A History of the Quakers in Dutchess County, New York
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
{' A HISTORYOF THE QUAKERS IN DUTCHESSCOUNTY, NEW YORK 1728-1828 by Dell T. Upton Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with honors 1m History, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, 1970 K:',~-~ TABLE.OF CONTENTS INTRODtT~ION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 PARTI CHAPTERI. QUAKERSETTLEMENT IN DUTCHESSCOUNTY AND THE ESTABLISHMENTOF THE MEETINGS,PART 1: 1728-1779 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 15 CHAP?ElRII. QUAKERSETTLEMENT IN DUTCHESSCOUNTY AND THE ESTABLISHMENTOF THE MEETINGS,PART 2: 1780-1828 ; e • e "• ~ e e e e e c e • e ~ e ~ • 6 • • e " e ~ e o • • • n e e 66 PART II CHAPTERIII. QUAKERSAND THE COMMUNITY• • • • • • • • 89 CHAPTERIV. THE LIFE OF THE MEETING • • • • • • • • • 117 PARTIII CHAPTERV. THE PEACETESTIMONY •• . 175 CHAPTERVI. EDUCATION.AND THE NINE PARTNERSSCHOOL . 196 CHAPTERVII. THE MINISTRY;DAVID SANDS AND ELIAS HICKS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 215 CHAPTERVIII. THE HICKSITESEPARATION • • • • • • • • 238 CONCLUSION. • • • ZSIP NOTES• • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • ZS1 APPENDICES . • 791 BIBLIOGRAPHY. • 31l LIST OF MAPS Map /1. Early Dutchess Cotmty, New York • • g • • • • • • 18 2~ The Quaker Meetings of Dutchess County ••• • • • 24 3. Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Churches • • • 33 '4• Pre-Revolutionary Quaker and Non-Quaker Congregations.; • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 35 5>.Quaker Hill and Vicinity-Early Settlers • • • • • 41 6. Quaker Movements and Settlement, 1728-1779 • • • • 53 ;7. Quaker Movements and Settlement, 1780-1828. • • • 68 \, ____,, s. Relative Size of the Meetings, 1828 • • • • • • • 83 9. Landholding on the Beelanan Back Lots • • • • • • • 92 10. Quaker Hill Occupations • • • • • • • • • • • • • 97 11. Revolutionary Activity in Southern Dutchess County--Some Significant Sites • • • • • • • 180 12. Revolutionary Ordinance Map of the Quaker Hill Vicinity • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 183 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 • Oblong Meeting House. • • • . 39 2. Branch Meeting House. 47 3. Nine Partners Meeting House . 51 4. Nine Partners Meeting House . 52 Paul Upton House •• e •• e ••••• . 56 6. Genealogy of Dutchess County Quaker Meetings • • 57 7. Contributions to Dutchess County Quakerism, 1757-1780 • . 61 . 8. Beekman Meeting House . 72 9. Beekman Meeting House . 73 10. Bethel Meeting House •• . 77 11. Pleasant Valley Meeting House . 79 12. Poughkeepsie (Orthodox) Meeting House . 81 13. Comparative Populations of Towns and Meetings • 86 14. Moore's Mill. • • • • . 102 15. Oswego Meeting House e ••••••••• 112 16. Creek Meeting House . 112 17. Creek Meeting House •••••••••••••• 113 18. Crum Elbow Meeting House •• . 113 19. Stanford (Second) Meeting House . 114 l~· 20. Stanford (Second) Meeting House . 114 "'! Figure \._.· 21. Beekman Iron Furnace • • . • • • • • • • • • • • 115 22. Pleasant Valley Mill • . • • " • • • • • • • • • 11'5 23. Pleasant Valley Mill 0 • • . • • • • • 0 • • • • 116 24. Quaker Gravestone, Creek Meeting House Cemetery • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •· 135 25. Quaker Gravestone, Creek Meeting House Cemetery • • • • • • " • • • • • • • . • • 136 16. Quaker Gravestone, Crum Elbow Meeting House Cemetery 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • " • • • 137 27. Quaker Gravestone, Crum Elbow Meeting Hause Cemetery • . • • • • • 0 • • • . • . • • • 137 28. Some Dutchess County Quaker Epitaths ' 0 • • • • 139 29. Changes in Membership, 1769-1780;, Oblong '-.-. Monthly Meeting. • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 154 30. Changes in Membership, 1769-1782; Nine Partners Monthly Meeting. 0 • • • • 0 • • " • • • 0 155 31. Tracts Distributed in Dutchess County Meetings, 1728-1828. • • • . • • . • . • . • • • • 161 32~ Joseph Talleot • • • • • . • • • . • • • • . • 205 33. Nine Partners Boarding School • • . • • . • • • 207 34. Jacob Willette• House ' • • 0 • • • • • • 0 • • 212 By 35. Some Books Jacob Willetts • . • . • • . • • 0 213 36. Elias Hicks • • • • • 0 • . • • • 0 0 • 0 • 0 • 233 37., The Census of 1829 • • . • • • • . • . • 0 • • 252 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION I Dutchess County, New York, was an important Quaker region in the period 1728 to 1828. Southeastern Dutchess was essentially a wilderness when Nathan Birdsall, the first Quaker settler in the county, arrived from Danbury, Connecti cut, in 1728. As such, it fostered the type of outlook which was becoming predominant in the Society of Friends during that period--an attitude of exclusive, self-contained religious community. Friends of the period desired, and maintained, little social, economic, or even governmental, intercourse with outsiders. The meeting supervised religious worship, social relations, economic welfare, and even legal difficulties among its members. The wilds of Dutchess County were con genial to this anchoritic spirit, and as a result the county came to be the home of more meetings than any other county 1 in New York State. , • A _ &s 'id"-:J ~ 1-1A.f0w1p~ -{oyvt~ Vl.4~~ ~, D~ Cv,~ ~ ~st~ - Toe location of Dutchess County at the southernmost limit ~ Po-r~ of the control of the New York revolutionary government through-~ out most of the Revolution, and its consequent use as a camp ~- and supply base for the Continental Army, offer,an excellent opportunity to study the severe test to which that struggle put Friends' principles of peace and non-resistance to estab- -2- liahed authority. Some consideration of the choice of time period is necessary. No1 The date 1728 was chosen as the beginning of the study becaus~, most obviously, it is the year the first Quaker came to Dutchess County. The year 1728 was an important one for Quakerism as a whole, too. The years from the inception of the Society in the late 1640 1 s to about 1725 were marked by an agressive confrontation with the non-Quaker world. In a vigorous effort to attract converts, Quaker preachers of both sexes shocked their contemporaries by scathing denunciations of formal religious worship, of the sacraments, and of pro ·"-• fessional clergy, or hireling priests, as they were called by these early Quakers. "Publishers of Truth" they styled themselves, and they were persecuted for their troubles, but persecution only led them to more strenuous, and often more startling, efforts to disseminate their message, to the point that several New England Friends followed the lead of Lydia Wardel, of Hampton, Massachusetts, who was moved to appear in church "'as a naked sign'" to the Puritans of the congregation at Newbury.l Others were imprisoned, fined, and even hanged for their faith. By 1728, this persecution had ended, however. Connecti cut enacted religious toleration in 1729": and the last re ligious restrictions on Friends fell, although persecution was still fresh in the minds of Friends, one of whom advised -3- in a testimony in 1728 that if it should so happen/that you come to be Sufferers, and to be had before tlie Rulers, and to be found falsly raic) accused in divers aspects • • • yet dare not deny that you are the Worshippers of God. ,l,, ..._,r.· With the ebb of persecution came a corresponding ebb of proselytizing, as Quaker ministers began restricting the expression of their gift to other Quakers. It is only rarely in the records of the 1ath century that one comes across a minute permitting a minister to appoint meetings among non members. The withdrawal from religious interchange was acco~ panied by a simultaneous withdrawal from secular life, especially political affairs. Whereas such 11th century Friends as Governor Nicholas Easton, of Rhode Island, and his Quaker successors had attempted to grapple with the con flict between their responsibilities as commanders-in~chief of the colonial militia and their Friendly principles, 5., the ruling Quaker party of Pennsylvania solved its dilemma in 1756 by withdrawing from polities. The situation pro gressed to the point where, by the end of the 1ath century, meetings were required to inform their superior meetings whether nany friends have accepted posts of profit or honour in government. n $ -•·. Thus, g_uietism became the order of the day in the So ciety. Even as he recalled the old days, the same Friend quoted above foreshadowed the trends and con.flicts of the future, when he declared that -4- ? of ourselves we can do nothint, unless we are abili L tited by the 'Spirit of God; tat we may keep to it and wait for it •••• I desire none to take up Religion from Education ••• --may you keep the teachings out of it,(you need no teaching but the holy anointing in you • • /-• • ~ ~--- This was the essence of 1ath century Qua.kerism--to "wait for it", both religiouiHy and secularly. ·· £r~Q,\t\dSla+a,,r ·;--; questiont6whether it ought to remain the essence of 19th century Quakerism, and whether one really ought to . c.aV\t-c1.,,ra c\ 11 11 "keep the teachings out of it 1 t1,roundth 1.~.·A the contro- versies which precipitated the Hicksite_Separation of 1827- 1828. The years 1728-1828 were the years of greatest acti vity for Dutchess Friends. During this era, all the meetings were established, and, at its close, some were'laid down~ At the end of the era, Quakerism in Dutchess County began to decline, uh-td.now there are only two full-fledged Friends Meetings in the county, .:end one other meeting which has, since 1926, been joined in a Community Church with Methodists and Dutch Reformed at Millbrook. The termination of this study has been set at approxi mately 1828 because that is the year in which the so-called Hicksite Separation occurred in the New York Yearly Meeting. Begun the year before at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,