The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-04-27
Historical Researches that Quilp Made
as a Bohemian.
CHAPTER NXII.
NOTING CHAM.

The Friends that settled upon Noting
ham were frugal and industrious, and soon
the forest disappeared beneath their sturdy
strokes, and grass and the waving grain
succeeded it. The brothers Brown, like
their father, were ministers of the gospel,
and in 1904 meeting was organized at
the house of James, which appears to have
been the origin of the Quaker congregation
that now worships in the brick meeting
house. The first meeting house was
hewn chestnut and yellow poplar logs,
which were very durable; some of them
are to be found at the present time in an
old building on the place where Susannah
Reisler now lives. Authorities differ about
the time of the erection of the brick house
some of them place it in 1924, others in
1875. There is also difference of opinion
as to whether the brick used in its con-
struction were imported from England or
made in the neighborhood. Elisha Rowls,
who died some forty years ago, at the age
of eighty, said his father did the carpenter
work of the building i'll 1850, after the first
| fire, when the addition was built. From
information probably obtained from him
some of the old residents are of opin-
| ion that the bricks were made near
the house; others think they were imported
from England. 1t is a curious but we'll
authenticated fact that the first build
| ing was rooted with slate obtained
somewhere along the Octoraro creek, but
where no person now living knows. In
1751, the wood work of this house was
burned, and in the following year a stone
addition of equal size with the original
| structure was erected-thus its capacity
was doubled. In 1910, the wood work was
again burned, and in the following year it
was replaced. Strange to say, though half
of the walls of this old house are stone, it
still bears it's original name of "the brick
meeting house." and though the bricks
have stood the test of two fires in addition
to their original burning, and though the
frosts and SHOWS of one hundred and fifty
four Winters have spent their fury upon
them, they appear to be none the worse
and look as though they might last for
many centuries longer.
The meeting house, called the Little
| Brick, standing on the north side of the
p. & B. Central Railroad and about one
mile and quarter southwest of Rising
! Sun, was built on a lot embracing five
acres and few perches, granted on the
L tn day of first month, 1927, by James
! King and William Harris, "To the people
of God, called Quakers, members of the
monthly meeting of Nottingham and New
Garden" and the money paid therefor was
declared to be the money of that people.
This lot was part of PENIS lot No. 20.
The present brick building was erected in
1911. The frame building previously occu
pied was removed to the eastern side of the
Rising Sun, and was there used, perhaps,
by Benjamin Reynolds for a carpenter shop
and afterwards for stable.
In 1870 the monthly meeting of Noting
ham and New Garden, mentioned above,
was divided into two, viz, -Nottingham
held at the brick meeting house, East Not
tingham, and New Garden, held at New Gar
den, Chester county, Pa, and at the same
time preparative meeting was established
at the Little Brick. In 1872 Edward Church
man was buried in the burying ground at
that place, showing that it was then occu-
pied for that purpose. He died of small
pox, at the mill of Henry Reynolds, on
Stone run.
1t is probable that, upon the erection of
this last meeting house, the names of East
and West Nottingham were first applied to
the respective parts of the original Noting
ham township. In 1929 many of the in