The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-10-04

In the current number of the Amer
lean Friend, DR.. Rufus NJ. Jones, the
editor who was in this city the past
two weeks. has an editorial on White
water Monthly Meeting which is as
follows:
Whitewater Monthly Meeting (Rich-
mond, Indiana) has arrived at the
dignity OF being hundred years old.
So many anniversaries abound this
year that the wayfaring man is in
some danger of forgetting the ones
that are really momentous-the ones
which touch most vitality the spiritual
concerns of the race: and it seems,
therefore, quite worth while for mo-
ment to swing away from the din and
jubilee over the exploration of the
Hudson River. and the building of the
first steamboat, and the hurrah over
the commercial value of Alaska, now
our possession for forty-two years, to
consider the establishment of a meet
ing which has played a great part in
the work Of spiritualizing the great
West.
1t was in the spring of 1906 that
David Hoover and four others-all
immigrants from North Carolina
first pushed through the woods from
Ohio and found the Whitewater coun-
try. AS he told the story himself:
We took a section line some eight or
ten miles north of Dayton, and traced
lit distance of more than 80 miles,
through an unbroken forest. 1t was
the last of February or the first of
March when I first saw Whitewater.
On my return to my fathers, inform
ed him that l thought had found the
country we had been in search Of
Spring water, timber and building
rock appeared to be abundant and
the face of the country looked delight
full. In about three weeks after this
my father, with several others, &C.
companied me to this land of prom
! ise.'
A large succession of Quaker immi-
grants from the Carolinas followed
later-in 1904 monthly meeting
was established in this land of prom
ise." which David Hoover claims to
have discovered. 1t was the parent
meeting Of Indiana-the hive from
which has come. in the century, a very
great swarm Of spiritual bees. 1t is
true, of course, that many pioneer
| Quaker settlements were formed al.
most simultaneously in eastern Indi.
ana, and it cannot be claimed that all
the spiritual sweetness which abounds
in the state, and the neighboring
states. is an overflow from Whitewat.
er! There were other hives which
swarmed as we'll as this one.
But this meeting does at least have
valid claim of having made first the
"farthest west" for Quakerism. and it
is cause for congratulation that SO
many other Quaker Pearys and Cooks
they were really Morrises and True.
bloods. Whites and Coxes, Newbys
and Cosands-were almost at the
same time making their rival Earth.
est vests" The more celebrations OF
spiritual conquests the better
| The point for emphasis just now is
THAT hundred years ago this autumn
Friends met in the beautiful valley OF
the Whitewater and held the first
monthly meeting ever held on Indiana
soil. They were planting there seed
tof spiritual religion which to them
was precious, and which they believed
would grow and flourish. 1t was prec
|ious, and it has grown. Those pio
neers believed profoundly that the
greatest thing in a mans life was his
Inward connection and relation with
lGod. This relation raised man, other
wise so puny in his powers. to a leve