863.(106)
This project for a Yearly Meeting
had apparently moved along smoothly, and peace ad concord seemed to prevail.
But unexpectedly an almost insuperable difficulty arose. In the early part of
January, 1861, representatives from the five Iowa Quarterly Meetings reconvened
at Oskaloosa to lay plans and make arrangements for the opening of the Yearly
Meeting two years hence. They early agreed upon the erection of a permanent
building for the Yearly Meeting, at an estimated cost of $16,000; but when they
came to consider just where this building was to be placed, grave and
embarrassing differences of opinion appeared.(107) That it was to be “in the vicinity of Oskaloosa” had been made
clear both by the former conference at Spring Creek in 1858 and by the
direction of the Indiana Friends of the Spring Creek settlement about two and
one-half miles to the east of Oskaloosa, the demands of the Friends of the
Center Grove settlement about two miles to the north of Oskaloosa, and the
demands of the Friends in the town of Oskaloosa—all contending for the erection
of the proposed building in their midst—was a puzzle.
Unable to come to any mutual
agreement the conference of January adjourned until April. Upon reviewing the
whole situation, a dead-lock again appeared at the adjourned meeting, and the
joint committee was compelled to report back to the home meetings that “we
cannot agree upon any location”.(108) The Bangor Quarterly Meeting now proposed to submit the contention
to an impartial body of Friends outside of Iowa,(109) but Pleasant Plain refused to
concur in this suggestion.(110) Then Red
Cedar appealed to the Indiana “Meeting for Sufferings”(111) to interfere, and asked that the opening of the new Yearly
Meeting be indefinitely postponed.(112) The
Indiana Yearly Meeting was now compelled to act; and in a statement made on
October 2, 1862, it informed its Iowa offspring with true Quaker firmness “that
it would [not] be proper for it to make any change in the conclusion heretofore
had”.(113) Thus left to make the best
of the situation, the western Quakers for the time being laid aside their
differences and made haste to prepare for the long to be remembered birthday of
the first Yearly Meeting beyond the Mississippi.
96-The writer compiled his data for the Iowa field in 1850 and 1860
chiefly from two booklets published by the authority of the “Meeting for
Sufferings” of the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, each entitled: Statement
of Indiana Yearly Meeting, and All the Meetings Thereunto Belonging: The Days
of Holding them, and Their Location, one covering the year 1850, and the
other the year 1859.
97- With the adoption of the uniform Discipline in 1902 the
Orthodox Friends in Iowa abandoned the old Preparative Meeting as a business
unit, and it became in most cases merely a meeting for worship.
98- In 1902 all of the American Yearly Meetings of Friends except
Ohio, Philadelphia and Canada, united under a uniform church discipline termed “The
Constitution and Discipline for the American Yearly Meetings of Friends”. Though
now banded together in what is called the “Five Years Meeting”, each Yearly
Meeting retains the right “to adopt additional disciplinary regulations not
inconsistent herewith.”—Thomas’s A History of Friends in America (4th
edition), pp. 24, 25.
99- Minutes of Salem Quarterly Meeting of Women Friends, 5
mo., 15th, 1852, p. 52. See also p. 67.
100- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 5
mo., 8th, 1858, p. 1.
101- Minutes of Salem Quarterly Meeting of Women Friends, 11
mo., 19th, 1853, p. 80.
102- Minutes of Western Plain Quarterly Meeting of Women Friends,
6 mo., 5th, 1858, p. 1.
103- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 11
mo., 13th, 1858, p. 20.
104- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 2
mo., 12th, 1859, p. 23; Minutes of Western Plain Quarterly
Meeting of Women Friends, 3 mo., 5th, 1859, p. 17.
105- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1863, pp. 1,
2.
106- Minutes of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1860, pp.
20, 21.
107- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 2
mo., 9th, 1861, pp. 67-69.
108- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 8
mo., 10th, 1861, p. 76.
109- Minutes of Bangor (Western Plain) Quarterly Meeting
of Women Friends, 12 mo., 7th, 1861, pp. 62, 63.
110- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 5 mo., 10th,
1862, pp. 89, 90, 91.
111- Minutes of Red Cedar Monthly Meeting of Friends, 5 mo.,
10th, 1862, p. 91.
The “Meeting for Sufferings” had its origin in England during the severe persecutions of the Quakers in that country. In order to provide a convenient medium through which the sufferers might reach the ear of the government, in 1675 it was agreed “that certain Friends of this city [London] be nominated to keep a constant meeting about sufferings four times in a year, with the day and time of each meeting here fixed and settled. That at least one Friend of each county be appointed by the Quarterly Meeting thereof, to be in readiness to repair to any of the said meetings at this city, at such times as their urgent occasions or sufferings shall require.”—The Friends’ Library, Vol. I, p. 119.
In later times these “Meetings for Sufferings” became the representative bodies of the Society when the Yearly Meetings were not in session. Among the Iowa Friends to-day this “Meeting” is perpetuated in the “Permanent Board”.
112- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 8 mo., 9th, 1862, p. 95.
113- Minutes of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1862, p. 5.