Iowa
History Project
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The place chosen for the holding of the first Yearly Meeting of
the Friends in Iowa was indeed a beautiful spot. Situated in a rich
agricultural region of rolling hills and valleys, dotted here and there with
peaceful Quaker homes, the Spring Creek settlement presented a pleasing aspect.
Crowning a knoll which overlooked all that region, the long, low, frame
structure of the Spring Creek meeting-house nestled in among the foliage of a
native grove; while near by stood a two-story school building.
Being pressed for time in the making
of their arrangements, the joint committee of the Quarterly Meeting seized upon
the offer of the Spring Creek Friends granting the use of their comfortable
quarters. Then, in the spring of 1863, the committee let a contract “for the
erection of a temporary building adjoining Spring Creek meeting-house at an
estimated cost of Five hundred dollars”.(114) A temporary building
it indeed must have been, for in an account written in 1909, Charles Coffin,
the only surviving member of the Indiana delegation,(115) declares that a “shed of rough posts placed in
the ground covered and enclosed with unplaned boards, was erected adjoining the
Quarterly [Spring Creek] Meeting House. This shed was 66 feet long by 50 feet
wide. Raised galleries were erected, and rough benches set on the ground
sufficient to seat about 750.” Here the men were to assemble; while in the
adjoining “Meeting House, 35x60 feet, to which was attached a shed 15x60”, the
women were to gather.(116)
When the appointed day arrived
everything was in readiness for the meeting. The Spring Creek meeting-house,
once the western outpost of Quakerism, was the center of attention. Though the weather
proved inclement, the people gathered from all directions, some coming in heavy
cumbersome wagons, some in carriages or buggies, and some on foot. From the
five Quarterly Meetings there came the appointed committees,(117) together with large numbers of the members
from the many meetings in Iowa. From the Indiana, Western, Baltimore, and New
York Yearly Meetings there were likewise officially appointed committees(118) “to attend the opening and organization of this
meeting” and to give “comfort and encouragement… in the weighty engagement of
conducting the concerns of a Yearly Meeting”. In addition to this enthusiastic
company the second annual “Conference of Teachers and Delegates from Friends’
First-Day Schools in the United States”(119) was then being held at Spring Creek.
Consequently, the whole number present was from 1,200 to 1,300… Fourteen
ministers were in attendance with minutes for religious service…The meeting was
mostly of young and middle aged Friends of great energy and force of character,
and much religious weight existed amongst them.”(120)
How to accommodate and shelter so
large a number of people in the open country was a problem. At the Spring Creek
Boarding School some fifty or sixty of the visitors from other Yearly Meetings
were entertained; while many of the Iowa Friends came in covered wagons,
bringing their bedding and their food with them. Dr. J. W. Morgan, at that time
one of the teachers in the Boarding Schools, writes:
These structures [the
meeting-house and the school building] were in the edge of about 40 acres of
fine timber; and much of this grove was filled, during the Yearly Meeting time,
with tents for sleeping, cooking, eating, and stalls for horses, as nearly all
came with horses and covered wagons, with a few carriages; for the nearest Rail
Road was about 25 miles away. Yet the great crowds of people were remarkable,
and the great crowds of people were remarkable, and the great interest and
earnest devotion shown by all, indicated an abiding faith in Quakerism.(121)
To further care for the visitors two regular
bus lines with four-horse teams were operated between the then thriving little
village of Oskaloosa and Spring Creek, carrying the passengers the round trip
of five miles for one dollar each.
The vitality and vigor of western
Quakerism was well attested by the amount and character of the work which the Iowa
Yearly Meeting of Friends accomplished at its first gathering. In the early
part of its session the new Yearly Meeting adopted as its form of church
government the “Book of Discipline of Indiana Yearly meeting, as revised and
approved by that meeting in 1854, with the alterations and additions since mad”,
five hundred copies having been furnished by the Indiana Meeting for Sufferings
for distribution in Iowa.(122) The problem of the
new meeting-house was then taken up, and with equal dispatch the plans of the
committee were approved and the erection of a building to cost $16,000 was
directed. Furthermore, the long and troublesome dispute over the building site
was finally settled.(123)
With due consideration the various
fields of labor were reviewed, and large and representative committees were
selected to have charge of First-Day Scripture Schools, the work among the “people
of color”, education, and the proper distribution of books and tracts. A survey
of the conditions then existing in the Iowa field was also entered upon and
this proved of special interest to those who were visiting the West for the
first time. From the two Quarterly Meetings of Pleasant Plain and Red Cedar
there came requests for the establishment of two new Quarters, namely: Spring
Creek Quarter, embracing numerous growing settlements in Mahaska and Jasper
counties; and Winneshiek Quarter, now extending as far as Minneapolis in
Minnesota and Baraboo in Wisconsin.(124) Internally the Society in Iowa was shown to be
in a most prosperous condition. Harmony and enthusiasm prevailed throughout the
order; and “those present form other Yearly Meetings were impressed with the
belief that the establishment of the Yearly Meeting will prove to be a blessing
to our Religious Society.”(125)
Then came the close of the
gathering, and in the intense spiritual feeling that prevailed the Presiding Clerk
was moved to record: “we feel…our humble but fervent sense of gratitude to God
and Father of all our sure mercies, who from day to day has deigned to own and
cover us in our several sittings”.(126)
114- Minutes of Red Cedar Quarterly Meeting of
Friends, 2 mo., 14th, 1863, p. 105.
115- At the time of his letter to the writer,
December 31, 1912, Charles F. Coffin wrote with trembling hand: “I am nearing
my 90th birthday and am the only living member of the Committees to
attend the opening of the Yearly Meeting.”
116- The Saturday Globe (Oskaloosa), February 27,
1909.
117- The following named persons came from the
several Quarterly Meetings:
“Salem—Joseph D. Hoag, Willet
Dorland, Ephraim D. Ratliff, Stephen Hockett, and Thomas Siveter.
“Pleasant Plain—Barclay Johnson,
David Morgan, Benjamin Hollingsworth, and Wm. Pearson.
“Red Cedar—Olney Thompson, Enoch
Hoag, Israel Negus, Wm. Harris, Laurie Tatum, Elisha Strattan.
“Bangor—Wm. Hobson, David Hunt,
Henry H. Macey, Jacob B. McGrew, Thomas Moore, Ira Cook, Lindley M. Hoag, James
Owen, Wm. Fahrquhar, and Wm. Reese.
“South River—Benjamin Smith, John Tomlinson,
Nathan Craven, Jesse Hadley, and Isaac Starbuck”.—Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting
of Friends, 1863, p. 8.
118- Of the representatives officially appointed
by other Yearly Meetings to be at the opening of the Iowa Yearly Meeting there
were twenty-eight persons present.—Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends,
1863, pp. 7, 8.
119- The second national conference of the “Friends
First-Day Scripture Schools” was held at Spring Creek on the 9th, 10th,
11th, and 12th of September, 1863.
120- The Saturday Globe (Oskaloosa), February 27,
1909.
121- A Sketch prepared by Dr. J. W. Morgan of
Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1912, at the request of the writer.
122- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends,
1863, p. 9.
123- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends,
1863, pp. 11, 22, 25.
The contention over the site for the yearly meeting-house was presented “to the Friends in attendance by appointment of other Yearly meetings” by two members from each of the Iowa Quarters; and after patiently listening to all the claims and personally visiting the sites in question, John White’s lot on the north side of Oskaloosa, was selected “with the understanding that the title shall be unconditional,…and that the meeting house lot shall be free of cost to the Yearly Meeting as has been proposed to us.”