Iowa
History Project
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The Conservative Friends in
Iowa:
Separation at Salem and
Springdale
Upon the
adjournment of the two rival Yearly Meetings at Oskaloosa, the Friends in
attendance returned to their homes in all parts of Iowa and related the story
of what had transpired. For days and weeks in almost every Quaker home in Iowa
separation was the common topic of discussion. Many there were who had long
felt dissatisfied with the course affairs had for years been taking but who
sill were not ready to break from the meetings they loved; while there were
others who were led at once to aid in promoting the separation.
At Salem,
naturally a strong center of conservatism, a separation was not long in being
effected. Side by side in the minutes of the Salem Monthly Meeting for August
2, 1879, it is recorded that meetings were being held in the surrounding
country by the students of Whittier College, and that “about 20 of our senior
members who neglected Mtgs. for a year or more and manifested their disunity
with the Church at large organized a separate society under the name of
‘Friends’”.(228) In the
same month the report sent to the Quarterly Meeting from Pilot Grove gave
notice that forty-three of its members had withdrawn and established a separate
meeting.(229) Under the leadership of
such men as Peter Hobson, Ephraim B. Ratliff, Thomas Nicholson, James Pickard,
John R. Brown, and Mathew Trueblood a new Salem Quarterly Meeting was organized
and a report was made to the Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends in
1879.
Separation next appeared in the Springdale and West Branch neighborhoods; and although slow in its development, it proved to be unique both in the manner in which it took place and in the way in which it has since persisted. The first recorded evidence of the rising discontent at Springdale is to be found in the resignation from membership of Thomas Montgomery, a prominent and influential member of that meeting. The manner in which he met the committee appointed by the Monthly Meeting to treat with him on the subject illustrates well the spirit in which the whole separation was conducted in this Quarter, much in contrast to the more violent scenes that transpired at both Bear Creek and Salem. The report of the committee rendered on May 21, 1881, reads:
We have had
an interview with Thos. Montgomery on the subject of his resignation, in which
he gave us in kind Christian spirit, the reasons for the step he has taken. As
chief among thee reasons he mentioned changes in our manner of worship, which
seem to him to be gaining ground, such as singing from books & in
companies; & the practice of calling on one another to pray, &
responding to such calls, in public, which he spoke of as admitted &
practiced by ministers & others among us. Regarding such practices as
inconsistent with the doctrines of Early Friends, while expressing warm attachment
to our ancient principles & to his neighbors & friends, he is best
satisfied to release himself from responsibility for these thing by withdrawing
from membership with us.(230)
At West Branch,
near Springdale, Archibald Crosbie, Clarkson T. Penrose, and Jesse Negus led
the movement looking towards separation. Those who were among the discontented
met on January 1, 1883, and organized an independent meeting, arranging for the
use of the Baptist church as their future place of meeting.(231) It was not until April 21st, however, that cognizance
was taken of the fact; when the West Branch Preparative Meeting complained to
the Springdale Monthly Meeting of the first two persons named above for
assisting “in setting up a meeting for worship contrary to our discipline.”(232)
In the Baptist
church this growing group of Quakers devoted to the principles of their ancient
faith, continued to meet Sunday after Sunday during the spring and summer
months, entirely independent of, and out of touch with, any other organized
religious body in Iowa. Conscious of their isolated position four of their
number attended the Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends held a t North
Branch, Iowa, in the fall of 1883 for the purpose of feeling their way towards
a union with them. So hearty was the welcome which they received and so
congenial were the conditions which they found there that when they returned to
their friends at West Branch it was with the recommendation that such a union
be perfected at the earliest possible time. Action was taken accordingly, and
when the Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends convened in 1884 there
appeared a new Quarterly Meeting upon its roll, namely, Springdale (now known
as the West Branch Quarterly Meeting), with Jesse Negus, Clarkson T. Penrose,
Abram Wilson, James Hawley, Erick Knudson, and James Hadley as its
representatives. (233)
228- Minutes of Salem Monthly Meeting of Friends, 8 mo., 2nd,
1879, pp. 275, 276.
229- Minutes of Salem Quarterly Meeting of Friends, 8 mo., 9th,
1879, p. 131; 11 mo., 8th, 1879, p. 136.
230- Minutes of Springdale Monthly Meeting of Friends, 5 mo., 21st,
1881, p. 258.
231- The facts concerning the Conservative separation at West Branch
were carefully related to the writer by Jesse Negus, one of its chief leaders,
and by other responsible persons of the community who were concerned in the
movement.
232- Minutes of Springdale Monthly Meeting of Friends, 4 mo., 21st,
1883, p. 309.
233- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends, 1884,
p. 1.
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The Norwegian Friends in Iowa
Along the southeastern border of Marshall County, in Le
Grand Township, and almost mid-way between the railway stations of Le Grand on
the Chicago and North-western, Dunbar on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul
and Dillon on the Minneapolis and St. Louis railroads, there is one of the most
unique and interesting Quaker settlements in Iowa. It is the Norwegian
community bearing the name Stavanger.
The first of these Friends from the land of the midnight
sun to appear in Iowa came with a group of their fellow-countrymen, who founded
the settlement of Sugar Creek, Lee County, in 1840. Soon, however, a dissension
arose in the settlement. Some of the company adopted the Mormon faith, then
spreading in the southeastern corner of Iowa; while the Quaker members of the
settlement moved northward into Henry County, near Salem, and there built a
Norse meeting-house for their use on the farm of Omund Olson in 1842.(234) Free from the ecclesiastical
oppression and compulsory military service of the home-land, and from contentions
among themselves over religious differences, they lived here in peace and
plenty for a time. Before long, however, the rigor of long winters was missed,
the news of better and cheaper lands to the northward came to their ears, and
once again they moved on to build new homes and settlements, leaving Sugar
Creek to decline and disappear.
The first of these Norwegian Friends to find their way to
Marshall County were Soren and Anna Oleson. Having made the acquaintance at
Salem of Thomas McCool and his wife, Julia Ann (a minister of prominence in the
Society of Friends), both of whom were much away from home in their religious
travels, the Olesons were induced to take charge of the McCool farm in Marshall
County, near LeGrand. They moved there in 1858, and found a climate that was
delightful and a soil surpassed in fertility by none in Iowa. They early
purchased a small tract of land and then sent word to their friends concerning
their attractive new home. (235) Within a year an old neighbor, Thore Heggem,
came with his family direct from Norway and settled to the south of Le Grand.
In 1861 Christian Gimre came with his family from Wisconsin; while in 1864
Mathias Huseboe and family, together with a number of young people, came from
Norway and settled in the neighborhood.(236) Thus began the settlement of Stravanger, named after the
community in Norway, from which most of its members had originally sailed.(237)
For a time the Friends at Stavanger regularly attended
the recognized meeting at Le Grand; but being unable to understand much of what
was said in English, they requested the privilege of holding a meeting fro
worship among themselves. In 1864 request was granted, and under the care of
the Le Grand Monthly Meeting an “Indulged Meeting” was set up at Stavanger.(238) At first, as was common in the West, the meetings were held in
the nearby schoolhouse or at private homes. Later, about 1870, “an old building
was purchased” for meeting purposes; and finally, this gave place to the
present more attractive though strictly plain structure which preserves all of
the primitive features of a Quaker house of worship.(239)
An episode of peculiar interest in connection with the
history of the Stavanger settlement was the arrival in 1869 of about fifty
newcomers direct from Norway. In the year 1853, Lindley Murray Hoag, one of the
most powerful and widely traveled ministers among the Friends in Iowa, had an
impression that he should make a religious visit to the Friends in Norway; and
in connection with this impression he claimed to have been given a clear mental
image of the place he was to visit, though its name and location were entirely
unknown to him. True to his inner promptings, he made the long journey. Upon
arrival in Norway, the Friends there “received him most kindly, and several of
them, among whom was the able interpreter, Endre Dahl, went with him to all
places where Friends were found”. Dahl finally informed him that they had now
made the rounds, but Hoag did not feel satisfied. “A map of Norway was placed
before him, but that did not give him any help.” He became uneasy, fearing that
his mission was a failure, when suddenly, looking out from a little window
across the mountains to the eastward, he exclaimed: “There, over there, is the
place where I must go.” Dahl led the way; and among the mountains, in the
valley of Roldol, they found a people who, although they had never heard the
Quaker message, responded eagerly to the simple religious truths which fell
from the lips of their strange American visitor.
Soon after the visit of Lindley Murray Hoag to this
mountain fastness in Norway, many of the people of Rodol Valley united to build
a church and joined themselves with the Society of Friends at Stavanger. Almost
at once persecution arose over the questions of military service and their
relation to the priest; but rather than give up their new found faith, some
fifty of them banded together, “left Stavanger in a sailing-vessel bound for
Quebec, Canada,” in search of a refuge in the New World. From Quebec they
continued their journey to the westward; and, “one day”, says John Marcussen in
writing for the Friend’s Intelligencer, “all these people came to Le Grand,
Marshall County, Iowa.” They had not forgotten their visitor from America, and
though they knew but little of the English language the one word “Iowa” was
very familiar to them.(240)
Foreign by birth and conservative by nature, the
Stavanger Friends early found some things not to their liking in the meetings
to which they were subordinated. In 1871 they entered protest against the “mode
of raising money by apportionment”;(241) and by
1885 so discontented had they become with their church connections that they
withdrew from the Orthodox body and united with the Iowa Yearly Meeting of
(Conservative) Friends.(242)
As unremitting toil soon won for this sturdy Norwegian
folk the blessings of material success, they set to work to provide for their
children the means for a better education than they themselves had had. In 1888
they submitted to their newly adopted Yearly Meeting a project for founding a
school of advanced grade in their midst.(243) The Yearly
Meeting’s committee on education, to which the subject was referred, at once
took action. In the fall of 1891 this committee reported that a two-acre tract
of land had been purchased for a campus, that “a building twenty-six by
thirty-six feet, two stories high, with a stone basement for dining and cooking
purposes” had been nearly completed, and that a school was in operation with
Anna Olson as matron and Anna Yocum as teacher. The expenditures, amounting to
$2,741.25, had been nearly all met by subscriptions, and there was an
indebtedness of but $81.50(244)
The new “Yearly Meeting Boarding School” at once became
popular. When the educational committee presented its report in 1890 there were
in the Yearly Meeting 121 children of school age, thirteen of whom had, during
the year, attended schools which were under the care of the Friends. By 1892
this number had increased to 128 children of school age, sixteen attending the
Boarding School, and thirteen attending other Friends’ schools; while of the
146 children reported in 1893, thirty-six were attending Quaker schools, and
the enrollment at the Stavanger school had increased to sixty-three students for
the year.(245)
No exertion was spared to create for the Stavanger
institution a healthful religious environment and a strong moral tone.(246) For a time it gave promise of a
considerable growth; but with the rise of neighboring high schools and the removal
and death of many of its most ardent supporters, there has come a marked
decline of late years. For the academic year 1910-1911 there were but
twenty-one students in attendance; and at the Yearly Meeting held at West
Branch in 1912 it was a grave question whether the Stavanger School should
longer be continued.(247)
To-day it is true that Stavanger has lost much of its
unique and distinctive character. Many of the first settlers have either died
or moved away; while a new generation, untutored in the ways of the fathers,
has arisen. But still there is much of interest about he community. There on
the prairie still stands the quaint little meeting-house, somber and silent;
while here and there within the unpretentious homes of this congenial folk, one
may find some aged Friend still clinging to his mother tongue and to the
ancient customs of the Quakers.
234- See Flom’s A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United
States, Chapter XXI. See also The Iowa Journal of History and Politics,
Vol. IV, pp. 233, 244.
235- The Scandinavian immigrants have been a valuable addition to
the population of Iowa. The younger men in coming to the State usually hire out
for a year or so until they become acquainted with the soil; then they rent
land wherever possible; and before long, by reason of their industry, they
become land-owners.
236- The writer is indebted to Mr. Carney Meltvedt of Le Grand,
Iowa, for many of the facts contained in this chapter, particularly those
concerning the first Friends at Stavanger.
237- Stavanger in Norway, is one of the most important commercial
centers on the southwest coast of the peninsula. A strong meeting of Friends
has long been located in the city.
238- Minutes of Bangor Quarterly Meeting of Women Friends, 11 mo., 5th,
1864, p. 100.
239- OF the fifty Norwegians coming to LeGrand in 1869 as above
described, but thirty-six were Friends. Among them were the following men with
their families: Knut Botnen, Lars Botnen, John Rinden, Mons Vinye, Gulik
Medhus, and Torno Thompson, all of whom are now (1913) deceased except Mons
Vinye.
240- For the account of Lindley Murray Hoag’s visit to Norway in
1853 and its results see an article entitled A Remarkable Chapter in the
History of Friends, written by John Marcussen, which is reprinted from the
American Friend in the Friends’ Intelligencer, Vol. LXIV, 1907, pp. 548, 549,
563-565.
241- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Friends, 1871, p. 4.
242- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends, 1885,
p. 5.
243- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends, 1888,
pp. 10, 11.
244- Stavanger Mirror (a paper published monthly for a time at
LeGrand in the interests of Stavanger Boarding School), Seventh Month, 1903, p.
3.
245- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends 1890,
p. 5; 1892, p. 8; 1893, pp. 9, 10.
246- See the “Rules and Regulations” of the Stavanger Boarding
School for 1910-1911, as printed in the Appendix above, pp. 287, 288.
247- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative) Friends, 1912,
pp. 10, 11.
248- In her
excellent work on Amana: The Community of True Inspiration, pp. 99-102, Bertha
M. H. Shambaugh mentions the struggle which the people of this unique
settlement have had to maintain their social integrity.
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Quaker Conservatism and Its
Future in Iowa:
In view of what
has been said in the foregoing pages it must now be clear that unless some
great change takes place, the Friends of whatsoever branch in Iowa are not
likely to become a numerous or influential body in the immediate future. This
is an age of progress. The spirit of modern life has penetrated to the most
secluded communities. For any people to avoid contact with the outside world is
well nigh impossible under existing conditions.(248) Herein lies the struggle of the Conservative Friends.
For the most part those who withdrew from the Iowa Yearly
Meeting of Friends on the ground of departure from the primitive customs of the
Society were the middle-aged and elderly members. Out of harmony with the free
spirit of the rising generation, they have from year to year, like the
Wilburites, received almost no additions to their membership. Almost every year
one or more of their leaders pas away, there is a gradual thinning of the ranks
of the older members, and the attachment of the young people to the order
steadily declines.(249)
The first serious blow to their cause came in 1891, when
in the following words came the request that the Salem Quarterly Meeting be
closed:
After deliberate consideration on the subject, we are
united in requesting that this Meeting [Salem Quarterly Conservative] be
discontinued, and that its members be attached to West Branch Quarter. Our
greatly reduced numbers by death, removals and resignations, together with the remoteness
from Meeting of the most of our members are the reasons for our making the request.(250)
With the death of their two
most prominent ministers, Harvey Derbshire and Ephraim B. Ratliff, the spirit
of the Conservative body at Salem, weak from the beginning, was broken; and in
response to the above request their meeting was discontinued.
Among these Conservative friends there is a grave feeling
of uncertainty and anxious care relative to the years that are to come. The
records of their Yearly Meeting in Iowa from 1880-1912 seem almost wholly
concerned with matters of internal interest. There is little reference to broad
lines of religious activity, such as home or foreign missions, temperance
reform, the men and religion forward movement, or social service. Their roll of
meetings is annually called and responded to with little change. Epistles are
received from the Yearly Meetings with which they correspond, and these are
answered after the accustomed style. But of the world at large and the great
issues of the hour they appear unconscious and unconcerned. They seem little to
realize the great lesson of unprogressive Quakerism, or the truth of the
ancient proverb that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”(251)
In conclusion,
it may be observed that while a persistent spirit of conservatism has led the
smaller body of Orthodox Friends in Iowa into a state of stagnation and
apparent decline, a growing disregard for its original tenets now threatens to
leave the larger Yearly Meeting little that is distinctive in character except
its denominational name. Is there not somewhere between these two extremes a
happy medium, which would be advantageous to both? It is possible that the rising
generation in both sects, freed from old-time prejudice and imbued with the
broader spirit of the twentieth century, may find sufficient common ground on
which to reunite. Indeed, the trend of events would seem to point in that
direction.
249- The general status of the Conservative Friends in Iowa is seen
by the following table, compiled from the minutes of their Yearly Meeting:
|
Year |
Number of Families |
Number of Parts of Families |
Children Between 5 and 21 years |
Number of Ministers |
|
1880 |
72 |
47 |
(not given) |
8 |
|
1890 |
91 |
124 |
121 |
7 |
|
1900 |
86 |
121 |
113 |
7 |
|
1910 |
76 |
105 |
100 |
9 |
|
1912 |
71 |
125 |
107 |
6 |
250- Minutes
of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Conservative)Friends, 1891, p. 4.
251- Proverbs,
29:18.